Risk is a delicate and dangerous matter, but sometimes for the sake of saving oneself or loved ones, people are ready to do a lot. Doctors often find themselves on the front lines of the fight for human life. In 1832, young doctor Andrey Wolf performed a unique and quite risky operation.

While working as an obstetrician in a St. Petersburg hospital, he received a call to a woman in labor who was bleeding profusely. The woman was on the brink of death, and her husband begged the doctors to do everything possible to save her. The chances were slim, but Andrey Martynovich suggested taking the risk, recalling a scientific experiment he had seen while studying in England: blood transfusion. This was dangerous, as it had not been done in Russia yet, and at that time, they did not know about different blood types. Wolf decided to proceed, took blood from the woman's husband, and successfully transfused it to the woman, who survived.

However, this unique operation was forgotten for many years. Some scientists of that time even claimed that such a thing had not occurred in Russia. Andrey Wolf, relying on the support of his scientific supervisor Stepan Khotovitsky, often debated with well-known doctors. He opposed blood transfusions from animals to humans, supported the use of syringes that prevent blood from coming into contact with air, and argued that the tubes of transfusion devices should not be filled with water. These ideas were confirmed by years of practice.

According to available data, Wolf performed six blood transfusions on different people, but their condition remains unknown. Wolf's correctness was proven several decades later, but his opponents never learned of it. Nevertheless, the exact address of the first blood transfusion in Russia has been preserved in history: St. Petersburg, Lermontovsky Prospect, 9.