I have done the timeline work - I have been researching this subject heavily for the past 4 or 5 years - and I think that bloodless surgery did not arise from the JWs' demand for treatment, that demand only paved the way for existing interests to expand into what the blood management field is today. The blood ban was the vehicle that propelled the bloodless field of medicine - the JWs were the guinea pigs for the research required to develop technology that has been described as "The Golden Standard of Care" - a standard that blood management societies want to implement globally.
Blood management societies that owe their existence to the JWs who founded the very first blood management society of its kind - the Society for the Advancement of Blood Management.
This thread would make a great movie. "God's Guinea Pigs"