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There seem to be two issues here. One, that deaths during a transfusion are not getting reported to a responsible party, and B, that it is not determined just who that responsible party is. I would think that any transfusion service would have to have policies covering both of these. I think the FDA, at the least, would be interested if this is not the case for any regulated institution. Scott

I do have a Hell of a lot of respect for nurses, but I often wonder why we pay for doctors, or, indeed, why doctors put themselves through years of training, when all we need to do to find out why a patient did or didn't die is ask a nurse. I seem to recall a discussion on here, which got quite heated, when it was suggested that nurses were quite competent at running a blood transfusion laboratory. As I say, I have huge respect for nurses, but that huge respect is for their nursing - NOT their deep knowledge of all aspects of blood transfusion and medicine.

If the transfusion is determined to be the cause of death or a contributor to death, then it has to be reported to CBER immediately with a full investigation to determine the cause. If the death is unrelated to the transfusion, no investigation is necessary.