Chapter 01: A New Idea and A Controversy: Transfusing Platelets in Leukemia Patients

Dr. Freireich begins this chapter by explaining the origin of his first name, J . Next, he describes how he worked with pediatric patients in the fifties, noting that he would see blood sprays on the walls of childrens\u27 hospital rooms from their hemorrhages. This led to his decision to treat the patients with massive doses of platelets. Dr. Freireich gives detailed accounts of the patients\u27 physiology, the technical challenges to overcome when giving patients blood from donors (as opposed to a bank blood), as well as the clinical trails he ran to determine the treatment\u27s efficacy. Dr. Freireich explains in very dramatic terms, how treating leukemia patients was influenced by confrontations between those who advocated for laboratory over clinical research, as well as by intra-institutional political conflicts. What results is a full and realistic portrait of how scientific and clinical paradigms shift in complex social/political contextshttps://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/1020/thumbnail.jp