Word: plasma
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...atom bomb should hit a big U.S. city, the lives of more than 100,000 injured might be saved by prompt transfusions of blood, blood plasma or proper plasma substitutes. Under present conditions, nearly all these people would die. There is not enough blood, plasma or substitutes. Researchers are now looking frantically for acceptable and plentiful substitutes for plasma. Most injuries caused by atomic bombs (wounds, burns, radiation damage) result in loss of fluids from the blood vessels. The blood does not circulate properly, and the tissues, including the brain, do not get the oxygen and other supplies they need...
...simplest way is to administer dilute salt or glucose solution by vein. But the effect lasts only a short time. Blood plasma, the clear portion of human blood, is better. It contains protein molecules of a definite size and shape that keep it from leaking out of the blood vessels. An emergency plasma substitute needs some harmless substance with the same sort of molecules. Several such substances, including gelatin, Dextran (a complex sugarlike compound) and PVP (polyvinyl pyrrolidone), a synthetic made from acetylene, do the job to some extent, but none is both plentiful and entirely satisfactory. Okra for Shock...
...plasma substitutes offer the danger of putting large amounts of foreign matter into the blood. If they damage some organ, the ill effects may not show up for years-so doctors like to be careful. Plasma substitutes would have to be used in case of an atom-bomb attack, but experts would prefer real plasma, or better yet, whole blood...
Last week Dr. Granirer gave striking evidence to the Society of Medical Jurisprudence that his hunch had paid off. A healthy woman after a normal delivery can readily spare some blood; from each volunteer, Dr. Granirer took about seven ounces. The plasma was pooled and about half a pint given to bedridden arthritis victims. After a few weekly transfusions, each recipient gained weight, lost pain and swelling, felt better in every way. By way of proof, Dr. Granirer showed movies of former cripples jumping rope...
...Granirer has had 24 arthritics under treatment with postpartum plasma, half of them for two years. He has learned to cut the plasma dosage to 200 cc. and to reduce the number of treatments. Patients do not need to be hospitalized. The plasma takes longer (a month or two) than ACTH or cortisone to produce benefits. But the effects of the plasma, he believes, also last longer; relapses (which are often cruelly severe after hormone treatments) usually can be prevented by three or four transfusions a year. Best of all, says Dr. Granirer, he has not had a single case...