Medicine: Blood Strained

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Russell Morrison Evans, Jr., 15, coasting down a Pittsburgh hill, saw that he was about to slide into a pole. He threw himself from the sled, crashed into another pole. Something seemed to break within his abdomen. At Homeopathic Medical & Surgical Hospital where his doctor father took him, x-rays showed that he had ruptured his spleen.

The spleen, or milt, is a ductless gland 2½ by 4½ in. lying under the lower left ribs. It does not seem to have any particular secretion like other ductless glands, its value to the body is not well understood. In unborn children its chief duty seems to be to help make red blood cells. Destroying worn-out and useless blood cells seems to be its prime function after birth. It may be cut out with apparently only transient inconvenience to the person. When ruptured it must come out quickly.

When Dr. Fred Simon Morris, colleague of Dr. Evans, opened the boy's abdomen, it was a cistern of blood. Had there been anyone handy with blood suitable for transfusion the blood in Junior Evans' abdomen could have been sponged up, thrown away. With no suitable donor ready, autotransfusion was essential.

Scooping up a person's lost blood and putting it back into his veins is a risky procedure. The blood may clot. Blood cells may be injured. Germs may get into the fluid. But in emergency such blood may be strained through gauze and mixed with a solution of sodium citrate. Able Surgeon Morris did this, as he had done in emergencies before. Junior Evans' blood pressure became almost normal before he left the operating table. Last week he was on the way to recovery.