Do you know your blood type?

[Nude_Dude]

This thread had me wondering why we have different blood types, when we’re basically the exact same carbon copy as everyone else.

My local veterinarian has two of her own large dogs at her clinic, just in case any "patient" needs an emergency transfusion.
ALL dogs have ONE blood type.

 

[opinterph]

I'm assuming if I need a transfusion at any time, I'll initially be given the universally compatible type (the name escapes me) till my group is established.

It is rare to use the universal donor type, because that would deplete it from the reserve that is maintained for surgeries or other needs of persons who have that same relatively rare type. In the case of a major injury, a hospital may infuse many units into a single patient. I have seen cases that involved hundreds of units. The hospital will summon additional units from the local distribution center and/or from nearby hospitals to meet the need. Hospitals that offer emergency services typically have a reasonable reserve of each type available, as well as other units that have already been crossmatched for other patients for use in pending surgeries or procedures. They will use those (already pledged) units for emergencies as needed, with the realization that new units must then be obtained and then re-screened (crossmatched) for the pending procedures. The universal donor type can be used as a stop-gap in the early part of a major trauma, but it is not difficult to determine a patient's blood type very quickly, thus blood that is administered is almost always type-specific -- even when there isn't time to perform a complete crossmatch.

 

[NotHardUp1]

Thanks for that, dude - though this "match type exactly when possible" doesn't seem high on the priority list by medical authorities.
At least this is how I read it ?

I was just told that, as it may just be best practices. Opi's post explains some of the reasons.

 

[NotHardUp1]

My local veterinarian has two of her own large dogs at her clinic, just in case any "patient" needs an emergency transfusion.
ALL dogs have ONE blood type.

If you read Alistair's linked article in this thread, you'll see that early attempts at transfusions tried animal blood, and later, even included milk in human blood.

It took a lot of deaths to understand that the clotting was caused by or blood groups.

One shudders when one contemplates these early experimental victims, which were already critically ill with little chance of living, but still.