Blood Transfusion

There have been many advancements in medicine over the centuries. Some have been very controversial, one example is the idea of human to human blood transfusions. Blood transfusions have not always been as successful as they are today. The procedure was even made illegal in some countries. The pioneer of successful human to human blood transfusions was James Blundell, born in London, 1791 (Dzik, 2007). This essay will describe the discovery of blood transfusion, also how the discovery of blood transfusion came about, the effect or importance of successful blood transfusion, and the future of blood transfusions.

Blood transfusion is a safe, common procedure in which blood is given to people through an intravenous (IV) line in one of the blood

And more than forty-two thousand patients are treated with blood or blood products in New Zealand each year (NZ Blood, 2016). As medical technology advanced, phlebotomists would separate plasma from the blood, and use this to infuse patients who had liver disease, red blood cells would be used to transfuse into cancer patients, or white blood cells into patients with anemia, or to help with chemotherapy (replacing bad blood cells with good blood cells. The largest group of people who benefit from blood transfusion are mainly cancer patients, making up the largest number of 29% of blood products used specifically, either when they have surgery. The fact that blood is able to be separated into several parts is the main reason so many people benefit from receiving blood transfusions. Unfortunately, although people use forty-two thousand different blood components on average per year, only one hundred and twenty-five thousand units of blood per year are collected in New Zealand (NZ Blood, 2016). Today scientists use stem cells to generate new blood in the patient’s body, moreover some research shows that in the next ten to fifteen years’ scientists are hoping to grow blood in agar plates. As technology advances and the number of people needing transfusion increases, scientists are experimenting with new ideas, just as James Blundell first did in 1818, and although the idea might seem outrageous now, in ten to thirty years from now it could be as common, as per what people know