Daily Survival Guide

Today's Hero
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On this day in 1937, Dr. Bernard Fantus established the nation's first blood bank at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. Drawing on previous work with anticoagulants and preservatives, Fantus utilized the innovation of refrigeration, creating a storage facility for blood drawn from healthy living persons to be used in blood transfusions.

Fantus was a professor of pharmacology and therapeutics at the University of Illinois College of Medicine for almost 40 years; his chief area of study was on the cooperation between physicians and pharmacists. During his long career, Fantus also developed a plan for a convalescent park near Cook County Hospital and was the editor of the Merck Manual, the world's oldest continually published medical reference book.