Red Gold: The Epic Story of Blood

"Magic to Medicine" takes viewers from a time of ignorance -- when blood was viewed primarily as a key element of religious rituals and the stuff of myths -- to the end of the 19th century, when blood transfusions finally became safe and routine. Adding context to this portion of the story are segments on William Harvey, who discovered that blood circulates through the body, a startlingly revolutionary idea at the time; Dr. Karl Landsteiner, who discovered blood types; and haunting accounts and re-enactments of George Washington's death, which was accelerated by overzealous bloodletting.

New surgical techniques and the discovery of the efficacy of transfusions to treat hemophiliacs heightened the need for a national blood supply in the post-war years, and by the 1960s, a commercial branch of blood collection was booming in the U.S. Those who flocked to donate blood because of the financial incentive, many of whom were alcoholics and drug users, affected the safety of the blood supply. The result was the presence first of hepatitis then a mysterious new disease called AIDS in some of the blood products provided to surgery patients and hemophiliacs. RED GOLD's third episode devotes itself to this tragic chapter in the story of blood, an era in which the life-sustaining and life-saving substance came to be viewed as a deadly toxin.

The final episode chronicles 15 recent years in the history of blood, assessing the current state of its safety and posing compelling questions about its future. "New Blood" spotlights scientists searching for reliable safety measures; plaintiffs and defendants settling blood-related AIDS lawsuits in the U.S., Europe, and Japan; the growing fear of mad cow disease; and the status of blood safety in developing nations like India compared to the United States. The show travels back to look at the earliest known transfusion -- between a calf and a mentally ill Frenchman -- and moves forward to focus on the costly effort now underway to produce artificial blood.

"Blood and War" shows how blood science was accelerated by the needs of the battlefield. This episode journeys from the Spanish Civil War, the first time blood was collected, refrigerated, and carried onto the battlefield, to World War II, when the expectation of tremendous casualties inspired a massive blood drive effort. The stories of Dr. Charles Drew, an African American who headed the Plasma for Britain campaign, but was legally barred from donating blood in the U.S.; Sir Marmaduke Hussey, a W.W. II soldier saved by a blood transfusion; and Dr. Janet Vaughan, who ran a blood transfusion service out of a London pub, are the elements of RED GOLD's second installment.