Blood Loss? Long Ago You Might Have Had a Milk Transfusion!
In the 19th century, if you lost large amounts of blood, your prospects were not very good. Not only because of the blood loss itself, but also because of the medical treatment that followed. Some doctors were replacing the lost blood with ... milk!
Fortunately today’s doctors know what to do in this situation, but in the 19th century, blood transfusions were a risky business. At that time nothing was known about the different blood groups.
Dying patients
The first more or less successful blood transfusions in humans were performed in the 17th century by British physician Richard Lower and French physician Jean-Baptiste Denis. In both cases the blood was taken from a sheep and the patient who received it did in fact survive. Unfortunately, most of the transfusions the doctors performed after that went very badly. The procedure was therefore banned in 1668, and research into blood transfusions was halted for about 150 years. In the early 19th century, doctors revisited this subject, but they still had the same problem: the patients kept on dying.
Milk transfusions
So what was the best way to get around the unhelpful properties of blood? The obvious approach was simply to use something else. In the mid-19th century, some doctors decided to administer milk instead of blood. They believed that the small oil and fat droplets in the milk would be converted into white blood cells in the human body.
The first injections of milk into human beings were performed in 1854 by doctors James Bovell and Edwin Hodder. Their first and second patients reportedly survived and their health even improved. Less surprisingly, the next three patients died after the treatment. Despite the poor results, however, milk transfusions were still regularly given. Many doctors, however, remained sceptical. Their concerns grew larger by the great number of patients who received the treatment and subsequently died.
Blood transfusion
It was only when physician Karl Landsteiner discovered blood groups in 1901 that a safe and effective method for giving blood transfusions was developed. Without milk!
A blood transfusion today is a standard medical procedure and it is often performed. Transfusions save the lives of many people who suffer severe blood loss after an accident, surgery or childbirth. Blood is in such high demand that more than 118 million blood donations are collected worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. Would you like to give blood too? Check out the website of the Red Cross Flanders.