Plasma: The medical breakthrough that saved lives on D Day

it's the 80th anniversary of D Day, and unlike many battles of that war, I didn't have relatives who fought there.

However, one of my teachers in medical school was there working with the blood banks that supplied plasma (and later whole blood), a breakthrough that saved many lives from hemorrhagic shock.

LINK

The survival rate among those who were not killed outright, however, was far greater than anyone might have thought possible. It was estimated that ninety-six survived out of every one hundred wounded. ...

“The foremost lifesaver,” the general declared, “is plasma, the dried blood extract which millions of Americans have been giving the Red Cross for nearly two years. Plasma saved shock and bleeding, and without that many men would have died before they could have reached medical care.

Second in lifesaving was surgery, which cleaned up the wounds to reduce risk of infection. In third place were the sulfa drugs, aiding to minimize infection.”