Spain Bleeds: The Development of Battlefield Blood Transfusion during the Civil War

Palfreeman, Linda

Brossura

ISBN 10: 1845197186 ISBN 13: 9781845197186

Casa editrice: Sussex Academic Pr, 2016

War is sometimes mistakenly construed as the chief impetus for medical innovation. Nevertheless, military conflict obliges the implementation of discoveries still at an experimental stage. Such was the case with the practice of blood transfusion during the Spanish Civil War, when massive demand for blood provoked immediate recourse to breakthroughs in transfusion medicine not yet integrated into standard medical practice. The Spanish Civil War marked a new era in blood transfusion medicine. Frederic Duran Jorda and Carlos Elosegui Sarasoles, directors, respectively, of the blood transfusion services of the Republican Army and of the insurgent forces, were innovators in the field of indirect blood transfusion with preserved blood. Not only had they to create transfusion services, almost from scratch, capable of supplying campaigning armies with blood in wartime conditions, they also had to struggle against the medical establishment and to convince their medical peers of the value (not to mention the scientific significance) of what they were doing. The Blood Transfusion Service of the Republic was a truly international effort, with medical volunteers from all over the world carrying out transfusion work in primitive and often dangerous conditions. All took their lead from one man - the young Catalan haematologist, Frederic Duran Jorda, the indisputable pioneer of civil war blood transfusion medicine. From humble beginnings at the outbreak of war, blood transfusion services were created in Spain that would later become crucial in the treatment of casualties during the Second World War and would shape the future evolution of blood transfusion medicine throughout the developed world.

L'autore:

Linda Palfreeman is lecturer in journalism at the Cardenal Herrera University in Elche, Spain. She is the author of Aristocrats, Adventurers and Ambulances: British Medical Units in the Spanish Civil War and ¡Salud!: British Volunteers in the Republican Medical Service During the Spanish Civil War, 19361939. Linda Palfreeman is Lecturer in Journalism at the University of Cardenal Herrera, Elche, Spain. Her research on local aspects of the Spanish Civil War and of the International Brigades’ Medical Service resulted ¡Salud! British Volunteers in the Republican Medical Service during the Spanish Civil War, 19361939 (2012), followed by Aristocrats, Adventurers and Ambulances: British Medical Units in the Spanish Civil War (2013). Spain Bleeds, the final book in this informal trilogy, continues to provide long unavailable information on health care and medical assistance during wartime.