By Brian Carnell

Tuesday, February 12, 2002

While watching the History Channel's three-part documentary about D-Day, I was extremely disappointed when they ran a short segment about Dr. Charles Drew for Black History Month that repeated the urban legend that Drew died because he could not receive treatment at a segregated hospital after being involved in a car accident.

This is an urban legend that has been around for decades because of the irony of it all -- Drew advanced medical treatment by discovering that blood plasma could be stored without requiring refrigeration. Before Drew's discovery, there was no easy way to store blood, since even refrigerated blood will begin to deteriorate within a few weeks. Drew's finding saved countless lives, especially during World War II.

The urban legend typically has Drew involved in a car accident. He is taken to a whites-only hospital in need of a blood transfusion, but is denied because of the color of his skin and bleeds to death.

In fact, Drew did die as a result of injuries sustained in a car accident in April 1950, but doctors worked furiously for hours to try to save his life as his wife at the time confirmed and subsequent biographies of the man confirm.

This particular urban legend has gained currency, obviously, because of the reality that many hospitals in segregated parts of the South did refuse to treat African Americans and certainly there must have been people who would have survived were it not for this horrific policy. In some sense, then, the urban legend is metaphorically true, but I'd assume the History Channel might want to strive for actually true as well.

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