Page 2
Duke Hospital, InterCom
Blood Banking
(Continued from page 1)
degree and after his death a few years
ago—Miami’s John Elliott Memorial
Blood Bank was named for him.
Elliott’s work—phis the final per
fection in the early 40’s of the first
commercial vacuum container and
preservative additives—made blood
banking practical for the first time.
Much of the early work on this vacu
um container was also done at Duke
Hospital. The surgery department
was the department most vitally in
terested ill developing better methods
in this field. And so in 1940 with
initial funds and equipment provided
by a gift from one of Dr. Hart’s
patients, the Duke Blood Bank was
established. The initial responsibility
for directorship was given to the late
Dr. Josiah C. Trent during his intern
ship. To this day the Blood Bank
remains a part of the department of
surgery, whereas in most hospitals
this function is incorporated with
the other laboratory services.
The war saw great need and great
progress in the use of blood. Soon
after the start of the war the Duke
bank was designated a Civil Defense
plasma drawing center. Then came
the needed breakthrough in the prob
lem of blood preservation when a
group in England found an anti
coagulant solution that gave blood
a .saving time of 21 days. Wliile the
Duke bank has pioneered in research
on the long term preservation of blood
at extremely low temperatures, to
date no better practical method than
use of an anti-coagulant solution has
been developed for clinical purposes.
Since Dr. Brown took over the
directorship of our Blood Bank its
physical size and reputation has
grown steadily. Prom some 400 pints
processed annually in the early years,
there were 12,000 pints handled here
in 1961, with about 85% of this blood
drawn right here.
The processing of these pints of
blood becomes yearly more complex.
Chief technician, John Danford, is
constantly having to include new pro
cedures as new’ factors are discovered
in the field of matching bloods. The
responsibility held bj- the technicians
in the Blood Bank is tremendous and
they take this responsibility very seri
ously. As Mr. Danford says, few
other laboratory errors in the hos-
Mr. Danford stresses the dedication
of his workers. “They work hard
hours; take many months to train
and then do a very routine sort of
job; yet they ail are very aware of
the importance to the doctors and
patients of the accuracy of their
work.”
pital can so seriously afi:ect the con
dition of the patient.
Most of us know whether we have
blood type A, B or 0 and whether
we are Rh positive or negative. This
makes blood typing sound quite
simple, but actually there have been
so many new components of blood
discovered and so many antibodies
found that can cause trouble that
there are hundreds of combinations
of these factors possible in each
sample of blood tested. The blood of
all donors who come to give blood
for friends in the hospital, the blood
of surgical patients and of all ob
stetrical patients are typed, matched
and cross-matched at the Blood Bank.
Each procedure is triple checked. A
special procedure called genotyping
is done for outside doctors bj’ our
Blood Bank. This is a test used on
the blood of prospective parents with
Rh incomiiatibilities to determine the
chances of having to give their infant
a complete blood transfusion. This
Rh work is certainly a satisfying
aspect of the very routine technical
part of the technician’s job. Not so
long ago the problem of the “Rh
Eddy Payne prepares a donor in
the blood-drawing room across from
the Blood Bank. New methods and
equipment—much of it developed
here at Duke—makes this a quick
and simple procedure.
baby” was a heartbreaking one. Now
with the aid of the careful work of
these technicians, this problem can
usually be solved.
Another interesting service ren
dered to patients all over the south
east by our Blood Bank is the fresh,
frozen plasma bank for hemophiliacs.
These unfortunate people with the
tendency to bleed easily used to live
from one crisis to the next, with hos
pitalizations necessary for the slight
est cut. Now our Blood Bank pre
pares kits of frozen plasma that they
send to these patients so that their
difficulties can be taken care of by
their local doctor on an oiit-patient
basis.
The Blood Bank is definitely one
of the 24-hr a day, 365 days a year
services in the hospital. There is
never a time when a properly-trained
person cannot deliver needed blood.
The staff rotates working on Satur
day and Sunday (always big donor
drawing days since this is the only
opportunity out-of-town donors have
to come to Duke to give blood for
friends or relatives). A night nu^^
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