the.com/transfusion
borrowed life, dripping in at room temperature because your veins hate the cold
means The transfer of blood, or a component of it, from one person or source into another's bloodstream, usually through a vein.
from Straight from Latin: transfusio, from transfundere, 'to pour across' — trans, 'across,' plus fundere, 'to pour' (the same source that gives us 'fuse' and 'fountain'). For centuries it just meant pouring any liquid from one vessel to another, which turns out to be a startlingly literal description of what doctors eventually did with veins.
- early attempts
- 17th-century doctors transfused sheep blood into humans
- type matters
- wrong blood type can be fatal in minutes
- shelf life
- donated blood lasts only about 42 days
- universal donor
- type O-negative works for nearly everyone
- daily need
- someone needs blood roughly every two seconds