Tag: Red Cross
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Matron Charlotte Evelyn Nelson (1938-1954) and her portrait by Alice Burton
Frederick John O’Dell Northampton, United Kingdom Miss C E Nelson, 1955, by Alice Burton. Northampton General Hospital private collection. Image photograph by the author. Charlotte Evelyn Nelson (1894-1959) was born on 13 July 1894 in Hull. Before her sixth birthday she was orphaned, as the 1901 census lists her at the Hull Seamans and…
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To wear or not to wear? Attitudes towards mask wearing then and now
Mariella Scerri Victor Grech Mellieha, Malta In September 1918, the Red Cross recommended two-layer gauze masks to halt the spread of “plague.” Image: Public Domain via Wikimedia. More than a century ago, as the 1918 influenza pandemic raged around the globe, masks of gauze and cheesecloth became the facial frontlines in the battle against…
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Heterozygous advantage: How one deadly disease prevents another
Neal KrishnaBoston, Massachusetts, United States Of all the genetic disorders to which man is known to be a victim, there is no other that presents an assemblage of problems and challenges quite comparable to sickle cell anemia. Because of its ubiquity, chronicity, and resistance to treatment, sickle cell anemia remains a malady whose mitigation and…
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What can physicians learn from Benjamin Rush, blood, and the Red Cross?
Ryan HillJamestown, Rhode Island, United States Despite the adamant opposition he encountered from many of his contemporaries, Dr. Benjamin Rush was undeterred; he was certain that bloodletting was the most prudent of all medical procedures and remained faithful to the practice. The late eighteenth century doctor received harsh criticism for his excessive use of this…
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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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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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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…