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Know History and Feel Jubilant
One of the top reasons that we suffer is mostly because we are not getting what we want, success and victories. Knowing history makes us feel good because we understand that anything we do takes time. There is nothing to feel worried about when we don’t get instant success. So, let’s learn about our extraordinary history of blood transfusion and infusion.
The History of Blood Transfusion and Blood Infusion
In 1492, the blood of three 10-year-old boys was infused into the dying Pope Innocent VIII through the mouth, and all four died.
Lungs were believed to be responsible for blood circulation until William Harvey in 1618 discovered heart, artery, and vein circulatory functions through many dissections and observations.
In 1665, Christian Zagado developed blood volume theory and transfused blood from one dog to a bleeding dog and saved it.
Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys, on June 15, 1667, transfused a small amount of blood from a sheep into a 15-year-old boy, who survived. But all subsequent attempts of his resulted in death, resulting in a ban on the process for a long time.
In 1818, Dr. Blundell performed the first successful blood transfusion and saved a wife by transfusing 4 ounces of blood from her husband, also inventing many instruments.
In 1840, Samuel A. Lane and Dr. Blundell performed the first successful whole-blood transfusion to treat hemophilia.
But, most such attempts resulted in death till 1901, when Karl Landsteiner(Nobel 1930) discovered blood groups and how the mixing of incompatible types led to agglutination and death of receptors.
Finally, Albert Hustin 1914 discovered anticoagulant citric acid enabling modern indirect blood transfusion.
Five hundred years of human effort!
Conclusion
These 500 years have been full of failures, frustrations, sacrifices, and deaths. All who succeeded in taking the blood transfusion ahead and several times more who failed made it possible for us to be here.
Imagine if an anticoagulant had not been discovered, you would always need the donor to be right beside the receptor. Blood banks wouldn’t have been possible.
Imagine when Dr. Deneys’s successive attempts at blood transfusion failed, and he was prosecuted, what he must have gone through.
Imagine the countless animals Zagado must have had to kill before he could get it right between dogs.
Imagine when even after Blundell’s first whole transfusion, most transfusions resulted in death; what trauma must those physicians have suffered families must have suffered?
Finance was another major challenge. For instance, Karl Landsteiner had no finance to fund his research. The whole theory of antigens attached to RBCs and the classification of blood had no financer, and thus this Nobel-winning work was carried out by him among 6 lab colleagues, including him. Imagine the pain and the risk.
Dr. Landsteiner could only buy a sheep to feed his family with its milk. Imagine their pain.
Celebrate for the pain our ancestors and physicians have taken for us to be here, safer.
