Blood transfusion service (1941) Pt. 3 of 4

when the second world war broke out britain had foreseen the need for organized blood transfusion services blood supply depots had been organized by the medical research council to meet the needs of the london hospitals transfusion services had been developed in many of the larger cities later all these were coordinated by the ministry of health under a regional scheme covering the whole country i am a wartime worker in one of the blood depots set up in britain since 1939 men and women come to the depot in their own time on their way to and from work clerks typists housewives factory workers shopkeepers city workers to become a donor you must be between the ages of 18 and 65. when you arrive at the depot to register we take your name and address details of your health and a drop of blood from your ear or finger this drop of blood is take the laboratory where we find out which group you belong to after registering you can come to be bled at the depot you are given your index card which records your blood group health details where you can be found in an emergency and how often your blood has been given you go to a large room where bleeding takes place on couches separated by screens each donor has a nurse in attendance and the doctor passes from one to another down the line the skin of your arm is first cleaned the doctor then gives you a local anesthetic so that you will not feel the prick of the needle through which the blood will be drawn off into a bottle the discomfort of the anaesthetic is slight and passes off almost at once bleeding lasts about five minutes and three quarters of a pint of blood is taken your bottle of blood is then labelled and taken off to the refrigerator after bleeding you rest for 10 minutes and are given sweet tea and biscuits then you are ready to carry on your day's work nonetheless for your gift of a pint of blood which your body will rapidly make good the blood transfusion service visits people on war work who can't spell the time to come to the depot donor's own road and the drop of blood for grouping taken on the spot so in an emergency we can call on a whole factory staff because we already know about their blood we also visit surrounding towns and villages to bleed donors we make a village hall look like a corner of our main depot doctors and nurses go around the village collecting donors in this way a community of blood donors is built up in town and country regardless of where the blood is to be used at the end of the day all the blood is stored in the deposit refrigerators until needed it was blood collected like this that saved the lives of country civilians during the great air raids on britain