The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1941-10-13
Use OF DRIED
BLOOD PLASMAs
VERY HELPFUL
USED FOR EMERGENCY IN
FIELD ADMINISTRATION TO
SUFFERERS FROM SHOCK
DUE TO INJURY
Especial to The Citizenl

WASHINGTON, Oct 13.-USe
Of dried blood plasma for emerg-
ency field administration to suf-
ferers from shock due to injury
and loss of blood has been highly
effective in saving life that would
otherwise have been lost, accord
ing to the report made to the
secretary of the navy today by
Capt Charles S. Stephenson
Medical Corps. us. Navy.
Captain Stephenson has just
completed a seven-week toll- of
inspection of bomb-torn England,
in which he visited the great re-
search centers of Oxford, Cam
bridge, University of London,
University of Edinborough, Uni
versity of Glasgow and other
medical centers. The tour was
made in cooperation with the Ma
tional Research Council, of
which Captain Stephenson is the
navy's representative, the Med
ical Research Council of Great
Britain and Canadian Research
organizations
Captain Stephenson stated that
the biological laboratories of the
United States have equipment
for processing blood and pre-
pairing dried plasma. These lab
are now preparing sew
eral hundred packages each week
and within a month they viii be
able to process several thousand
pints of blood each week. The
real problem in the United States
is to develop 4 sufficiently large
list of blood donors to permit
the work to be carried out eff
fectively.
Captain Stephenson traced the
development of the procedure
for building up a large reserve
of dried plasma for use in civil
catastrOphes and in time of war.
This reserve, he said, must be
developed and prepared in ad-
vance, so as to be ready for i'm
mediate use when the emergency
arises.
Seven Cities Aid
The American Red Cross is
conducting a program for build
ing up a blood plasma bank for
use of the armed forces of the
nation. with sufficient reserve
for civilian catastrophe aid. The
program has been established in
seven cities and is soon to be
TO a total of % chap
tiers. The American Red Cross
has completed a bank OF
$4,000 blood plaSma units and ex-
poets 20 build the initial bank to
200, 0OU units.
in England the blood and
blood plaSma bank has been the
means of saving thousands of
lives of civilians. who would
have died had it not been pos
sible to have administered the
blood plasma under field condi-
tons, Captain Stephenson said.
1T has been of tremendous val
ue in military operations, both in
the fields and in the hospitals
where the wounded have been
taken.
Due to the deliacy of the op-
Grafton involved in regard to
having proper blood types avail
able and in developing a tech
nique which could be carried out
under the hectic conditions OF
the battle field or in a bomb
torn city, the major problem at
first was to perfect both
means OF handling the blood
bank and the stored blood and
blood plaSma and to evolve
methods of handling the blood
and plaSma under what would
normally be far from the desired
aseptic conditions.
Both have been accomplished,
and the results in saving life
have more than justified the eff
fort, Captain Stephenson said.
In tracing the general develop
ment of blood plasma for use in
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