Month: February 2020
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The gift of life—From whom?
George M. PantalosLouisville, Kentucky, United States I always thought that donating blood was a good thing to do, but did not get around to it until an intense winter storm left several inches of snow and ice in central Ohio where I was in graduate school in January of 1978. Slick roads resulted in auto…
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Royal blood: Queen Victoria and the legacy of hemophilia in European royalty
Carys O’NeillChicago, IL Known for restoring the reputation of a monarchy tarnished by the extravagance of her predecessors and reigniting a faith in empire through an embrace of civic and diplomatic duties, the legacy of Queen Victoria (1819–1901, r. 1837–1901) shaped a new role for the position of queen and the idea of her kingdom.…
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Bleeding science dry: The history of scientific racism and blood
Matthew CasasKansas City, United States One might be familiar with the expression “We All Bleed Red.” But what exactly does blood have to say about our “humanity”? Ripe with good intention, the aforementioned mantra represents a campaign to promote peace by winning over the hearts and minds of those assumed to be unaware of a…
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Blood’s journey: From lab technology to industrial technology
Cristina Sans-PonsetiBarcelona, Spain Nowadays, it is usual to see donation centers storing blood worldwide. Blood banks meet the demand for blood in order to perform transfusions and produce plasma-based products.1 The use of blood in industrial processes resulted from historical and social contingencies. Our knowledge of the human body, including blood, has changed substantially, along…
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Blood debt
Jules ReichChicago, Illinois, United States In 1937, the first U.S. blood bank opened in Chicago. It was originally called a Blood Preservation Laboratory, but its founder, Dr. Bernard Fantus, changed the name to blood bank. For someone who spent a large part of his exceptional career working on ways to make medicine taste better for…
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The paradox of blood donation
Beukou SteveLimbe, South-West Cameroon “Please I urgently need a donor who is blood group O rhesus negative for my sister to be operated. Please tell any of your friends.” These types of messages have become the newest type of notifications on our social media platforms in Cameroon. The notifications, while made up of different combinations…
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Bloody segregation: The story of how Charles Richard Drew found life abundantly
Amy DeMattGreensburg, Pennsylvania, United States “Desperation, weakness, vulnerability – these things will always be exploited. You need to protect the weak, ring-fence them, with something far stronger than empathy.”— Zadie Smith What if, instead of simply practicing empathy, you could literally become a part of someone else? What if you could join a part of…