FOR__ Respect writer Healthcare Administration

During early years, people died due to severe loss of blood. The problem at that time was how blood could be safely stored and transfused to another individual who needed it at that time. We can thank Charles R Drew for his continued research and devotion the most challenging medical problem of that time, which was how blood could be banked and hence made available for transfusion when required. He was born in 1904 in Washington DC into a middle class African-American family and died in 1950 (Lonesome, 1990). Once blood leaves the blood vessels it loses its integrity as well as its utility. It starts to clot and the cellular elements particularly the white blood cells begin to deteriorate (Provan, 2003). Before World War I researchers had sodium citrate would prevent blood from clotting and dextrose would help in preserving the blood for about two weeks under refrigeration. Comment by Ann Dickerson: Wonderful job of citing sources You are kind of jumping all over the place, from topic to topic a bit in this one paragraph. You want the information to flow sensibly. This topic proposal was to be no more than one paragraph (no more than one page…the proposal itself). You have selected a terrific topic!

Charles R Drew focused on assessing blood and transfusion for his doctoral research and applied his findings to blood bank program on trial. He did a review on the history of blood transfusion and also the current research on fluid replacement and the chemistry of blood. He carried out an evaluation of the variables that can affect the shelf life of the blood that is stored, how the blood was collected, amounts and types of anticoagulants used, storage temperature and so on (Galley,2002).

Charles R Drew was faced with many challenges in the course of his research such as collecting the blood using sterile equipment, transferring it into sterile containers, and treating it with anticoagulants. The collected blood was to be stored at constant temperatures in refrigerators that were protected from electrical outages and were efficient. Every donation had to be typed and be tested for diseases that could be transmitted through transfusion such as syphilis (Lonesome, 1990). The donors had to be carefully recruited, scheduled and be screened for any health problem before transfusion. His experiment ran for about seven months and was successful and used it as a basis for his dissertation. He created a central location where the process of blood collection was done and donors gave blood there. He ensured that all the blood plasma that was collected went through tests before being shipped out. He made sure that the blood was handled by skilled personnel so as to avoid any form of contamination. He thus developed improved techniques for the storage of blood and applied his expertise to the development of large-scale blood banks during early Word War II period (Lonesome, 1990). This helped medics to save lives of allied forces. Blood banks are still in use today and they are helping to save many lives. Comment by Ann Dickerson: You have so nicely cited your sources throughout this submission ! Much of what is presented, should be saved for the final paper; you have far too much detail for a topic proposal…the purpose of a topic proposal is to highlight the main points that you plan to develop further in your final paper. You have done a terrific job of addressing Drew’s major impacts and the challenges he faced in the work he did.

Galley, H. (2002). Blood and blood transfusion. London: BMJ Books.

Lonesome, R. (1990). Charles R. Drew. New York: Chelsea House.

Provan, D. (2003). ABC of clinical hematology (2nd ed.). London: BMJ. Comment by Ann Dickerson: Leonora, you must have a minimum of 3 peer reviewed journal articles; these are all book citations. Although BMJ stands for British Medical Journal, these are not presented as journals, so I am not sure what type of sources these are. Journals should have volume, issue and page numbers associated with them.