After Dr Soutter left his residencies in New York City , he settled back in Boston , his hometown . In 1940 Dr Soutter went to work at Massachusetts General Hospital ( MGH ) to assist on the surgical staff . With the outbreak of World War II , Dr Soutter believed that a blood bank was critical for civil defense . He solicited funds to pay for the equipment , and he and his staff created new techniques for blood filtration and purification . Patients were blood typed in advance of their operative procedures . Dr Soutter helped to create an elaborate system for managing blood and began work advertising for volunteer donors . When the Cocoanut Grove fire occurred in Boston in November 1942 , large amounts of stored plasma from the MGH blood bank played a major role in the treatment of the 500 injured
Cocoanut Grove fire
Cocoanut Grove fire
Lamar Soutter