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THE INSTRIGUING HISTORY OF BLOOD TRANSFUSION
The beginning of modern therapeutic transfusion has an official date: december 22, 1818. On that occasion, the british obstetrician james blundell(1791-1878) infused human blood into a patient for treatment of postpartum hemorrhage. One century later, Karl Landsteiner (1868-1943), an Austrian physician, discovered the blood group system and the Rhfactor, creating the basis for a safer use of the procedure. For this epochal accomplishment, Karl Landsteiner was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1930.
THE REMOTE ORIGIN
Transfusion has a much earlierorigin. In an attempt to recover the ailing body from sickness, the Royal Society, founded in London in 1661, decided to conduct research on blood transfusion, considering it a panacea for lifesavingtherapy. Among the several persons involved in this project was Richard Lower (1631-1691), a British physician, who showed it was possible to transfuse blood from animal to animal for later applicationinto human beings.
In February 1665, Lower successfully transfused blood betweed two dogs before the members of the Society. At that time it was common practice, that experiments should first beconducted in front o colleagues and peers, and then written down and published. Lower used a silver tube to connect the carotid artery of one dog to the jugular vein of another. The recipient animalsurvived. Experiments were repeated on different creatures, mixing the blood of lambs and dogs. Details of the operation were reported in the Philosophical Transactions, the official journal of the society.In France, Jean-Baptiste Denis (about 1640-1704), an eminent physician and member of the team appointed to eversee the health of King Louis XIV, read of lower´s experiments. In association with asurgeon, Paul Emmerez, Denis initiated his own trials, performing numerous dog-to-dog transfusions. On June 15, 1667, Denis was asked to take care of a feverish 15 year old boy, who had been bled by...