History of Blood Donation and Transfusion Medicine

This book offers a global overview of the history of blood donation using evidence-based research to provide accurate information on the beginnings of blood donation and transfusion medicine, developed as the result of numerous trials and successes throughout history. It leads the reader step-by-step through time, to discover how people perceived blood, and how they managed to develop new ways of treating various unfortunate conditions that shattered a person’s healthy life. This book also presents new technical discoveries that have advanced through the present day and explains how, in cases of deadly diseases, safety procedures for blood examination have been made mandatory. The conditions that led to the contamination of thousands of patients by HIV and hepatitis C around the world are explained, and the debate between voluntary and paid systems is covered as well. This book is a unique resource beneficial for everyday practice, as it encourages the reader to develop advanced practices for better and safer work with blood donors and in transfusion medicine; It gives a sense of humanitarian devotion to the deed of giving a part of yourself to save others’ lives in danger because of trauma, disease, etc., and it shares different stories of blood donors, to help patients get over their fear of donating blood. It is useful for nurses, doctors, students, blood donors, historians, and other experts!