Charles Drew was a significant Black American surgeon who has been recognized for his contribution in the field of medicine. Charles Drew was born in 1904 in Washington D.C.His parents were Richard and Nora Burell. During his early schooling years, he worked as a paperboy and sold the copies of Washington- Times-Herald. The year 1918 so he join Dunbar High school. This school was at that time racially segregated and had a long reputation of accommodating most of the black students. Being born as an athlete, he participated in several activities and out of one of them he managed to earn a scholarship to study in Massachusetts. In 1920 the death of her sister came. She had been suffering from Tuberculosis. This has been described by most researchers as the impetus that drove him into studying medicine. The sister had succumbed to pandemic influenza. After his studies at Columbia University, he presented a dissertation that was named “Banked blood” This was later manifested in his career with blood plasma research. He was on record as the first black American to be awarded a doctor of science degree in medicine. For most of his life, he grew in the black American world.
His achievements in medicine started in 1940 when he was called on a program for collecting, testing and distributing blood in Great Britain. He was therefore the pioneer of blood plasma research and banking at the onset of the Second World War. By reaching this national status recognition, Dew was amongst the few Black American doctors with national prominence. His studies and research on blood plasma made a revolution in the process of blood transfusion and storage. Therefore he can be said to be the first person to have ever developed a blood bank in the world. Charles Drew was a prominent surgeon of great reputation during his era. His contribution in medicine was known in the arena of medical science. Though he was qualified in his field he was not a member of the American Medical Association. This can be attributed to the segregatory policies that he spoke against which discriminated Black Americans in many aspects of life.
According to Spencie , the death of Charles Drew was untimely in 1950. It was as a result of the injuries he sustained during a car accident as they were driving to the south him along side his friend doctors. They were headed for a medical conference in Tuskegee institute. During the accident his colleagues gave him attention before he was taken to hospital. He had sustained internal injuries as observed by the colleagues because he was not bleeding from his wounds.
After the accident the injured including Drew were taken to Alamance General Hospital which was owned and controlled by white doctors. Black doctors had not set foot in the hospital. The hospital had forty eight beds and five out of this number could be occupied by black patients. The five beds were located in two small rooms in the basemen. It was a racially segregated hospital and served mainly the white patients.
He then succumbed to the severe injuries while under treatment in the hospital. According to Specie, Drew was attended to by white doctors before he died in the emergency room as his condition worsened. According to Specie, the white doctors tried their best but they could not save Drews life because of the fatal injuries he sustained in the brain and other main body tissues. At the time they arrived at the hospital Drew was taken to the Emergency room and was left in the hands of only white doctors who were treating him. Ford was treated in the hospital and was assigned in one of the rooms reserved for the black patients in the hospital.
Specie Love therefore argues that the legend surrounding Charles Drews death is has no truth in its facts. This is because, though Charles Drew was admitted in a segregated hospital that was dominated by the whites, when he arrived at the hospital the doctors in charge were notified that it was Drew who they were treating. They therefore did all they could to save his life. The widow to Charles Drew had written to the doctors who attended to her late husband thanking them for their kindness and effort they made to save her husbands life. Rumors went round that his death was due to the refusal by the white doctors to attend to him. Some peddled rumors that it was actually lack of blood that caused his death.
The death of Charles Drew coincided with that of Maltheus Avery. He was a black student North Carolina A & T State College. His death was a result of a fatal car accident in Alamance County. This occurred in the same year that Charles Drew died from yet another automobile accident just eight months after the untimely death of Charles Drew. After the accident, Avery was taken to Duke University hospital which had five beds for the black people. This hospital was characterized by segregation and had beds set aside for the black patients. Avery was not admitted at this hospital because of the fact that the capacity for black patients in terms of bed space was full. He was then quickly taken to a less equipped black hospital in Durham where he succumbed to the injuries in just a few minutes of admission. The death of Maltheus Avery and Charles Drew involved the same circumstances because the two went through a similar accident and were taken to hospitals having similar segregate policies against the black community in the United States. The death of Maltheus Avery therefore is intertwined with that of Charles Drew because both of them sparked rumor and criticism of the existing situation of racism and segregation that was blamed for the untimely deaths.
The legendary story of Charles Drews death was told during the early 1950s in hospitals and at the university where he worked. In the media the story also gained prominence with every one telling his or her version. The legend has significance especially for the black Americans because it is a representation of the state of affairs during the times of Drew and the current situation in America today. During those times racial segregation was a major issue that affected the blacks in the United States. Civil rights movements made use of the legend to try and end segregation in the country. Therefore to them the legend the of Charles Drews death can be looked from the perspective of shading more light on the multiracial nature of life during the era.
Reference
Spencie Love, John Hope Franklin, (1996) One Blood, The death and Resurrection of Charles R. Drew. Drew Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.