A short blood transfusion lesson.
It's a slow evening here at work, so I thought I would give a lesson for funsies. Not to assume that it would interest any of you. But I hope it does!
One of my pet peeves is when television shows make a huge deal out of something that otherwise is not in the medical field, especially in blood transfusion. Mostly because that's the only part of medicine I really know. I've seen errors on shows such as Dexter, House, and Oz. I know these are fictional shows, but... I feel like if you're going to involve a medical situation, at least be somewhat accurate.
Example: Oz. One of the prisoners was bleeding and needed a blood transfusion. It turned out his blood type was AB positive. They made a big deal about this because statistically, this blood type is more rare than groups O, A, and B. There was only one other prisoner (or relative?) that had the same blood group, and so it became a big deal over whether or not this one person would donate some blood.
And here comes the lesson!
A person with blood group AB positive is known as the Universal Recipient, meaning they can receive red blood cells of any blood type. This is due to the fact that their plasma doesn't contain any anti-A, anti-B, or anti-D that would react with any of the other blood group cells. This means the bleeding prisoner from Oz could have received blood from pretty much anyone (assuming they are disease free, of course). No biggie, right? Exactly!
Just in addition, group O negative is known as the Universal Donor. This means O negative red blood cells can be given to anyone. This is because O negative cells have no major antigens (i.e. A, B, or D antigens) that would react with a recipient's antibodies.
In the end, Dexter, House, and Oz are still groovy television shows.
One of my pet peeves is when television shows make a huge deal out of something that otherwise is not in the medical field, especially in blood transfusion. Mostly because that's the only part of medicine I really know. I've seen errors on shows such as Dexter, House, and Oz. I know these are fictional shows, but... I feel like if you're going to involve a medical situation, at least be somewhat accurate.
Example: Oz. One of the prisoners was bleeding and needed a blood transfusion. It turned out his blood type was AB positive. They made a big deal about this because statistically, this blood type is more rare than groups O, A, and B. There was only one other prisoner (or relative?) that had the same blood group, and so it became a big deal over whether or not this one person would donate some blood.
And here comes the lesson!
A person with blood group AB positive is known as the Universal Recipient, meaning they can receive red blood cells of any blood type. This is due to the fact that their plasma doesn't contain any anti-A, anti-B, or anti-D that would react with any of the other blood group cells. This means the bleeding prisoner from Oz could have received blood from pretty much anyone (assuming they are disease free, of course). No biggie, right? Exactly!
Just in addition, group O negative is known as the Universal Donor. This means O negative red blood cells can be given to anyone. This is because O negative cells have no major antigens (i.e. A, B, or D antigens) that would react with a recipient's antibodies.
In the end, Dexter, House, and Oz are still groovy television shows.