For historical authors, it’s important to know when a medical advancement takes place for novels that include these medical details. While researching a medical question for an author regarding blood transfusion I came across a very good timeline concerning this medical advancement. You can find that article here.  Additional resource found here.

1628: Dr. William Harvey discovers blood circulation.

1655: Dr. Richard Lower performs successful animal to animal blood transfusion using dogs.

1818: Dr. James Blundell performs first person to person blood transfusion. Blundell is a gynecologist and uses blood transfusions to treat postpartum hemorrhage.

1840: Successful blood transfusion of patient with hemophilia.

1901-1902: Karl Landsteiner discovers blood types. This is an important advancement because giving the patient the wrong blood type can well . . . kill them.

1914-1918: Dr. O.H. Robinson finds effective anticoagulant that aids in long-term blood storage. Adolf Hustin is also credited with discovering an anticoagulant as well.

1920’s: Percy Oliver develops donor system for British Red Cross.

1932: Leningrad Hospital houses first blood bank.

1939-1940: Rh Blood group is discovered which is determined to be the cause of most blood transfusion reactions.

1941: Red Cross U.S.A. is started.

1950: Use of plastic bags makes collecting and storing blood easier. Before this they used glass bottles. This I cannot imagine.

1972: Apheresis is discovered which can remove one component of blood and return the rest to the donor.

1983: Stanford Blood Center begins screening donated blood for AIDS.

1985: HIV screening licensed and implemented.

1990: Hepatitis C Screening initiated.

It’s amazing to look back on just how much was accomplished in blood transfusion, blood banking, and ensuring a safe blood supply in the 20th century.