Lynn Calhoun

Prof. Wright

Eng. 1201

Mar 24, 2022

The Life of Blood

The scientific revolution that occurred surrounding blood has been traced back by

historians to around the year sixteen-twenty-eight. The British Physician by the name of William

Harvey can be thanked for the start of modernization of blood sciences. He is credited with the

delightful discovery of the full movement of blood through the circulatory system, an impressive

development for only the seventeenth century. Harvey was able to work out this complicated

system by attempting “to force the blood in a vein down the forearm, but to no avail,” (National

Library of Medicine). Through trial and error, his experiment proved fruitful as he was able to

distinguish the way the circulatory system worked. Harvey’s understanding was so in-depth, he

even recognized the blood pumping organ in our chest, which he dubbed the ‘heart’.

Thirty-seven years after William Harvey’s initial discovery, the world of science was

given the findings of Richard Lower, a Physician hailing from England. Lower was an individual

well rounded in the sciences, also being credited as a Surgeon. What got his name in the

textbooks of generations to come? Lower was credited with the achievement of administering the

first successful blood transfusion. The test subject of choice for Lower’s transfusion was the

common household dog. Then, no less than two years after this initial groundbreaking

experiment, Lower reported practicing transfusions of sheep’s blood into humans in London,

England. Similar experiments were documented by Edmund King in London, as well as Jean-

Baptiste in France.
 Nearly two-hundred years after William Harvey’s discovery, the scientific community of

the nineteenth century was flourishing. Many brilliant minds stumbled across advancements in

blood transfusion technology. In the year eighteen-eighteen, “British obstetrician James Blundell

performed the successful transfusion of human blood to a patient for the treatment of postpartum

hemorrhage.” (The American Red Cross). Although Lower held the title as the man with the first

successful blood transfusion, Blundell is not to be discredited. He applied Lower’s discoveries to

be the first man to administer a successful human blood transfusion that had an aspect of

medically practicality.

In turn, the first practical human blood transfusion led to the first blood bank. It was

established in Leningrad, Russia, in the year nineteen-thirty-two. Later, the United States created

their own first blood bank in nineteen-thirty-seven. Their place of choice was Chicago’s Cook

County Hospital. Despite the fact that the opening of blood banks occurred all the way back in

the nineteen-thirties, the process of blood donation did not become common until World War II.

A lot of blood was needed for donation in order to aid soldiers who had been wounded in the line

of fire. The Red Cross was a major advocate for this movement in the wartime era of America.

They organized blood and plasma in order to help soldiers fighting in the war in nineteen-forty-

one.

Although the world isn’t ravaged by war to the degree of the World Wars, the nineteen-

forties was not the end of the world’s need for blood. Even decades later, the need for blood
today is great.

Fig. 1. Stanford Blood Center (“Blood Donation Facts and Statistics”)

It is crucial for people to realize the importance of blood. Take the time to think about the

amount of people who live in the world. Billions upon billions of people. A number that most of

us cannot fathom. Now narrow that number down to just the amount of people in the United

States. It is still an extreme amount of people. About three-hundred-twenty-eight million people

who live in the United States each year. Yet only about “6.8 million people in the U.S. donate

blood.” (The American Red Cross). Blood is a crucial factor on how people live, but with less

than half of Americans donating, there are people being ‘factored out of the equation of life’.

Blood is an important part of survival, and it is very easy to lose it. People tend to lose a

lot of blood in trauma incidents. As people lose a lot of blood they enter Hypovolemic shock,

and their chances of survival start to dwindle almost exponentially. If it weren’t for blood

donations, there would be possibly thousands of more deaths due to blood loss. “Your blood
donations are used for patients in need of surgery, cancer treatment and transfusions for blood

loss from Traumatic Injuries.” (The American Red Cross).

In addition to people who experience Hypovolemic Shock, an abundance of blood donors

is important in order to help cancer patients. Many cancer patients are in need of blood donations

so that they can implement platelets back into their bodies after undergoing strenuous

chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

Donated blood can also be used in attempts to revive the blood of people with a chronic

illness. Around fifteen-thousand units of platelets are needed and six and a half units of plasma

are needed sometimes multiple times everyday in the United States. These people can be revived

from the blood that is donated to community blood centers and other places.

Oftentimes, there is a misconception around blood donation. People typically believe that

there are more people in their community donating blood when in reality not very many people

take the time to do so. Since they think that, they assume they do not need to spend time

donating because other people have it covered.

There are many places where people can go if they want to donate blood. The simplest

thing is to pull out your cell phone and search on your search engine: “Where can I donate blood

near me?” and it will give you a list of donation places that you can go to. You can also go to the

American Red Cross website and go to the blood donation tab from your chosen search engine.

Clicking on this tab will bring you to a page asking you for some basic information in order to

find a blood donation location nearest to you. No matter where you call, every place that answers

will be happy to hear that you would like to donate. There are over fifty-five places in Ohio

where you can donate your blood/plasma.

 If you don’t want to go to a building to donate your blood, there are other alternatives as

well. There might be a mobile blood bank nearby if you do some looking. Although, a lot of the

time a mobile blood bank might not be an option because a place has offered to host a blood

drive. Schools and businesses will often offer to have blood banks come to them to get the blood

they need.

Almost anybody can donate their blood, but unfortunately not everybody. There are some

requirements to be eligible to donate blood, but generally most people meet them. Everybody

who wants to donate blood has to be in good health and they must be feeling well. They have to

be at least sixteen years of age in order to donate in most states. As well, you have to be a

minimum of 110 pounds.

When you arrive wherever you decide to donate blood, there are other rules that are

implicated for your own safety.

Fig. 2. Officer learns of cancer after blood donation visit (U.S. Army)

Blood pressure is a major factor in donating blood. It can’t be too high or too low. The

highest that their blood pressure can be is 180/100 mm Hg. The lowest can be all the way down

to 90/50 mm Hg.
 In addition to these rules about health, there are some other rules that have to be followed

despite the fact that they might seem strange and unethical to some people. For example, a tattoo

is a thing to consider when you go to donate blood. Many people wouldn’t think that having a

new tattoo would have anything to do with a person’s eligibility to donate their blood. This

assumption is often proven wrong. When a person goes to get a new tattoo, you have to wait at a

minimum of three months in their entirety in order to be able to donate blood.

There are a variety of different types of donations that a person can do which affect how

frequently that a person can donate. If a person were to do a “whole blood” donation, they can

donate every fifty-six days. That totals up to six times a year. If instead they decided to do the

“Power Red” donation, they only donate every one-hundred-and-twelve days, which can lead up

to three times a year. People can also decide to do a “platelet” donation, which you can do every

seven days. This averages out to twenty-four times a year. Last but certainly not least, they can

also do an “AB Elite Plasma” donation. In this case, they can donate every twenty-eight days

which totals out to thirteen times a year.

People might also be curious about what happens to their blood after they decide to

donate it. After the donation process, it's taken to be put in a refrigerator so that it can stay cold

until it can be used. “Red cells are stored in refrigerators at 6ºC for up to forty-two days.” (The

American Red Cross). If you donate platelets there is a different process. “Platelets are stored at

room temperature in agitators for up to five days. Plasma and cryo are frozen and stored in

freezers for up to one year.” (The American Red Cross).

After your blood has been taken, it also has to be tested in order to see if it can even be

kept. If the tests run on the blood all come back clean, the blood is then distributed to places that

need it. Places like hospitals are a high priority to receive blood. In order for a hospital to have
blood, they need to have a lot of things in place first. It's important for hospitals to have things

approved like “Blood Bank refrigerators located in Pathology and in the store room in Theatres.”

(Homerton Healthcare).

When it comes to storing the blood, it will never be stored in your average refrigerator

that you keep in your kitchen or garage. You might wonder why the fridge couldn’t just be any

kind of old fridge. The reasoning behind this is because your average everyday fridge doesn’t

have the capability to stay in the same temperature every second of each day. It's crucial that the

blood not get warmer whatsoever, because if the blood that is being stored heats up, it's no longer

useful.

In the sad instance that the blood reaches a certain temperature outside the body the blood

starts to grow bacteria.

Once the blood reaches a certain temp outside of the body, the blood will start to go

bateria which will make it eligible to give to the recipient. Even if that blood would have been

life saving to that person. Now if the blood grows bacteria and is given to someone it can

become fatal to that person. That is why the way the blood needs to be stored is so strict, because

if blood is out of the refrigerator for more than 4 hours and has not been given to anyone in that 4

hours the blood becomes useless and is no longer able to be used.

Now if you were to look at the statistics on how much blood gets thrown away the

percent of that is very little. If you were to look at a high level institution with a control

procedure you are looking at only 1% to 4% percent of blood being thrown away and this is

mostly due to a broken bag or seal, or the blood has just expired. With the rate of blood being

thrown away is so low that is an amazing thing. But there is more to the process of blood than

just handling, the blood also needs to be tested before given to any single person .
 Even though handling blood plays a huge factor in receiving blood, testing blood plays an

even bigger factor into the blood's usage. After you have donated your blood your blood is sent

off to be checked for anything that could make the blood unuseable. Some things that are looked

for in your blood are cancer, infections, and diseases.

For any donation that you do that involves your blood there are 7 things that are checked

for. Those 7 things are Hepatitis B Virus (HBV), Hepatitis C virus (HCV), Human

Immunodeficiency virus Type 1 and 2 (HIV), Human T-Lymphotropic virus Types 1 and 2

(HTLV), Treponema pallidum (syphilis), West Nile virus (WNV), and last but not least the Zika

Virus (ZIKV).

Now if you were to do a platelet donation it would be tested for Bacterial Contamination.

If you donated blood in a Bapesia-emdemic region your blood gets tested for Babesia. For every

first time donor your blood is tested for trypanosoma cruzi (Chagas disease) . After your first

time donating your blood does not need to be tested again.

When your blood is tested you also find out what your blood type was if you didn’t know

already. There are four main blood groups. The four main blood groups consist of A, B, AB, and

O. With there being four main blood groups, this means that each of the main blood groups has a

positive and a negative. With each group having a positive and a negative there are a total of 8

blood groups.

The 8 groups are A positive, A negative, B positive, B Negative, O Positive, O Negative,

AB Positive, and AB Negative. Now there are certain rules when donating your blood with the

blood type you have. If you have O+ blood you can donate to O+, A+, B+, AB+. But you can

only receive blood from O+ and O-. If you have A+ blood you can only give to A+ and AB+ and

can receive blood from A+, A-, O+, and O-. if you have B+ blood you can donate to B+, and
AB+ and you can receive blood from B+, B-, O+, and O-. Now if you are AB+ you can only

donate to other AB+ people and can receive blood from all blood types. If you have O- blood

you can give to every blood type but you can only receive blood from others that have O- blood

as well. If you have A- blood you can give to A-, A+, AB-, and AB+ and can receive from A-

and O-. If you have B- you can donate to B-, B+, AB-, AB+ and you can receive from B- and

O-. And if you have AB- blood you can donate to AB- and AB+ and you can receive blood and

can receive blood from AB-, A-, B-, O-.

All of this might seem very confusing, like why cant some blood types give to some but

cant give to all the blood types. But there is a reason behind that. When you're 6 months old your

body starts to build antibodies to other blood types. This makes it so you can’t receive blood

from any given blood type.

People might try to focus on all the bad things to try and get out of donating blood, like

what if they put the needle in wrong and have to do it again. What if they take too much blood,

what if I have cancer and don’t know and I find out from the blood tests. They also might say

that it is going to hurt too much when they put the needle in. But in reality they don't take away

more blood than your body can handle. If they tell you have cancer at least it was caught and isn't

going left untreated and the needle doesn't hurt when it is going in. it feels like a pinch then after

a minute or two you don’t really feel it anymore.

I understand that there are people out there that are scared of needles and they do

everything in their power to stay away from needles. There is a real phobia when it comes to

people being scared of needles. That phobia is called Trypanophobia. Now there are ways people

can get past this phobia if you really want to donate blood to help a person in need. You can

distract yourself while they put the needle in, you can anesthetic cream that will numb the area.
If you use the anesthetic cream it will numb the area so that when they put the needle in it will

not hurt at all. All you will feel is the pressure of the hand of the nurse that is putting the needle

in. Once you get the needle put in “ A whole blood donation usually takes less than an hour —

and only 10 minutes of that is spent in the donation chair!” (University of Cincinnati). If you get

past that fear you can save up to three people's lives. And it would not take you more than an

hour to get it done. So if you have ever considered donating blood it is highly encouraged that

you do donate your blood so you can at least save one life.
 Works Cited

“Blood Donations Facts and Statistics”. Stanford Blood Center, 9 April 2022,

https://stanfordbloodcenter.org/donate-blood/blood-donation-facts/

Friedland, G. (2009). Discovery of the function of the heart and circulation of blood.

Cardiovascular journal of Africa. Retrieved March 27, 2022, from

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3721262/

History of blood transfusions. History Of Blood Transfusions 1628 To Now | Red Cross

Blood Services. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2022, from

https://www.redcrossblood.org/donate-blood/blood-donation-process/what-

happens-to-donated-blood/blood-transfusions/history-blood-transfusion.html

“New Blood Donors.” University Of Cincinnati, https://hoxworth.org/donors/blood.html.

NHS. (n.d.). Storage of blood and blood products. NHS choices. Retrieved March 27,

2022, from

https://www.homerton.nhs.uk/storage-of-blood-and-blood-products/#:~:text=The

%20hospital%20has%20approved%20Blood,in%20domestic%20or%20other

%20refrigerators.

“Officer learns of cancer after blood donation visit”. U.S. Army, 9 April 2022,
https://www.army.mil/article/222124/

officer_learns_of_cancer_after_blood_donation_visit