Dr. Charles Drew

Charles Drew – The Beginning Born June 3, 1904 in Washington, D.C. 1926 - Received B.A. from Amherst College Could have played sports professionally, chose to become a doctor instead

Charles Drew - Teacher 1926 – Worked for 2 years at Morgan State College in Baltimore as an instructor of Biology and Chemistry, he was also the Athletic Director 1928 – Entered McGill University Medical School in Montreal

Dr. Charles Drew – Medical School 1933 – Master of Surgery and Doctor of Medicine degrees and spent 2 years as an intern at Montreal General hospital 1935 – Went to Howard University Medical School and spent 3 years as an instructor in Pathology

Dr. Charles Drew – Researcher 1938 – Fellowship at Rockefeller Foundation Researched the preservation of blood and developed a technique for long term preservation of blood plasma Supervisor of the blood plasma division of the Blood Transfusion Society of NYC 1940 – Received a Doctor of Science in Medicine degree from Columbia, for his dissertation on “Banked Blood: A Study in Preservation” He was the 1st black person in America to receive this degree

Preserved Blood Blood Plasma

Dr. Charles Drew – WWII 1939 – Asked to establish a military blood bank program and collect blood for the British Army “Blood for Britain,” in preparation for WWII 1941 – Dr. Drew became the first Director of the American Red Cross Blood Bank in NYC, which was originally responsible for collecting blood for American soldiers

Dr. Charles Drew Tuskegee Airmen

Dr. Charles Drew – Resignation 1941 – Resigns his position as Director of the AMRC blood bank after the War Dept send out a directive stating that blood taken from White donors should not be mixed with blood taken from Black donors He called this a stupid blunder and said “the blood of individual human beings may differ by blood groupings, but there is absolutely no scientific basis to indicate any difference in human blood from race to race.”

Dr. Charles Drew - DEATH April 1, 1950 Dr. Drew was traveling to the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama to go to a medical meeting His car crashed in rural NC and died after sustaining massive injuries in the accident Urban Legend: Some sources say that he died because he was black and went to a white hospital and was denied the blood to save his life, however the real reason he died was due to the lack of seatbelts in the car which caused grave injuries during the crash that the small hospital he was taken to could not handle