Plasma Type Compatibility                                                                        Blood Type Compatibility                                                                                                                                                                                                      (without RhD typing)

 

Thus, in certain cases where a whole blood transfusion is not necessary, it was sufficient to give a plasma transfusion which could be administered to anyone, regardless of their blood type.

 

He convinced Columbia University to establish a blood bank and soon was asked to go to England to help set up that country’s first blood bank. Drew became the first Black to receive a Doctor of Medical Science degree from Columbia and was now gaining a reputation worldwide.

 

In 1938, Drew won a fellowship to train at Presbyterian Hospital in New York with eminent surgeon Allen Whipple. Instead of following the traditional path of residents to gain experience in surgical pathology and bacteriology, surgical laboratory research, outpatient clinic, operating rooms and surgical wards, Whipple assigned Drew to work under John Scudder, who was granted funding to set up an experimental blood bank. This would prevent him from privileges afforded to his white peers, especially direct access to patients. Whipple would later be won over by Drew’s talent, supporting both his surgical training and doctoral research.

 

Drew and Scudder focused their research on diagnosing and controlling shock, fluid balance, blood chemistry, preservation, and transfusion — the work on which he based his seminal dissertation, "Banked Blood: A Study in Blood Preservation." Drew’s doctoral research assessed previous blood and transfusion research, blood chemistry and fluid replacement, and evaluated variables affecting shelf-life of stored blood — from types and amounts of anticoagulants (substances that prevent blood from clotting) and preservatives, to shapes of storage containers and temperature.

 

His key findings, complex procedures, and standards for collecting, processing and storing blood proved his expertise and led to an appointment to head the Blood for Britain Project (BFB), an effort to transport desperately needed blood and plasma to Great Britain, which was then under attack by Germany.

 

The blood collection program was initiated in the US in 1940. Beginning in August of thaT YEAR, it collected blood in New York City hospitals for the export of plasma to Britain. Drew worked with Doctors Scudder and E. H. L. Corwin to plan the organizational process of safely collecting, processing and storing large amounts of contamination-free plasma along with procedures for extracting plasma and ensuring safe arrival in Britain.

 

The plasma was then pooled from a collection of eight bottles using an anti-contamination technique under strict air and ultraviolet lighting conditions. An anti-bacterial called Merthiolate (C9H9HgNaO2S) was added to the blood product and batches were tested weekly.

 

A dried plasma package was developed, which reduced breakage and made the transportation, packaging, and storage much simpler. The resulting dried plasma package came in two tin cans containing 400 cc bottles. One bottle contained enough distilled water to reconstitute the dried plasma contained within the other bottle. In about three minutes, the plasma would be ready to use and could stay fresh for around four hours.

 

Finally, each batch was transferred to a shipping container and diluted with sterile saline solution. A final sample for bacteria-testing was taken before the containers were sealed and packed. By early August of 1940, a trial shipment of plasma was sent to England and confirmed "entirely satisfactory."

 

In the midst of the Blood for Britain project, Drew passed the American Board of Surgery exams. “In surgical circles, Drew's performance on the oral part of the exam, in which he confidently lectured his examiners about fluid balance and management of shock, became as legendary…”