# Does blood transfusion between different blood types work? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 6, 2014, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-blood-transfusion-between-different-blood-types-work/694916 "2014-08-06T02:44:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2014, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-blood-transfusion-between-different-blood-types-work/694916/21 "2014-08-06T19:56:06Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Yeah, I did similar experiments back in college, using limpet antibody proteins as an antigen in BALB-C mice. But you’ve got to have creatures pretty far apart, different families at least, if not different orders. Not in the same species, except by very bizarre chance. > > I think. You can use rat and mouse antibodies simultaneously, with anti-rat and anti-mouse conjugated to different fluors, and it works pretty well, though there is usually a bit of cross-reactivity. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2014, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-blood-transfusion-between-different-blood-types-work/694916/22 "2014-08-06T23:01:00Z")
Even for non-emergent needs, the lab can type and cross in just a few minutes. Last year, my husband needed a couple transfusions to compensate for chemotherapy-induced anemia. The infusion center staff would draw a tube, send it down on the dumbwaiter and 15-20 minutes later, two bags of blood came up. Just in case there were any stray things to react to, they’d give him a tylenol and a benadryl when they drew the blood, so it would be “on board” so to speak once the blood transfusion was started. [QUOTE=Spiff] But in the U.S., whole blood donors cannot be paid for donating, although I got a T-shirt last month when I donated. And they also wanted to enter me in a drawing to win a 4-wheel ATV. I declined, as I don’t want to win such a vehicle. [/QUOTE] Perhaps they wanted you back as a customer, rather than as a supplier? 😛 The Red Cross was at my previous office campus every week, hoping to tap a few of the 8,000 or so people in the building. Every so often, when supply was getting low, they’d put out bribes like “A pint for a pint” where you’d get a coupon for a pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. Unfortunately, I tick off a couple of the Red Cross’ donor exclusions, so no free ice cream for me. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2014, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-blood-transfusion-between-different-blood-types-work/694916/23 "2014-08-06T23:24:20Z")
> [@guesswhoiam](#): > > Why does it say only " in an emergency or special circumstance"? Why not in any circumstances? And how bad the situation must be for this to be considered? If they just went ahead and used O- for everyone, then there wouldn’t be enough blood available for transfusion, because O- isn’t that common. A+ is the most common, and so that’s what most donors are. By matching blood to recipients, they are assured of a steady supply. If a hospital was overly cautious and used mostly O- for everyone, they might get an O- patient, who couldn’t take any other type, and discover they don’t have enough. > [@Skammer](#): > > Are you contrasting that with someplace that compensates people for mandatory blood donations? Where does that happen? According to people I know who are veterans of the Israeli army, sometimes soldiers are required to donate, unless there is some reason they can’t (they have a cold the day the donation van is in their fort). They are compensated in the sense that they are compensated for being in the army. When I was in the US army, we once were told that donation was voluntary, but if we donated, we didn’t have to do PT the next day (and therefore got to sleep in). They had lots of people lined up to donate. > [@yorick73](#): > > The majority of pre-marriage blood test were looking for syphilis and Rubella. I don’t think any states require blood tests anymore and, even when they were required, they were mainly for detecting STD’s…not Rh compatibility I was married in 2001. At that time, no blood test was required, but I did have to demonstrate that I had been vaccinated for rubella (or, I suppose, had been infected with it). I guess I could have been a vaccine objector, and gotten a waiver, since Christian Scientists get married, but getting a note from the doctor was easy. She had a form where she filled in my name, the date of my last vaccine, and signed it. Actually, I think the doctor put the date of my last childhood booster in the 70s, because that was in her records, and not the date of the booster the army gave me in 1996, but it was good enough. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2014, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-blood-transfusion-between-different-blood-types-work/694916/24 "2014-08-06T23:50:02Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > RH factor is a bit more complicated. An RH negative person can be safely given RH positive blood… once. It takes one exposure before the body builds up the antibodies that make it dangerous. On the bad side, though, the RH factor can also cross over the placenta between a mother and fetus, so if the fetus is RH positive, the mother becomes exposed, which can cause serious problems in subsequent pregnancies. This is one of the things they test for in pre-marriage blood tests. We don’t (anymore? The only blood test before my parents’ marriage was for syphilis) in the US. Any Rh- woman is strongly suggested (in such a way that it doesn’t sound like a suggestion, but a command) to get Rhogam. Considering how many husbands are not the biological father of the fetus, it just doesn’t make medical sense to take the chance. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-blood-transfusion-between-different-blood-types-work/694916.md?page=1)