Who performed the first successful human-to-human blood transfusion in 1818?

James Blundell performed the first successful human-to-human blood transfusion in 1818.

Blundell was a British obstetrician who investigated transfusion as a possible treatment for severe bleeding after childbirth. Earlier transfusions often used animal blood, with frequently fatal results. Blundell instead used human blood and designed instruments, including a device called the impellor, to move blood from donor to patient.

The 1818 procedure involved a man suffering from life-threatening hemorrhage. Blundell transfused blood from several donors, and the patient temporarily improved. The patient later died from his underlying illness, but the procedure demonstrated that human blood could be transferred successfully between people.

Modern transfusion medicine depends on discoveries that came later. Karl Landsteiner identified the ABO blood groups in 1900, making compatibility testing much safer. Blundell’s achievement is therefore remembered as a pioneering proof of principle, not as the beginning of fully modern blood banking.