THE TULANE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
NEW ORLEANS 13
SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
May 20, 1949
Dear Dr. Pauling:
I have your letter of May 10 concerning additional sickle cell anemia blood. There
are several points that are not clear.
Do you wish 1000 cc. sent at one time or would, it be satisfactory to send units of
100 cc. as the patients appear in the hospital? What is the smallest unit which would
be satisfactory for your work? As you know, some of these patients are children
and are suffering from anemia, making it therefore impossible to bleed them too much
at one time.
How should this be shipped? Do you have containers which you can send to us or should
we purchase a certain type ourselves? Must the blood be stored in a cool atmosphere
or will the temperatures which might be encountered on an airplane alter the blood
unduly? The answers to these and other questions which might come to your mind would
be helpful before we begin shipments. We could send the blood via Air Express, which
would put it in your hands early the next morning, if it left New Orleans around noon.
Are there any times when you wish to receive the shipments and other times when it
would not be advisable, such as on weekends or holidays?
I have already discussed this problem with other members of the Department, and I
am sure we can supply you with shipments of blood. We shall look through our files
to find the patients with active sickle cell anemia in New Orleans and call them in
for donations.
I am certainly happy to know that your work is going along so nicely and surely
we would like to do anything we can to help this project. As soon as we have the
answers to the above questions, I will see that shipments begin immediately. Best
wishes to you and Mrs. Pauling and your family.
Yours sincerely,
G. E. BURCH, M. D.
1:2
Dr. Linus Pauling
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena 4, California
