Hospitals Around The World Have A Dire Shortage Of Blood
The first global analysis of blood supply and demand finds that many developing countries are relying on risky emergency donations.
When Claude Tayou Tagny was a young medical student on a rotation through clinics in rural Cameroon, he treated a woman during a difficult childbirth. She had lost, by his estimate, at least three pints of blood, triple the normal amount for childbirth and equal to roughly 30% of her total blood volume.
Tagny, with no supply of blood on hand, did the only thing he could: put out a call to the woman's family for emergency donations. He was only able to raise one pint.
"It was not enough," he says. The baby survived, but the woman did not.
It wasn't the last time , now a hematologist
