Nothing Like Blood

If an atom bomb should hit a big U.S. city, the lives of more than 100,000 injured might be saved by prompt transfusions of blood, blood plasma or proper plasma substitutes. Under present conditions, nearly all these people would die. There is not enough blood, plasma or substitutes. Researchers are now looking frantically for acceptable and plentiful substitutes for plasma. Most injuries caused by atomic bombs (wounds, burns, radiation damage) result in loss of fluids from the blood vessels. The blood does not circulate properly, and the tissues, including the brain, do not get the oxygen and other supplies they need. The result is "shock," which means that the patient's blood volume must be increased promptly to restore circulation.

The simplest way is to administer dilute salt or glucose solution by vein. But the effect lasts only a short time. Blood plasma, the clear portion of human blood, is better. It contains protein molecules of a definite size and shape that keep it from leaking out of the blood vessels. An emergency plasma substitute needs some harmless substance with the same sort of molecules. Several such substances, including gelatin, Dextran (a complex sugarlike compound) and PVP (polyvinyl pyrrolidone), a synthetic made from acetylene, do the job to some extent, but none is both plentiful and entirely satisfactory. Okra for Shock. One new idea is an extract of the slippery vegetable, okra. Dr. Hiram B. Benjamin of Marquette Medical School, Milwaukee, discovered more or less by accident that an okra extract he was testing as a cure for stomach ulcers could be injected without immediate damage into the veins of dogs. Apparently the okra extract contains polysaccharide molecules similar to Dextran. Other blood experts say that the okra idea must be tested more thoroughly, on humans as well as dogs.

All plasma substitutes offer the danger of putting large amounts of foreign matter into the blood. If they damage some organ, the ill effects may not show up for years--so doctors like to be careful. Plasma substitutes would have to be used in case of an atom-bomb attack, but experts would prefer real plasma, or better yet, whole blood.

The trouble with whole blood is that it cannot be stockpiled. It contains living cells (white and red corpuscles) and therefore cannot be dried, frozen or preserved with chemicals. At present, it can be kept for only three weeks.

Long-Lasting Blood. One of the projects of blood research is to find ways to preserve whole blood. Dr. Max Strumia of Bryn Mawr, Pa. is working on a method of controlling the temperature, acidity and sugar content of blood. He thinks he may be able to preserve it for nine weeks, thus tripling the nation's stockpiled supply.

There is no chance of making whole blood artificially. It contains many delicate chemicals, each of which fills some requirement of the body. Its living cells cannot be duplicated. If the patient has been bleeding seriously, either internally or externally, he needs the corpuscles as well as the fluid. Radiation damage often impairs the victim's ability to manufacture new blood corpuscles. In an atomic-bomb attack, tens of thousands of such cases would need whole blood--and nothing else would do.

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