The problem
Whole blood spoiled quickly and could not be shipped across an ocean to wounded soldiers.
The innovation
Systematic methods for separating, preserving, testing and distributing plasma at scale, set out in Drew's doctoral thesis and applied in Blood for Britain.
How it worked
Plasma keeps far longer than whole blood, tolerates transport, and can be given without cross-matching in emergencies.
Why it mattered
Blood for Britain shipped thousands of litres of plasma across the Atlantic; the Red Cross programme followed.
The legacy
Every hospital blood bank and mobile blood drive uses this architecture.
You use this today
Any transfusion, anywhere.
Sources
The Charles R. Drew Papers
Primary record'Banked Blood' doctoral thesis, 1940
Institutional record
Follow the invention
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Safety hood (breathing device)
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