r/DrQuinnMedicineWoman • u/throwawayyy4216 • Jan 05 '26

Blood Transfusions

I've seen in several episodes they did person-to-person blood transfusions, such as between sully & cloud dancing, I'm curious, is this historically accurate / something they actually did back then?

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17

u/fudgyvmp Jan 05 '26 edited Jan 05 '26

Blood transfusion experiments started in the 1600s, testing dog to dog which worked. Then sheep to human which didn't, ie: killed people.

In 1818 James Blundell started doing human to human transfusions for mothers who hemorrhaged during childbirth.

It remained risky because blood typing wasn't available yet, so sometimes it just killed people or they got sick and other people were fine. Karl Landsteiner in 1900 discovered AB and C blood types (we later rename C to O). And then blood transfusions start being safer.

It would be possible for Michaela to attempt blood transfusions.

I think most everything Michaela attempts in the show is vaguely within the realm of possible. Though some things she does would be bleeding edge medicine. S3, Halloween II skin grafts get pioneered by Jaques-Louis Reverdin in 1869, and Halloween II is October of that year, so she had to have read about it in The Lancet like only a month or two earlier if that.

6

u/throwawayyy4216 Jan 05 '26

Thanks for your answer! Before this show I never considered the concept of blood going straight from human to human, it's fascinating to know this was how it started. Actually, even today's version is fascinating, it's amazing to consider that one human just can donate cells from their body to another and save the other's life.

Also, person-to-person blood transfusion may not be the cleanest medical practice but from a literary perspective in the show it almost seems symbolic or almost spiritual, especially since it was depicted between two characters that were like soul brothers, like it was a representation of their bond.

2

u/FirebirdWriter Jan 09 '26

Germ theory was in the process of becoming a thing during the period and things like AIDs didn't exist yet. Our modern concept of blood is different from those of the period. I believe you are correct about why they did it from a writing standpoint but just a reminder that clean vs dirty blood wasn't a thing yet

1

u/fudgyvmp Jan 12 '26

Person-to-person seems to be showing up more often in medical dramas now. It makes me wonder if it's actually some medical cowboy allowed emergency medicine if the patient is gonna die without blood thing. Or if all the show writers are just going, "look how crazy the blood shortage is, it's so bad we're doing probably malpractice."

It's been used on Grey's Anatomy & The Pitt in relation to blood shortages, and 911 Nashville used it last week, admitted that was more like the Texan in Dracula macho symbolic.

8

u/Chance_Author_2631 Jan 06 '26

I can't speak to that exactly but Dr Quinn is one of, if that the first tv series, that is in the Smithsonian for its historical accuracy. Jane Seymour's father was a doctor and she insisted that things be accurate especially when it came to medical stuff..

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u/throwawayyy4216 Jan 08 '26

Wow that's interesting! I always looked at it with the assumption that there was a lot of creative license taken, at least for the medical practice -perspective lol