Charles R. Drew

File:Charlesdrew4.jpg

Charles Drew

Dr. Charles Richard Drew (June 3, 1904 – April 1, 1950) was an American physician and medical researcher. He researched in the field of blood transfusions, developing improved techniques for blood storage, and applied his expert knowledge in developing large-scale blood banks early in World War II. He protested against the practice of racial segregation in the donation of blood from donors of different races since it lacked scientific foundation. In 1943, Drew's distinction in his profession was recognized when he became the first African American surgeon to serve as an examiner on the American Board of Surgery.

Early life

Charles Drew was born in Washington, D.C., to Richard and Nora Drew, and was the oldest of five children. In High School and at Amherst College, Drew excelled in athletics. Drew was a member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. Two years after college, Drew worked as an athletic director, football coach, and science teacher at Morgan State University in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1928, he entered medical school at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Drew continued to excel in sports while at McGill, and joined British professor Dr. John Beattie in blood research. He continued his research at Montreal General Hospital, while there, he was an intern and resident. He played football at the University of Arkansas for two years when he transfered to McGill University to qualify for his medical degree.

Advanced study

Drew received a fellowship from Howard University's Medical School, enabling him to study at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. While at Columbia University, Dr. Drew worked with the renowned Dr. Allen Whipple and with Dr. John Scudder on the problem of blood storage.

The science and practice of blood transfusion had developed from early work including preserving whole blood in refrigerated storage in World War I (see Oswald Hope Robertson) and the practice of having hospital “blood banks” (see Bernard Fantus) in the mid-1930s. Drew focused his own work on the challenge of separating and storing blood components, particularly blood plasma, as this might extend storage periods. Dr. Drew earned his Doctor of Medical Science degree from Columbia University in 1940, with a doctoral thesis under the title Banked Blood: A Study in Blood Preservation.

Participation in Plasma For Britain

In late 1940, just after earning his doctoral thesis, Dr. Drew was called upon by John Scudder to help set up and administer an early prototype program for collecting, testing, and distributing blood plasma in Britain. Called Plasma for Britain, the group was organized around eight hospitals in New York City, who would collect and test blood plasma, package it and ship it to Britain, which by this time had a serious shortage of blood due to the effects of the Battle of Britain.

Dr. Drew created protocols and procedures for the collection, testing, and shipping of blood to England. Total collections came to almost 15,000 people donating blood, and over 5,600 gallons of blood plasma. However, due to racial tensions during the 1940's in America, there was a great deal of controversy involving whether or not to use black peoples' blood plasma or to limit it to white donors. Furthermore, when the project was turned over to the government in early 1941, the military announced its policy of segregation, and would not mix blood from blacks and whites, leading to segregated donation centers. Despite all his work on the project, and despite the fact that he was the driving force behind its procedures and policies, they refused to offer him leadership of the new project, over objection from Dr. Scudder and others, instead suggesting he be 'assistant director' While no clear record exists of what Dr. Drew's thoughts were, it is known he left his position there to accept the Chair of Surgery at Howard University that same year.

Teaching career

In 1941, Drew accepted the Chair of Surgery at Howard University in Washington, D.C. In 1943, Drew became the first African American surgeon to serve as an examiner on the American Board of Surgery. He received the Spingarn Medal in 1944 for his contributions to medicine.

Death

Charles R. Drew died at the age of 46 from injuries suffered in a car accident in North Carolina. Newspaper accounts said that the nearest hospital refused to admit Dr. Drew because of his race, and that vital time was lost in taking him further away to a black hospital.

However, this conflicts with the account of Dr. John Ford, another black physician who was traveling with Dr. Drew at the time of the accident: "We all received the very best of care. The doctors started treating us immediately. ... I can truthfully say that no efforts were spared in the treatment of Dr. Drew, and, contrary to popular myth, the fact that he was a Negro did not in any way limit the care that was given to him." The nature of Dr. Drew's injuries excluded a blood transfusion; it would have killed a man in his condition faster. A similar urban legend circulates regarding jazz legend Bessie Smith.

Nevertheless, in M*A*S*H episode S2E09, "Dear Dad...Three," Hawkeye Pierce and Trapper John McIntyre explain to a soldier who doesn't want "colored blood" the history of blood plasma, and use the life and death of Charles Drew as an example to sway his views on race. While there are statistically-significant correlations between ethnicity/nationalities and blood type frequencies, all blood types are found in all ethnic/national groups and blood can be safely transfused one person to another regardless of ethnicity if the blood types are compatible. . The most subtle 21st-century tests could not discern whether an individual blood sample comes from an African American, a European American, or a "pure-blooded" African.

Although racism played little direct part in Drew's death, sleep deprivation certainly did. Charles Drew was characterized by colleagues as "tireless," which was high praise for any doctor and reflects the standard training regimen of the profession: doctors were expected to live on less sleep than lesser mortals, for days, weeks, or years at a time. His companions on the fatal trip (all black doctors) reveal that they had all been working hard, with little time for sleep, and they had been up most of the night before the crash; shortly before, they had stopped for donuts and coffee. This problem was worsened by the lack of hotel accommodations for black doctors in the segregated South: black doctors and other travelers stayed with families, who tended to keep more practical hours than doctors did.

The fatal accident occurred when Drew had been driving another doctor's 1949 Buick Roadmaster — the archetypal doctor's car in 1950 — for many sleepless hours. He apparently fell asleep at the wheel briefly, then abruptly reawakened when the right wheels drifted off the edge of the paved road and someone called out to him. He tried to get back on the road by gradually steering left, but that caused the wheel rim to catch on the pavement's edge, flipping the car. An expert stunt driver might know how to recover by moving further right and then turning the wheel sharply left, but few drivers are taught this technique, and it is not easy to remember when exhausted. The car rolled, the doors popped open, and Drew was hanging halfway out the door as the car rolled over him. His injuries were extensive. Dr. John Ford was thrown out, breaking his arm and injuring his knee.

Several motorists stopped to offer help. One white man who stopped said "It looks like you boys are in some trouble," according to Dr. Bullock, the car's owner. Several ambulances arrived. The first one on the scene (which was owned by a funeral parlor, as most ambulances were in 1950), picked up Drew and Ford and took them five miles to Alamance County General Hospital. The driver didn't try for Duke University Hospital, a much better hospital, because it was thirty miles away. Drew was not officially admitted, because he died in the emergency room before he could be stabilized.

The car had no seat belts — only airplanes did at the time — so injuries were predictably severe, although two passengers were uninjured. When Drew and the other injured doctor were brought into the emergency room, the doctors did not discriminate on the basis of their skin color, but soon figured out that they were doctors and that one of them was famous. Despite the best care available in a small rural hospital, Drew's injuries proved quickly fatal.

Commemoration

• In 1966, the Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School was incorporated in California and was named in his honor. This later became the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science.
• In 1981, the United States Postal Service issued a postage stamp in his honor which was included in the Great Americans series.
• Charles Drew Health Center, Omaha, Nebraska
• Charles Drew Science Enrichment Laboratory, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
• Charles R. Drew Elementary School, Silver Spring, Maryland
• Charles R. Drew Hall, an all-male freshman dorm at Howard University, Washington D.C.s

Further reading

• Schraff, Anne E. (2003) Dr. Charles Drew: Blood Bank Innovator Enslow, ISBN 0-7660-2117-3
• Love, Spencie (1996) One Blood: The Death and Resurrection of Charles R. Drew Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press (1997 reprint) ISBN 0-8078-4682-1
• Wynes, Charles E. (1988) Charles Richard Drew: The Man and the Myth University of Illinois Press, ISBN 0-252-01551-7

External links

• SBAS Charles Drew - Black American Medical Pioneer
• Biography of Charles R. Drew hosted by the University of Medicine and Science, accessed June 8, 2006
• The Straight Dope on Drew's death
• Charles Drew Mythology
• [2] on Plasma for Britain involvement