Charles Drew Biography

Dr. Charles Drew- 1904-1950
World War II was full of scientific breakthroughs. Many of these took place in the medical field. In particular, one man was on the forefront of blood and plasma storage with the purpose of transfusions. Before he was elected to lead the Blood for Britain movement in 1940 (Charles R. Drew papers, 2012, ACS, 2016), Dr. Charles Drew had already won recognition for the analysis of blood collection and storage procedures he researched for his dissertation (Charles R. Drew papers, 2012). He and his mentor, John Scudder, created an experimental blood bank, where they conducted research on shock treatments and fluid stability related to transfusion (Charles R. Drew Papers, 2012). They made strides in blood preservation,
Charles Drew became an obvious choice to lead the Blood for Britain project in 1940 (Charles R. Drew papers, 2012). The purpose of this program was to transport blood over to assist Great Britain in the war against Germany (Charles R. Drew papers, 2012, ACS, 2016). Dr. Charles Drew created and implemented rigorous standards and procedures for the collection and storage of blood plasma (Charles R. Drew papers, 2012, ACS, 2016). He worked with his colleague, Dr. Scudder, in order to come up with exacting methods of blood separation, using centrifugation and sedimentation (or density-based particle separation from fluid) in order to extract the more utilizable plasma from the rest of the blood components (ACS, 2016). They then added an antibacterial agent and diluted the plasma with saline, testing the storage containers often, until they were sent overseas (ACS, 2016). This project saved countless lives and transported over 5,000 liters of diluted plasma over to Great Britain (ACS,
However, his work on plasma research is not what Dr. Charles Drew’s self-proclaimed his largest contribution to the medical field was (ACS, 2016). In 1941, he went back to become the Head of the Department of Surgery and Chief of Surgery at Howard University and Freedman’s Hospital, respectively. (ACS, 2016, Charles R. Drew papers, 2012) There, until his death in 1950, Dr. Charles Drew felt it his mission to train other African American surgeons to meet the most exacting of expectations. (ACS, 2016) In his own words, “Whenever…one breaks out of this rather high-walled prison of the “Negro problem”….part of the wall crumbles. And so it should be the aim of every student to knock down one or two bricks of that wall by virtue of his own accomplishment.” (Charles R. Drew papers, 2012) His greatest accomplishment was to break down large racial barriers in the STEM fields that stopped contributions to healthcare and public health, and to assist other contributors to add their knowledge, wisdom, and experience to the field. Without this pioneer of African American rights, who can say where the healthcare field would