Norman Bethune, Eccentric, Man of Principle, Man of Action, Surgeon, and His Contribution to Blood Transfusion in War

Abstract

Norman Bethune was a Canadian surgeon born of a family with wide interests and varied and influential careers. He himself had wide interests in medicine, politics, and the arts. One phase of his career, lasting about 6 months, involved the rapid development and exploitation of a (then) unique mobile blood transfusion service delivering citrated stored blood to hospitals and casualty clearing stations in support of the Republican ("anti-fascist") forces in the Spanish Civil War in 1936 to 1937. He was among the first to recognize the importance of prompt transfusion in the severely injured. His contributions to transfusion medicine were not immediately acknowledged by his contemporaries interested in transfusion, perhaps a consequence of his failure to publish his experience in the relevant medical literature, although other factors probably also played a part. In the past 30 years or so, as part of a wider appreciation of his career (particularly his work in China in 1938-1939), details of his endeavors in transfusion in Spain have come to light.