Prescription for Life (American National Red Cross, 1954)

Describes the work of the American Red Cross National Blood Service. (League Film Library Catalogue, 1965, p. 34)

The film was passed by the Committee on Medical Motion Pictures of the American College of Surgeons in 1954.

00:00 Opening titles.
00:46 Introduction to the narrator, a family doctor; one of his patients gives birth but then has a haemorrhage and needs an urgent blood transfusion; blood available thanks to the American Red Cross blood programme and voluntary blood donors.
03:36 Father decides to give blood after the blood transfusion saved his wife’s life.
04:40 Processing, testing, and checking of blood in regional blood centres; storage in local hospital blood banks.
05:50 Some examples of how blood transfusions save lives: emergency transfusion of serum albumen after a serious industrial accident; exchange transfusion on a Rhesus baby; transfusion of serum albumen to combat major burns patient; transfusion prior to surgery; transfusions to treat car accident victims.
09:00 Separation of whole blood to extract plasma; further processing into blood derivatives, including serum albumen, gamma globulin, fibrinogen, and red blood cells.
13:57 Father decides to become an annual blood donor.
14:25 Closing titles.

Film produced with the assistance of the staff of the Hartford Hospital in Connecticut, USA.

Year: 1954
Language: English
Country: USA

Script: Lawrence Ravitz
Camera: Larry Williams and Dan Cavelli
Narrator: Mel Brandt
Director: Alex Leftwich
Executive Producer: Herbert R. Dietz
Producer: William J. Ganz Company
Sponsor: E. R. Squibb & Sons, a division of Olin Mathieson Chemical Corp.
Copyright: American National Red Cross

Duration: 14:30 minutes
Original format: 16mm colour acetate film with optical sound. Digitised in 2022. Normalised audio, applied noise reduction, added audio fade out at end, and brightened image slightly before upload.
File name: c00593.mp4

League Film Library No. 209; ID No. 2048 Component Number 324; c00593

This film has been published with the kind permission of the American Red Cross.

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