I watched an episode of MASH yesterday and a guy got the wrong blood. It seem the most that happened to him was a case of the chills. Are there more serious side effects from getting the wrong type blood in a transfusion?
I always understood that the victim would die horribly over the course of several hours. Of course, my medical training amounts to an EMT course I took in college just for the Health & Humanities credits.
In my dubious recollection, when someone gets the wrong blood, their circulatory system goes into some kind of apeshit overdrive and develops weird antibodies and stuff. Thereafter, they can only get blood transfusions (or donate blood) to other people that have undergone the same screw up. I think I recall that there’s some sort of national register so that people with “mismatched” blood can be contacted in order to donate for one of their brethren that needs a transfusion.
Or something like that.
“wrong type blood”
What kind is that? If i give you some of my juicy deaf blood aha, you won’t become deaf. If you got some blood from a black person I don’t think you’d turn black if that was your concern?
I believe it’s akin to blood poisoning, quantity counts big (sic).
I hope you were joking. I believe the OP is concerned with blood types: A, B, AB, and O, each with a positive/negative version.
Tinker
Transfusion with the wrong blood typ can potentially be fatal.
from thissite
ABO incompatibility causes what is called an acute hemolytic transfusion reaction. It is usually due to an O patient getting non-O blood, and is most commonly the result of clerical error. It manifests itself in three ways:
–shock.
–Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). This is when the blood in your vessels starts clotting randomly, eventually using up all your clotting factors so you can’t clot any more. First you clot, then you bleed.
–Acute kidney failure.
You might not get any of these things; you might get all of them. Signs you might see include fever, chills, hypotension, red or brown urine, or bleeding from wound sites.
I’m not sure how often it is fatal; I would imagine that it has to do with the extent of the transfusion and how fast it is caught and treated. If you can catch it before the DIC starts, you can give heparin to help regulate the clotting. All those red cells popping can lead to hyperkalemia (too much potassium in the blood), which can disrupt the heart rhythm; if that happens, you would dialyze.
(Thanks for making me look this up, BTW.)
Dr. J
Thanks Tinker,
Geezz Handy that had to be a stretch to come up with a response like the one you just came up with. I certainly didn’t have whatever you are trying to suggest in mind. Did you? If so how come?
Obviously I was speaking of blood type.
I saw quite a few years ago a story in one of our ‘respectables’ about a Scottish chap who had been unlucky enough to recieve the wrong blood type when he was very young.
He survived and of course was examined closely by specialists.
It turn out that he had an almost unique ability to produce something that stopped his immune system from tearing into the transplanted blood.
He became a blood donor but gives blood far more often than regular donors do.Whatever it is in his blood can be extracted and is used on children all over the place to assist in operations where rejection is an issue.
He was awarded the OBE which is why the article was written about him.
If there are any heamatologists out there they will be able to tell you more about this as it is a very rare but not unique case.
I wish I could be more specific but this was at least 10 years when I read the article.
Handy, I am curious about your post also. Was it “humor”, ignorance, or are you trying for some politically correctness merit badge?
What about positive and negative blood types. Of course transfusions are best when the types are perfectly matched, but I always hear of blood shortaqes, especially for type
0-negative, which apparantly has to have 0-negative tranfusions.
Okay, let me see if I can get this right from memory
anyone can recieve O neg. blood because
-
Type A or B blood reacts to the opposite – Type O does not have any of the proteins A or B does, so nothing to react to. AB blood types have both proteins, so they can recieve any blood type. Type O persons must recieve type O blood.
-
Rh factor ( the + or -) is another antibody. A Rh + person could recieve Rh + or - blood, but a Rh - person, if receving Rh + blood, devlopes antibodies to the Rh factor. Upon a second exposure to Rh the mother’s antibodies provide a reaction to destroy the blood cells
there, I think I got that out of my head straight
Gee, you know aha, throughout history you’ll find people who have concerns about getting blood transfusions, e.g Websters dictionary gives as one defintion of ‘type’:
" a member of an indicated class or variety of people"
Thus, your ‘blood type’ becomes:
“blood of ‘a member of an indicated class or variety of people’”
How can that possible by offensive to ya? ah, knew you’d understand.
I remember this episode. I think the guy was going into shock, so he was shaking, not having chills. It is quite serious to get the “wrong” type blood. Isn’t O-negative like an all-purpose type they can use in an emergency when they haven’t had time to type someone’s blood?
Wasn’t there an episode of “All In The Family” where Archie got a transfusion and it turned out to be from a black person? Or maybe he was worried it might be from a black person?
Handy, man, in every thread you come up with the weirdest posts. You are weird man!
Anyway, re the OP, I understand getting a factor you do not have just triggers a massive allergic reaction.
Anyone can receive 0- blood but you can only receive the A or B or Rh factors if you already have them. I am A Rh+ BTW.
If a woman is Rh- and is pregnant with an Rh+ baby or viceversa, you have some serious problem.
Aha, did you search the net? I did a search about this a few months ago and found plenty of stuff, way more than I needed and way more reliable than anything you will read here.
Handy it seems to me that if I was worried about getting the “wrong blood” that would make me seem somewhat of a bigot don’t you think? Just for the record I’m not( a bigot that is.)
Anyway I am going to quote right from my OP. The last line reads:
See what I mean? Do we have to have airtight syntax on this board to keep the nit picks happy?
Ah there I knew you would understand. 
Y’know, handy…with your first post, I had assumed you were making a stab at humour, and incidentally referencing another episode of MASH - a racist soldier is worried that the docs gave him ‘the wrong blood’ - IE, from a black person.
Not really funny, but, not offensive.
I want you to know I wasn’t happy to be proved wrong.
Yes, an Rh negative woman pregnant with an Rh positive baby will recieve a special shot of a substance called Rhogam. This will prevent the mother from developing Rh antibodies. The Rh antibodies would attack the blood of any futher Rh positive babies that she would become pregnant with.
I think bio-brat answered your question, but feel free to ask for more information. I crossmatch blood for a living, and it’s very complicated. There are 50 common blood group antigens, and about 100 more uncommon antigens. Crossmatching blood is very time consuming and expensive.
Most people focus on A,B, O, and Rh positive, or Rh negative. These are the most serious ones to consider. (ie they can kill you, instead of just making you sick)