March 29, 1933.
Dear Dr. DeBakey:
We wish to refer to our letter of March 16. We examined your blood transfusion very carefully and also read your letter very carefully.
The outfit is indeed very simple but the making of it is somewhat difficult. First of all, the same principle which you are using of the cylindrical valve has been used by Dr. George I. Miller of Brooklyn and was partly employed by Dr. Max Lederer of the Jewish Hospital in Brooklyn.
Both apparatuses are still used by the inventor and by some of their friends, but the sale has been very limited.
In the March 1933 issue of the American Journal of Surgery, on page 554, you will find a description of a blood transfusion apparatus which Dr. Victor Carabba has constructed. This apparatus employs practically the same principle as you do.
The great danger with all blood transfusion apparatuses which depend upon stopcocks, especially on cylindrical stopcocks such as you are using, is the danger of leaking between the outlet for the recipient and the outlet for the donor.
We wrote you in detail on November 21, 1932, and we repeat here again -- please don't spend any money on patents for your machine. I know every inventor feels that he has a "world winner" and realizes too late that the money spent was wasted.
We are still working on our own blood transfusion apparatus to improve it, and as soon as we feel that this apparatus has proven successful in a long series of clinical tests, we will send an outfit to Dr. Ochsner with our compliments and, no doubt, he will show it to you.
We feel indeed very sorry that we can't make send you any more encouraging news.
Please let us know if we shall return the apparatus direct to you or send it to somebody else.
Very truly yours,
Becton, Dickinson and Co.
Oscar Schwidetzky
Manager, Research Dept.