by
Susan Robinson
Dr. Charles
Richard Drew
Anyone
whose life has been saved by a blood transfusion has Dr. Charles Richard
Drew to thank. Dr. Drew was the medical researcher who discovered the
way to store blood for long terms, making blood banks possible.
Charles Richard Drew was born in 1904, in Washington D.C. He was an exceptional student who excelled in sports as well as academics. When he lost a younger sister to tuberculosis, he developed an interest in becoming a doctor. He received an athletic scholarship to Amherst College in Massachusetts, where he became captain of the track team and also distinguished himself as a football player. He graduated from Amherst with honors in 1926 and went on to teach biology, chemistry, and physical education.
In 1926 he entered the
Medical School at McGill University, Canada's most prestigious institution
of higher learning. At McGill, he became interested in blood research,
and in 1933 received the degrees of Doctor of Medicine and Master of Surgery;
he was second in his class of 137 graduates. Drew completed several internships
in Canada, where he continued his research on blood chemistry. He then
accepted a teaching position at Howard University and later won a fellowship
to conduct research at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York.
It was at Columbia Presbyterian that Dr. Drew made a breakthrough discovery that if red blood cells could be removed from whole blood, the fluid that remained, plasma, could be preserved over long periods of time. Before that, attempts to preserve blood for use in medical emergencies had run into difficulties because the red blood cells deteriorated within a week. Dr. Drew earned the Doctor of Science in Medicine degree because of his success, and received many honors.
He became the first director of the American Red Cross Blood Bank, and when World War II broke out in Europe, the government of England asked Dr. Drew to organize its blood bank program to deal with heavy military casualties.
Dr. Drew's system worked well, but he resigned from his position as director
of the Red Cross's Blood Bank in 1941 when the U.S. War Department sent
out an order that the blood of Black donors and white donors should not
be mixed. Dr. Drew argued that the decree, which he called a "stupid
blunder," had no scientific basis.
Dr. Drew returned to Howard University as chief surgeon and Chief of Staff. He continued to teach, and was recognized throughout the 1940's as a leading physician and scientist. In 1944 he received the Springarn Medal from the NAACP.
Dr.
Drew met an untimely end at the age of 45, in 1950. He was in North Carolina,
driving to a medical conference at The Tuskegee Institute. His automobile
crashed, and Dr. Drew was seriously injured; other doctors in the car
attended to him until he was taken to a nearby hospital. However, his
injuries were too severe and he died of those injuries.*
Susan Robinson
[Republished
4.11.05]
* "
