Blood for Invasion

Last week in England, as for several weeks past, the U.S. Army's Major Robert Hardin carried out what he calls a "dry run" of blood-giving. Soldiers with type-o blood (the universal type which can be given to anybody) gave four-fifths pint each to his blood banks -- in this case, refrigerator trucks.

Patriotic donors at home could rest assured that blood plasma, which is blood with the red corpuscles removed, is often a lifesaver. But a really bad hemorrhage produces a dangerous reduction in red corpuscles, which carry oxygen to the tis sues. Though a man can get along on less than half the ideal number of red corpuscles, he may die from lack of oxygen in his tissues if the shortage gets acute.

As last week's dry run was just for practice, much of the blood went to the American hospitals where blood is nice to have -- whole blood is the best of all pick-me-ups for a weak patient -- but not really needed. If unused for 20 days or so, the blood is thrown away; by then the corpuscles begin to die.

Some three weeks before invasion, the dry runs will become "wet." The Army will then begin drawing on its soldier donors for a bank of whole blood to be used on the beachheads and in the foxholes of Europe.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.