Less than a century ago, patients requiring a blood transfusion (输血) (be) in a race against time. There was no (organize) network for people to donate blood, and because blood was difficult (preserve), there was no way to store it for future use. Patients had to find their own blood donors before it was too late.
In 1937, after inventing a technique for preserving blood for up to 10 days, physician Bernard Fantus set up nation's first "blood bank" at Chicago's Cook County Hospital. At about the same time, surgeon Charles R. Drew figured out a method for separating plasma (血浆) whole blood, and found that if whole blood wasn't necessary, blood transfusions could be (successful) performed with plasma alone. Plasma could be dried for long-term storage in blood banks. As World War II (break) out, Drew and the American Red Cross launched a program to collect donated plasma in the U.S. and ship it to Britain, essentially (create) a national system for blood donation. During the war, he worked with the Red Cross to set up "bloodmobiles" — mobile blood donation centers made sustaining blood banks more (practice).
