A blood bank is a bank of blood or blood components, collected as a result of blood donations, stored and preserved for later use in blood transfusions. 1901 “History of Blood Banks” Karl Landsteiner, an Austrian physician, who we see as the most important person in the field of human blood, classified the first three human blood groups A, B, and O.
Without this discovery and the subsequent research, the blood bank as we know it today would not exist. 1936 Bernard Fantus, then director of therapies at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, established the first blood bank in the United States, thus creating a hospital laboratory that can preserve and store donor blood. In 1940, Dr. Charles Drew, a graduate of McGill University School of Medicine in Montreal, researched and found a technique for long-term preservation of blood plasma. All this led us to what follows.
During 1947, the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) was formed to “advance common goals between blood banking facilities and the American blood-donating public.” Then, in 1950, Carl Walter and WP Murphy, Jr. introduced the plastic blood collection bag. On its own, this doesn’t sound like much, but simply replacing breakable glass bottles with durable plastic bags allowed for the evolution of a collection system capable of safely and easily preparing multiple blood components from a single blood component. Pureblood unit.
So, in 1979, an anticoagulant preservative, CPDA-1, was introduced. It reduced wastage due to expiration and facilitated the exchange of resources between blood banks. Newer solutions contain adenine and extend the lifespan of red blood cells to 42 days. The need for blood donors is a never-ending gift that we can freely give to our fellow man, so if you’re not a regular donor, take a serious look at this. You may be the one who needs the blood one day.