Charles Drew Research Paper

The person I chose to do my report on is Charles Richard Drew. I chose Charles Drew because he was a black doctor that worked with transfusing blood. I know that when people are sick or get shot and lose a lot of blood they may need a blood transfusion to help them live. I also know that blood transfusions are very important for people that have Sickle Cell because their blood gets infected and has to be replaced. I think that a black male doctor that worked with blood research is interesting. I do not know a lot of black doctor’s so to research someone that specialized in this area is why I decided to research Charles Drew. Charles Drew was born June 3, 1904 in Washington, D.C. His mother’s name was Nora Burrell and
He improved techniques for storing blood. Before Charles presented his research, blood could not be stored for more than two days because the red blood cells would break down too fast. Charles discovered that by separating the plasma from the whole blood that it could be refrigerated separately and then mixed back together as needed for up to a week later for a blood transfusion. He also discovered the fact that even though everyone has a different blood type everyone has the same type of plasma. This meant that in some cases when a person would not need a whole blood transfusion, they could get a plasma transfusion no matter their blood type. Charles Drew’s knowledge of blood inspired him to ask Columbia University to set up a blood bank and was soon asked to go to England to set up and run the country’s first blood bank in England. When he traveled to Europe, World War II was just beginning. Charles developed and ran large scale blood banks in early World War II which helped save thousands of lives. He was named project director for the American Red Cross and was the first person to speak up against segregation when it came to donating blood because there was no scientific evidence to back why it should be segregated. He later resigned from his position at the Red Cross because the U.S. War Department issued a directive that blood taken from White donors should be segregated from Black donors. In 1942, he returned to Howard University to head its Department of Surgery and work as the chief of surgery at Freedmen’s hospital. In 1948 he was awarded the Spingarn Medal from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored people for his work on blood plasma. In 1943, he became the first black surgeon to serve as an examiner on the American Board of