I recently received a letter from the NHS saying that a patient who received donated blood products containing part of my donation had a reaction which seems to have been caused by blood grouo incompatibility.
I was requested to send some blood samples in for further testing, which I did yesterday. Apparently the tests take 2 months, and could result in my being barred from further donations.
What’s the story here, and what are the chances I will be barred from donating permanently?
Whats a TRALI?
At the top of the letter it says this is a TRALI case. checking out the acronym gives
Transfusion related acute lung injury
That sucks. I have been banned from donating, after giving over 2 gallon of blood over the years. It seems some protein in my blood triggers an HIV test, which then means they either throw the blood away or they have to do more expensive tests and then contact me to explain the situation, all of which results in my blood not being worth the trouble. I contacted the Red Cross a couple of years ago and they tell me I should continue to eschew giving. I can’t even check the donate organs box on my drivers license.
The whole thing is kind of scary at first - “oh my God, I’ve got some terrible disease” - but I think this is fairly common. Having to send in samples seems unusual though.
Well, I can’t donate either - being stationed in Europe for two years in the mid-1990s makes me ineligible because of the mad-cow scare.
Nothing can be done about it but just not donate - and I used to donate all of the time.
I know this! Are you female?
There is a new question on the screening questionnaire, not relevant to me because I’m a guy, but I asked about it. The nurse said they are no longer collecting plasma from women due to some kind of reaction affecting some patients’ lungs. It has something to do with anti-bodies produced when women are pregnant. So there is a temporary moratorium for plasma donations for women.
I told my sister (a regular donor too) and she followed up. The nurse said that pending further study, some women may be elligible for plasma donation in the future. (Since my sister is gay and has no plans on having kids, she would be a likely candidate since she’s never been pregnant and likkely never will be.)
I’ll try to find the details of the study.
ETA: Here is the info from Blood Services Canada. Antibodies passed on to someone with incompatible proteins can cause a TRALI in the recipient. The antibodies commonly occur in women who have had multiple pregnancies or people who’ve been the recipients of blood transfusions in the past. Most TRALI’s are associated with plasma and platelet products, but sometimes these are derived from whole blood donations.
Nope male.
more specifically, untransfused male, so on all I have read on this, I have no idea why I am being tested.
That is pretty weird then.
But if the patient received more than one unit or a plasma/platelet product made from multiple units of whole blood, they’d be receiving blood from more than one donor. Maybe they are tracking all donations related to that particular patient.
The Blood Services site said that they’ll still be using donations from female donors but those will go on to be made into products that go through a process that neutralizes the problem antibodies. So I would guess that if your body somehow has the offending components, they’ll just send your stuff in to a similar neutralizing program.
ETA: Do follow-up though. I’d be curious to find out what the results are. Like it would b interesting if the antibodies were passed on to you from your mom or something.
This sounds like a phishing scam - they’re probably just trying to get your blood bank account number.
That’s dreadful.
Really, bloody awful.