Nine pints of blood give near tragedy happy ending

              James Howard Berry, 29-year-old Chalmette laborer, is alive today because nine kind-hearted persons donated blood to the Charity hospital blood bank.
When Berry, who accidentally shot himself, in the abdomen, arrived at Charity, he seemed more dead than alive.
It took nine pints of blood and two pints of blood plasma to save his life. And the average human body contains only about 10 pints of blood.
ALMOST BEAD
Berry, who lives in Lumber-ton, Miss., was visiting relatives in Chalmette when the accident occurred. The bullet went through the large vein in the abdomen which returns the blood to the heart. It also perforated   the   small   intestine. ,
"By the time he reached the emergency room he was essentially dead," explained Dr. Glenn Kokame, senior resident of surgery at Charity. "He had a heart beat; but no pulse, no blood pressure. There was practically no blood left in his blood vessels,"
Dr. Kokame, who heads a team of hospital surgeons, said two pints of blood plasma were administered immediately. This
was followed up by two more pints of blood. And, he added, the patient was still having blood pumped into him as he was rolled into surgery.
After the initial two pints of blood, he received seven additional pints.
DIFFICULT SURGERY
"Within half an hour after his arrival at Charity hospital, he was on the operating table," Dr. Kokame said.
Tuesday Berry was not only alive, he was ready to go home, J3efore leaving the hospital, however, he went to the blood bank to express his appreciation.
Commenting on the operation, Dr. Robert Ryan, assistant professor of surgery at the Tulane university medical school, said "it represented a very difficult piece of surgery because the abdomen was filled with blood."
"All the blood had drained into the abdomen," he explained. "This made it hard for the surgeons to find the bleeding points. When these bleeding points were finally located the surgeons discovered there were two holes in the vein, one in front and one behind where the bullet had gone through. This is a difficult area tp expose. It-
is also a difficult area in which to work,"
BLOOD NEEDED
Drv Ryan said that the resident surgeons at Charity should be commended for the promptness and efficiency with which they handled this emergency case, which was brought to the hospital in the wee hours of October 24..He-said."without such care and promptness the patient most certainly would have died."
Dr. Ryan said "since any person, critically injured in New Orleans, is apt to be brought to Charity hospital it is imperative that we have blood on hand in the blood bank at all times."
"The blood bank at Charity," he explained, "depends entirely on volunteers. Each person un* dergoing surgery who receives blood is supposed to donate some of their own" blood in re« turn following their recovery. But not all of them do."
Dr. Ryan said now that sup* geons at Tulane university and Louisiana State  University medical schools are doing a great deal of open heart surgery, the demands on the blood bank art greater than ever before,
'It wouldn't do to run out of blood" he added.