Quick Facts
- NAME: Charles Drew
- OCCUPATION: Doctor, Surgeon
- BIRTH DATE: June 03, 1904
- DEATH DATE: April 01, 1950
- EDUCATION: Amherst College, McGill University, Columbia University
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Washington, D. C.
- PLACE OF DEATH: Burlington, North Carolina
Best Known For
Charles R. Drew was an African-American surgeon who pioneered methods of storing blood plasma for transfusion.
Charles Drew. (2012). Biography.com. Retrieved 12:17, Feb 09, 2012 from http://www.biography.com/people/charles-drew-9279094
Charles Drew [Internet]. 2012. http://www.biography.com/people/charles-drew-9279094, February 09
" Charles Drew." 2012. Biography.com 09 Feb 2012, 12:17 http://www.biography.com/people/charles-drew-9279094
' Charles Drew', Biography.com,(2012) http://www.biography.com/people/charles-drew-9279094 [accessed Feb 09, 2012]
" Charles Drew," Biography.com, http://www.biography.com/people/charles-drew-9279094 (accessed Feb 09, 2012).
Charles Drew [Internet]. Biography.com; 2012 [cited 2012 Feb 09]. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/charles-drew-9279094.
Charles Drew, http://www.biography.com/people/charles-drew-9279094 (last visited Feb 09, 2012).
Charles Drew, http://www.biography.com/people/charles-drew-9279094 (last visited Feb 09, 2012).
Synopsis
Profile
(born June 3, 1904, Washington, D.C., U.S.—died April 1, 1950, near Burlington, N.C.) African American physician and surgeon who was an authority on the preservation of human blood for transfusion.Drew was educated at Amherst College (graduated 1926), McGill University, Montreal (1933), and Columbia University (1940). While earning his doctorate at Columbia in the late 1930s, he conducted research into the properties and preservation of blood plasma. He soon developed efficient ways to process and store large quantities of blood plasma in “blood banks.” As the leading authority in the field, he organized and directed the blood-plasma programs of the United States and Great Britain in the early years of World War II, while also agitating the authorities to stop excluding the blood of African Americans from plasma-supply networks.
Drew resigned his official posts in 1942 after the armed forces ruled that the blood of African Americans would be accepted but would have to be stored separately from that of whites. He then became a surgeon and professor of medicine at Freedmen's Hospital, Washington, D.C., and Howard University (1942–50). He was fatally injured in an automobile accident in 1950.
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