Patient having a blood tranfusion, London Hospital, Whitechapel Road, Whitechapel, Greater London
Two doctors giving a patient a blood tranfusion at the London Hospital. The earliest known blood transfusion was attempted in 1628. In 1665 the first successful blood transfusion was recorded, after a doctor transfused blood between dogs, but it was not until 1818 that the first successful transfusion of human blood was recorded. Both the discovery of human blood groups in 1901 and of the Rhesus blood group system in 1939 made transfusions far safer. Anticoagulants such as sodium citrate were found to preserve blood during WWI. Along with refrigeration, this made blood banks and blood transportation viable; previously, blood had to be transfused from donor to patient before coagulation.
