By Jim Nichols

Realizing that I am showing my age here, a hit song played frequently on the radio in 1956 was titled “Transfusion.” There were several “novelty” songs current then (including the likes of “Purple People Eater”), but this one about blood was my favorite. This was the era of hot-rod cars and the chorus of the song performed by Nervous Norvus (I am not making this up) was the word “Transfusion.” The first lines were:

“Zoooommm
Tooling down the highway doing seventy-nine
I’m a twin pipe papa and I’m feelin fine
Hey man dig that was that a red stop sign?

Transfusion transfusion!
I’m just a solid mess of contusions”

The song continued with one car wreck after another with the same plaintive call of “Transfusion!”

As a biology instructor, I found two topics most attractive to my college age students. One was to talk about sex (obviously of interest to them), and the second was to consider blood.

In fact, many adults continue to have a high interest (if not trepidation) concerning blood. It is not an accident that blood plays such a central part in history, including religion. Hunter-gatherers of the past recognized that when an injured animal bled, its life was flowing from it.

Two recent news items touched on this truth. This will require some biology words. Stay with me here.

You may be familiar with the human blood types identified as A, B, AB, and O. These are based on specific proteins found on the surfaces of red blood cells. In addition, there is another protein, the Rh protein, and it also has clear clinical interest. 

The historical concern regards pregnant women whose blood lacks the Rh protein; they are “Rh negative.” Because of simple genetics, it is possible that a baby conceived from a Rh-positive father will, itself, also be Rh-positive. If this were to occur, Rh protein molecules can pass through the placenta from the fetus and enter the mother’s bloodstream. This “sensitizes” the mother so that she produces antibodies (molecules that oppose other molecules) to the Rh protein. If there is a second pregnancy with this same woman and again the infant is Rh- positive, the antibodies from the mother may cross the placenta to this second fetus and cause a potentially fatal blood condition as they interact with the Rh proteins of the fetus. 

James Harrison of Australia had surgery when he was fourteen years old to remove a lung. He received about two gallons of donated blood involving a three-month recovery. This was such a life-changing event that, when he became of legal age at eighteen, he began being a blood donor himself. He donated every two weeks from 1954 to 2018 when his advanced age disqualified him.

In the mid-1960s, analysis of Harrison’s blood revealed that it contained a specific chemical that could be administered to pregnant Rh-negative women therefore blocking the Rh mismatch consequences. He was one of an exceedingly small number of individuals with this chemical and is credited with saving lives of 2.4 million babies over his donor history. Harrison died last month at the age eighty-eight.

Commercially marketed in the U.S. today, the RhoGam shot containing this protective chemical has become a medical standard.

The second “bloody” news note concerns a medical mission deep in the countryside of Guatemala. This site has a small resident medical staff for the local citizens and serves as host for rotating teams of U.S. physicians, nurses, and related aides. These temporary teams go to the clinic for week-long stays performing basic surgery. 

These surgeries often require blood for transfusions. There are other nearby small clinics, and they have historically shared blood resources. This clinic has attempted to upgrade its services with licensing from the government. This has required, however, that they procure transfusion blood only from approved sources; the closest of these is an hour away by car assuming no traffic. This has made the transport of usable blood difficult; a motorcyclist would be much faster, cutting the travel time in half.

Their creative solution was to hire a cyclist and to take blood samples from each prospective surgical candidate in the morning by motorcycle to the approved blood donor site and wait. If surgery for a specific patient requires blood, the clinic telephones him and he returns to the clinic with the blood needed.

Living in our country where medical care is so much more available, this appears to be a lot of work but certainly achieves its goal. Since we intuitively understand that “life is in the blood,” this makes sense.

Jim Nichols is a retired Abilene Christian University biology professor and current hospital chaplain