We have known for some time that blood can be transfused to those who need it. The blood must be collected from healthy donors and stored with great care. It is tested for the presence of any infectious diseases, and typed to determine its immune character so that it can be properly matched with a recipient. Once a call comes for a particular type of blood it is swiftly transported to the place of use.
Modern techniques allow us to separate some of the blood into its parts, such as red cells, platelets, plasma and clotting factors. We can deliver just the parts that the patient may need. In this way, a single donor may help more than one recipient. More recently we have learned to collect only certain portions of the blood such as the plasma, the white cells or the platelets from special donors through a process called apheresis. Finally, we have learned to replace the entire blood-making mechanism within the bone marrow through bone marrow or stem cell transplantation for those with particularly life-threatening diseases.
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