The contribution of Ruscoe Clarke and his team to knowledge relevant to blood loss after injury

The major contributions of Ruscoe Clarke, made between 1947 and 1959 at the Birmingham Accident Hospital, are recalled. He and his team measured the red cell volumes. By these and other means we estimated the average blood loss from a series of civilian injuries. It was found that the lowest haemoglobin level 4–14 days after injury was a useful clue in retrospect of the degree to which blood lost had been replaced by blood transfusion. We showed that early transfusion of the correct volume of whole blood appeared to lead to the best chance of quick and full recovery from serious injury.

We stressed the need to assess the blood transfusion requirement more precisely.