How would you feel if a life-saving process, which you had researched and developed, was denied to you in a life or death situation? Speculation has it that this is exactly what happened to Charles Drew. He was an African American credited with the research and development of blood banks.
Charles Drew was born on June 3, 1904. At Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C., he had become a promising athlete. Drew began college at Amherst, quickly becoming star quarterback, most valuable baseball player, and captain of the track team.
So it was no surprise when Drew was hired by Morgan State College. He became the school's football coach and athletic director. It was also here that Drew became a science instructor. With a growing passion for science, Drew entered medical school at McGill University in 1928. As an honor student, he joined a British professor in doing blood research. Fascinated, Drew continued his research on blood for two more years.
Drew continued his studies at Columbia University Medical School. While at Columbia, Drew learned all he could about collecting and storing blood. The goal was to save it until it was needed for transfusions. He soon discovered that blood preservation was possible if liquid red blood cells were separated from their near solid plasma and then frozen separately. Drew's blood bank system—the storing of blood—was a revolution for the medical field.
In 1940, just after the start of World War II, Drew earned his Doctor of Medical Science degree. Dr. Charles Drew was named director of the Red Cross Blood Bank and assistant director of the National Research Council. His process was used to supply blood plasma to the British during the war. These mobile blood banks were started to aid wounded soldiers. However, Drew soon returned to Howard University as Chair of Surgery because of requirements that the blood be separated by race. Drew understood that there was no racial difference in blood, and he felt that many could possibly perish waiting for blood from donors of the same race.
In 1950, Drew was involved in a serious car accident. News articles stated that he was not admitted to the nearest hospital because of his race. Articles suggested that Drew had lost too much blood in the transport to the nearest black hospital. Ironically, Dr. Charles Drew succumbed to blood loss because he was denied the very transfusion he had developed to save lives.
