Blood Type, how to get it?

Thraxen

I was born in England and moved to Ireland in 2000. Now I am sure I had my blood types in my medical records but the doctors will not check.
I asked the local GP if they could get my blood type but they said I have to specifically get tested for it.
I asked if I could. They said that they no longer send those types of tests to the Lab. Though at one point they did if you paid extra.
Now she says I could get it if there was a valid reason to get my blood type.

Basically the reason I need it is for my medical tags as I do a lot of hill walking I spend most days up in the mountains alone. I just want to get the silly things printed before the weather clears up yet it is providing to be a problem.

Any one got any ideas how I can get it tested? I looked at tester kits online but they seem a lil iffy.

RobFowl

AFAIK the Beacon clinic test it (privately).
Donating blood is the cheapest way to check is to donate blood but as you lived in the UK I don't think they'll accept you (the guidelines they use bar anyone who lived in the UK for longer than 18/12 from donating blood here due to the risk of BSE afaik)

Thraxen

RobFowl wrote: »

AFAIK the Beacon clinic test it (privately).
Donating blood is the cheapest way to check is to donate blood but as you lived in the UK I don't think they'll accept you (the guidelines they use bar anyone who lived in the UK for longer than 18/12 from donating blood here due to the risk of BSE afaik)

Aye meant to mention that part, I have been wanting to donate blood but then found out as I was around for the BSE business I cannot do anything.
I rang up again and another gal says they do it privately through the GP for €23.65 so guess that is my only way really.

QuiteInterestin

Thraxen wrote: »

Basically the reason I need it is for my medical tags as I do a lot of hill walking I spend most days up in the mountains alone. I just want to get the silly things printed before the weather clears up yet it is providing to be a problem.

Why do you need it for your tags? Realistically, even if you were involved in an accident and brought to a hospital, it wouldn't matter what blood type was on your tags or on your drivers license etc it would still be ignored and they would test your blood again to determine your blood type. If you needed blood immediately, you would be given O Negative blood until your own type was determined. Seems a bit of a waste to get yourself tested when the info won't ever be used.

Thraxen

QuiteInterestin wrote: »

Why do you need it for your tags? Realistically, even if you were involved in an accident and brought to a hospital, it wouldn't matter what blood type was on your tags or on your drivers license etc it would still be ignored and they would test your blood again to determine your blood type. If you needed blood immediately, you would be given O Negative blood until your own type was determined. Seems a bit of a waste to get yourself tested when the info won't ever be used.

Your entire message is to tell me I should not do it?
I wrote this post because I wanted to. I need these tags because I do not walk just in Ireland and considering they have all my other information on them then why not?

Dingle_berry

Thraxen wrote: »

Your entire message is to tell me I should not do it?
I wrote this post because I wanted to. I need these tags because I do not walk just in Ireland and considering they have all my other information on them then why not?

You can if you want. Just ring around GPs and ask them if they'd do it for you. Unless its in a private hospital you shouldn't have to pay for the tests.
The previous poster is correct though. In any country with a decent medical system they would never, ever, transfuse blood without typing the patient (except for extreme emergencies where they'd use Oneg no mater what). So you would be wasting your money.

Alun

Same here, I walk all over Ireland and the rest of the world too and it has never occurred to me to get anything like that, plus as others have pointed out, they'll ignore it anyway, so what's the point?

0lddog

Here is a thread that we made earlier :

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056715255

HTH

Dingle_berry

0lddog wrote: »

Here is a thread that we made earlier :

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056715255

HTH

Dunno if I should reply in that thread or this....
For anyone reading that one:

The only way to change your blood group is to have a bone marrow transplant. No infection or transfusion would really change your blood type.

I don't know wether it's true about motor insurance but it still doesn't mater, if the lab doesn't get a sample the docs don't get blood for you (unless emergency Oneg).

Everyone knows the health service is stretched thin. That includes labs. You need a clinical reason to see a consultant, have radiology investigations, etc. same goes for lab investigations.
The hospital has no way of garunteing that what you or your documents say your blood group is is what your blood group really is.

MrCreosote

Thraxen wrote: »

Your entire message is to tell me I should not do it?
I wrote this post because I wanted to. I need these tags because I do not walk just in Ireland and considering they have all my other information on them then why not?

His entire message is "Don't do it, because it's pointless and unnecessary, and a waste of time and resources".

It's the truth as well.

QuiteInterestin

Thraxen wrote: »

Your entire message is to tell me I should not do it?
I wrote this post because I wanted to. I need these tags because I do not walk just in Ireland and considering they have all my other information on them then why not?

Fair enough, I was just trying to point out that its unnecessary and a waste of time/money but that's up to you. As you've checked out yourself, you can get it tested through your GP via a private lab.

Thraxen wrote: »

Now I am sure I had my blood types in my medical records but the doctors will not check.

You can check your medical records yourself if you want to try this route. Since you were born in the UK, under the UK Data Protection law you can access any records relating to you held by an organisation, however you may have to pay a fee for their copy. You could try contacting the hospital you were born in and requesting a copy of your records, your blood group might be in there, but it might not.

RobFowl

TBF the US army (different context I know) list your blood type on your ID and dog tags.
There's a scheme for runners and cyclists where you get a road id badge or jersey with blood type along with various other identifying markers on it.
Might save time with cross matching if nothing else.
Also helps identify injured or uncouncsious runners/cyclists, there have been situations where dead runners have not been identified for a number of days due to a lack of id.
For this reason alone i think the OP is adopting a sensible and reasoned approach.
(I speak as a Doctor and a cyclist)

Dingle_berry

RobFowl wrote: »

Might save time with cross matching if nothing else.

Nope. In Ireland, the rest of the EU and anywhere you'd be safe getting blood if the lab doesn't have a recent sample to type and screen blood is not issued. And a cross match based on documentation is impossible.
I wouldn't rely on blood typing for an id, especially in an old body where coagulated blood would make typing difficult if not impossible.

RobFowl

Dingle_berry wrote: »

Nope. In Ireland, the rest of the EU and anywhere you'd be safe getting blood if the lab doesn't have a recent sample to type and screen blood is not issued. And a cross match based on documentation is impossible.
I wouldn't rely on blood typing for an id, especially in an old body where coagulated blood would make typing difficult if not impossible.

I'm not au fait with the process but surely in an urgent situation cross matching would be quicker if you have a fair idea of the blood type in advance?

Dingle_berry

RobFowl wrote: »

I'm not au fait with the process but surely in an urgent situation cross matching would be quicker if you have a fair idea of the blood type in advance?

Having a blood type on file (in the lab system) only serves as a check against what the scientist tries to input. Eg if I'm typed as O+ preop but bleed post OP and am typed as AB- the lab system will flag it as an error. In a situation where there isn't enough time to provide a sample the emergency O- is used. Its why the emergency Oneg is there. Even if a patient is transferred between hospitals they are re typed.
A cross match is literally mixing the plasma of the patient with the cells you intend giving them. Hence why it's not possible without a sample. The risk of giving incompatible blood based on a fair idea is too great. People can have reactions to perfectly compatible blood, an incompatible transfusion could easily kill.

EDIT: to be fair, in a major incident, where the Oneg is all used up, the patient is bleeding so much their blood is effectively saline and transfused cells the lab can issue uncross matched blood but it very very rarely happens. And the patient rarely survives anyway.

Tree

Rally drivers and high-risk sport (proper high risk of death/serious injury) get typed for insurance purposes, but as mentioned they'll get retyped as well. The main advantage of the pre-typing for this sort of sport is if a participant has a peculiar blood type, that could be notified to the local hospital in case it needs to be flown in from a specialised blood storage centre, but that'd be a pretty damn rare incident (and it'd still be retyped and crossmatched).

Dingle_berry

There is no rare blood type like that, except for Bombay/H and unless they arrange an autologous transfusion there is no compatible blood for them.
Also, unless they have been transfused before, men rarely have antibodies to other blood antigens. Parous women may have antibodies but they can normally be detected and catered for by the labs normal stock. If not a sample has to be sent to the IBTS. There is no advantage to knowing your blood type unless you're planning something that has a high risk of requiring a transfusion. In that case the advantage is only there if the lab in the hospital has a current sample from you.

RobFowl

Anylinks to recommendations from professional bodies on this?

Tree

Dingle_berry wrote: »

There is no rare blood type like that, except for Bombay/H and unless they arrange an autologous transfusion there is no compatible blood for them.
Also, unless they have been transfused before, men rarely have antibodies to other blood antigens. Parous women may have antibodies but they can normally be detected and catered for by the labs normal stock. If not a sample has to be sent to the IBTS. There is no advantage to knowing your blood type unless you're planning something that has a high risk of requiring a transfusion. In that case the advantage is only there if the lab in the hospital has a current sample from you.

High risk sport increases the chances that the person has been transfused before.

(PS there's more than just Bombay antigen blood that gets turned into frozen stock, eg. this is the current holding of frozen units of the dutch national blood bank http://www.sanquin.nl/en/products-services/blood-products/sanquin-bank-of-frozen-blood/stock/ . We don't keep frozen red cells in Ireland because we are so near to other countries that do, and that have a more mixed population than we have.)

Dingle_berry

RobFowl wrote: »

Anylinks to recommendations from professional bodies on this?

From the guidelines of the blood board that Tree linked to: "3.4 General
This chapter proposes that the blood transfusion laboratory is responsible for the release of compatible blood components. In that framework:
- the blood transfusion laboratory may not assume that the label on the blood component indicates the correct ABO/RhD blood group;
- the ABO blood group of the patient must be determined using two, unambiguously identified blood samples;
- known clinically relevant erythrocyte alloantibodies must be taken into consideration."
They do say that third party information may be used as a one off but this must be in the form of a lab report. "n emergency situations, an ABO/RhD blood group determined by a third party may be considered as a one-off independently determined blood group if the blood transfusion laboratory has access to (a copy of) an official (i.e. visibly authorised) report with the correct identification data and the definitive blood group." - not dog tags or a card that could be lost, stolen or found. All from http://www.sanquin.nl/repository/documenten/en/prod-en-dienst/287294/blood-transfusion-guideline.pdf#page84

In my experience I have never heard of a situation occurring where frozen red cells were used. A lab certainly wouldn't request that Bristol etc would start thawing rare blood based on a patients dog tags.

The Irish guidelines are here http://www.giveblood.ie/About_Us/Publications_Guidelines/Other_Documents/Guidelines_for_the_Administration_of_Blood_and_Blood_Components.pdf
From paragraph 5 "Each request for blood must be documented on a laboratory request form and submitted to the laboratory with the blood sample for compatibility testing. "
Paragraph 6 "The hospital transfusion laboratory should verify the patient’s ABO and Rhesus D (Rh D) group against previous records for the patient" so even if a historic group is available it still needs to be verified before issuing blood.

drzhivago

RobFowl wrote: »

I'm not au fait with the process but surely in an urgent situation cross matching would be quicker if you have a fair idea of the blood type in advance?

Ah fowly there are paper based tests to quickly check blood type the cross matching for antigens is what takes time

It is of no benefit if someone comes in to `ED and says I know my blood type is Chocolate Negative because I will still test them before giving blood, unless they are in major trauma and bleeding in which case they will get shock transfusion of O Neg, FFP and Platelet Pools

In Military circles slightly different as much higher chance of trauma, they carry a lot of blood in battle and also have multiple available healthy donors so it is not just to know what blood to give you but also in Emergency whom to take it from is really what they want to know:cool: