First Successful Transfusion Of Blood

Christian Zagado devised new instruments leading to actual blood transfusion. The experiments started towards the end of February in the year 1665. A medium-sized dog was selected and blood was drawn out of its jugular vein. He continued drawing blood until the entire strength of the dog was nearly gone.

To make up for this loss, the blood from a second dog was used. The blood was drawn from the cervical artery of a fairly large mastiff. After the other dog appeared filled with blood, the jugular veins were closed. The wonder was the animal recovered without any sign of discomfort.

The first blood transfusion between animals was carried by Lower. Then on 15 June 1667, Denys was the first to carry out the first transfusion between humans. After 6 months, Lower performed the first human transfusion in London. He superintended one ounce of sheep’s blood into the patients arm at various times.

The First Success

• During the first decade of the 19th Century, a new discovery came up.
• Small amount of the blood from the donor was mixed with the blood of the receiver prior to the process of transfusion.
• This is an early form of cross-matching. Dr. James Blundell was a British obstetrician who performed the first successful transfusion of human blood in the year 1818.
• He used transfusion to treat postpartum hemorrhage.
• The patient’s husband was made the donor and four ounces of blood was taken from his arm. A total of 10 transfusions were performed by Dr.Blundell in the year 1825-1830. Out of this, five were successful and beneficial.
• He invented several instruments for blood transfusion out of which he made good amount of money for his livelihood.
• The first successful whole blood transfusion was performed by Samuel Armstrong Lane in the year 1840 aided by Dr. Blundell.
• The experiment was carried out at St George’s Hospital Medical School in London to treat hemophilia. George Washington Crile was the first to be credited for performing the first surgery involving a direct blood transfusion. This was done at the Cleveland Clinic.
• Many patients had died till 1901 by the time the human blood groups were discovered.
• Karl Landsteiner, an Austrian, was the first to discover the different blood groups in humans.
• Since then the transfusion of blood become a much safer exercise. Mixing the blood from two different individuals can cause ‘blood clumping’ or ‘agglutination’.
• If the clumped blood cells crack, they can cause toxic reactions and can be fatal.
• Karl Landsteiner discovered that blood clumping was an immunological reaction which occurs when the receiver of a blood transfusion has antibodies (A, B, both A & B, or neither) against the donor blood cells.
• Karl Landsteiner’s work made it possible to determine blood groups (A, B, AB, O) and thus paved the way for blood transfusions to be carried out safely.
• For this discovery he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1930.