| A blood bank is a bank of blood or blood components, | | | | (AABB) was formed to "promote common goals |
| gathered as a result of blood donations, stored and | | | | among Blood banking facilities and the American Blood |
| preserved for later use in blood transfusions. "History | | | | donating public." Then in 1950 Carl Walter and W.P. |
| of Blood Banks" by 1901 Karl Landsteiner, an Austrian | | | | Murphy, Jr., introduced the plastic bag for blood |
| physician, whom we see as the most important | | | | collection. On its own this does not seem like any big |
| individual in the field of human blood, categorized the | | | | thing at all but by the simple act of replacing breakable |
| first three human Blood groups A, B and O. | | | | glass bottles with durable plastic bags allowed for the |
| Without this discovery and the subsequent research, | | | | evolution of a collection system capable of safe and |
| there would be no blood banking as we know it today. | | | | easy preparation of multiple blood components from a |
| 1936 Bernard Fantus, the then director of therapeutics | | | | single unit of Whole Blood. |
| at the Cook County Hospital in Chicago, established | | | | So in 1979 An anticoagulant preservative, CPDA-1 was |
| the first Blood bank in the United States thus creating a | | | | now introduced. It decreased wastage from expiration |
| hospital laboratory that can preserve and store donor | | | | and facilitated resource sharing among blood banks. |
| Bloods. In 1940 Dr Charles Drew, a graduate of McGill | | | | Newer solutions contain adenine and extend the shelf |
| University Medical School in Montreal, researched and | | | | life of red cells to 42 days. The need for blood donors |
| found a technique for the long-term preservation of | | | | is a never ending gift we can freely give our fellow |
| Blood plasma. This all brought us to what follows. | | | | man so if you are not a regular donor seriously look at |
| During 1947 The American Association of Blood Banks | | | | this. It may be you who needs the blood one day. |