Word: plasma
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...available in Korea in carload lots, in suspensions which would stay in the system for many life-saving hours. Also on hand were aureomycin, Chloromycetin and Terramycin, often effective where penicillin fails. There was also whole blood, which the Army doctors used more & more in preference to plasma. The shipping and preservation were so efficient (it must be used within 21 days) that Dr. Meiling reported proudly : "Not one unit was lost during September by being outdated...
...things. There are the red cells, which contain oxygen-carrying hemoglobin and are used in transfusions for anemia.There are white cells, which rush to defend the system against bacterial invasion. There are the little-understood platelets, which help in clotting. Besides these solids, there is the amber fluid (plasma), which contains a score or more different components, some already being used in medicine, others still in the research stage. To separate these various fractions, preserve them and make them available for medical use is a vastly complex process...
...doctors, many of whom would be victims themselves, could not possibly handle the situation. Dentists, pharmacists, chemists would have to be trained to give emergency professional care. So would many plain civilians, who could be taught to perform one specific task-carrying litters, treating shock or burns, administering blood plasma...
...Miss Higgins, completely disregarding her own personal safety, voluntarily assisted by administering blood plasma to the many wounded as they were carried into the temporary Aid Station [which] was subjected to small arms fire through, out the attack . . . The Regimental Combat Team considers Miss Higgins' actions on that day as heroic ... in saving the lives of many grievously wounded...
...defense units can do plenty now. Civil defense headquarters and many of the police and fire-fighting forces should be scattered around the edges of a likely target area, not huddled in the middle. Emergency first-aid squads should be spotted everywhere. They will need an ocean of blood, plasma and plasma substitutes for transfusions. They will need a mountain of bandages to dress burns and other injuries. Buildings such as schools should be set aside as emergency hospitals. There must be plans for evacuating, sheltering and feeding the myriad homeless...