Do you know your blood type?

[bluedana]

I am A+, boring and common. I found out in high school during the circulartory systems unit, forgot until I tried to give blood in college, and it came up when I was having children.

I cannot donate blood because my hematocrit is never high enough (it floats in the solution) and because I spent my junior year of college in abroad in the UK in 1987-88.

But I will be eternally grateful to the persons who donated the 4 units of blood and 2 units of platelets I received in December. Whoever you all were, you saved my life. Thanks.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

BTW, just to note, if you donate blood with no problem you might consider donating platelets or other parts. It takes longer to do but it is just as easy, especially these days. Most places will do the procedure using only one arm as opposed to two like they use to.

I barely qualify for the weight requirements to donate blood, so I think I'm underweight for platelets (they had a slightly different weight requirement). It's a shame because they were specifically asking for people with O+ and O- blood.

 

[Holdfast]

Like others have said, for anyone receiving proper medical care, there's really no reason to know, as you'll always be cross-matched if you need blood. If it's a major emergency and it can't wait for the cross-matching, they'll chuck O-neg in you as it's a universal donor type in those situations. There's always a couple of units swilling around in a fridge somewhere in the ER. At least, there used to be in my day, I don't know if they've got quick enough at cross-matching to avoid this emergency need nowadays. ZR or StolenThunder will be able to tell you what happens these days, I'm sure.

They still use stored type O- blood in situations such as obstetric emergencies. However, nowadays with the advent of electronic issuing of blood (useful only if there are no known atypical antibodies in that patient), and with fully trained ward staff ensuring that no mistakes are made (because for all intents and purposes, human errors are pretty much the commonest causes of blood transfusion reactions), then in the majority of cases blood typing is less likely to be a limiting factor in the issuing of blood units to a patient, and in most cases the blood you receive will be your exact ABO/Rh match - although I have seen in a few cases in the past that the compatibility rules have applied: a patient receiving type O- blood just because it is available and almost about to expire, for instance.

Is it really all done electronically nowadays? That's progress, I guess. I remember having to fill out the forms, and getting calls from haematology lab techs complaining that "details didn't match" between bottles and card, etc, etc. Fucking bane of my life back when I was responsible for this sort of thing, because if you couldn't verbally authorise the match, you had to go down to the dungeon that was the lab to confirm and countersign.

What's the most plentiful and rarest kinds of blood out there?

Varies a bit from country to country, but O+ is generally most common and AB- the rarest. As another general rule, being postive for Rhesus factor D is more common than being negative.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I remember having to fill out the forms, and getting calls from haematology lab techs complaining that "details didn't match" between bottles and card, etc, etc. Fucking bane of my life back when I was responsible for this sort of thing, because if you couldn't verbally authorise the match, you had to go down to the dungeon that was the lab to confirm and countersign.

It is a pain, but it is still a necessary safeguard - matching name, DOB, hospital number, NHS number/address - because this is how mistakes happen.

 

[Holdfast]

I remember having to fill out the forms, and getting calls from haematology lab techs complaining that "details didn't match" between bottles and card, etc, etc. Fucking bane of my life back when I was responsible for this sort of thing, because if you couldn't verbally authorise the match, you had to go down to the dungeon that was the lab to confirm and countersign.

It is a pain, but it is still a necessary safeguard - matching name, DOB, hospital number, NHS number/address - because this is how mistakes happen.

Oh you still have to do it that way then ? I thought when you said electronically that maybe they used rfid or barcodes or something like that to avoid the need to write all the details down nowadays.

And yeah, I can see the need. I just didn't like being the one having to bother with it.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

I remember having to fill out the forms, and getting calls from haematology lab techs complaining that "details didn't match" between bottles and card, etc, etc. Fucking bane of my life back when I was responsible for this sort of thing, because if you couldn't verbally authorise the match, you had to go down to the dungeon that was the lab to confirm and countersign.

It is a pain, but it is still a necessary safeguard - matching name, DOB, hospital number, NHS number/address - because this is how mistakes happen.

Oh you still have to do it that way then ? I thought when you said electronically that maybe they used rfid or barcodes or something like that to avoid the need to write all the details down nowadays.

And yeah, I can see the need. I just didn't like being the one having to bother with it.

Well, it's still issued in the lab with matching barcodes (I think), but the initial crossmatching has to involve written details on the bottles - and they now insist the bottles are completed while you're with the patient - and checks of details with the blood product are still done by trained staff. And of course, to contact the blood bank you need to confirm the patient details - that goes without saying (bad choice of words not intended) - and in a few hospitals you also need to send down a hard copy of your request on a transfusion form.

 

[cultcross]

Given that the majority of HIV cases - and the vast majority of those that are detected early - are from MSM

An interesting quirk of the US, that. In most countries, heterosexual sex and unsafe needles have long overtaken homosexual sex as the leading cause of HIV infection; globally the figure is 85% heterosexual transmission. The US still shows about half of cases as MSM related. I've always found that odd. Is there more homosexual transmission in the US, or less heterosexual?

 

[propita]

I've never donated blood--though with my recent health issues, they regularly take 4-5 vials at a time. About every 2 months or so. Last time was 5 vials--I was pretty light-headed for a bit.

Hubby (a big guy and 6' 1") passed out the first and only time he donated blood--and again when he badly cut his thumb and lost a quantity. He's been told not to donate.

 

[Beef Squatthrust]

O-Neg I donate blood when I remember to and can fit it into my schedule. I should do this more often though...

 

[DBR]

No idea.

Where I come from, they check the blood of every kid going into public school and give you a little wallet card that says your blood type on it. So yeah, I know. Everyone I know, knows.

Do you know if there was a specific reason they did this? Seems expensive and, well, unnecessary.

 

[maneth]

A+. Everyone who's been pregnant in my country should know. I lost 1.5 liters (nearly 3 pints) of blood during labor and barely avoided a transfusion. My hemoglobin wasn't quite low enough!

 

[sbk1234]

O-. I probably wouldn't know that, but I used to give blood regularly.