Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Blood transfusion was first performed in Sri Lanka in the late 1950s. It became more widely known to the public in 1959 with a news report announcing the assassination of late Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike. An appeal was made to the public to donate blood. Initially there was only one blood bank in Sri Lanka, confined to a room close to the surgical unit of the National Hospital of Sri Lanka (NHSL).