SbbPerson

Welcome QA Bob. I have seen you post on the AABB boards. You certainly keep busy. I feel the need to take a nap after reading your bio.

Having supplied a few answers on this site, I have found it to be most helpful and informative. I work in a small, but very active insitution in northern NH. We do reference work for some of the smaller facilities around here and, hopefully, are raising the blood bank consciousness of the folks we interact with. There is life outside the metropolitan areas and a GREAT quality of life is important, esp to me.
Dave Saikin
Littleton, NH

I live in Canada but work in the US. I have been med tech for a long time but I have worked primarily in blood bank for the last eleven years. I currently work for the Detroit Medical Center University Labs as the Blood Bank Group Leader at one of the hospitals. We are a busy hospital with a very busy emergency room and we see most of traumas in Detroit. We do open surgeries. We have an active labor and delivery as well as a neonatal ICU. We also have medical technology students who do their blood bank rotation in our lab.
I am married with 2 daughters. My oldest is married and has an eleven month old daughter. My youngest is finishing her journalism degree at Wayne State University and will be attending the University of Western Ontario in the Masters of Media Studies program starting in September.
Besides being a med tech, I am also a personal trainer with a small fitness business. I am one of the forum moderators here at Bloodbanktalk which is something that I enjoy doing. I am also a forum administrator for a fitness forum which sometimes requires a lot of my time but I enjoy doing this also. I am in the process of learning how to design my own website for my fitness business. After having said all that sometimes I look like this:zombie:.

Yes, sorry about that. I will get around to it, but I am still having to get on to this site as and when I can, because of the fire that has made my family homeless. I rescued my own laptop from the wreckage of my home yesterday, but, sadly, it is no longer working, so getting on to the site is much more difficult for me at present.
I PROMISE that I will get around to answering your query as soon as I can.

I have not been around lately. A lot has happened in the last few years.  My 12 year old daughter was diagnosed with orbital rhabdomyosarcoma in October of 2018. I spent a lot of time out of town because our hospital here in Windsor could not handle pediatric radiation so she was at the Children's Hospital in London, Ontario off and on for several months. There was a point when her scans were clear but a few months later they found a tumor in her brain. They removed it surgically but she developed an infection which prevented them from doing radiation so the tumor returned. She passed away October of 2019. 
My father had been ill at the same time with interstitial lung disease. It progressed very quickly after my granddaughter died.  He was at the point where he needed home care but with covid he lost his homecare because of my job as a tech in Detroit.  I was the only one who could care for him so I changed my work schedule to just weekends so that I would limit my own exposure at the hospital (only 3 techs work on the weekends) and so that I could be there with him during the week. My father passed away May31 of 2020.
My husband and I both decided to retire early with all that had happened, so October 31, 2020 was our last day worked.  He became a permanent deacon in the Catholic Church in November 2019 so he has been very busy with the church. I am a personal trainer besides being a med tech so I did a certification in senior fitness. I am just waiting for things to open up so that I can do some work with seniors.  I have been spending a lot of time with my 5 year old twin grandchildren while they do online school. I will be glad when they can be back in the classroom.
 
 

Thanks Cliff! I got it. Smashing all the way

It's a quirky program.  Try the default theme.  The lights and snow don't work in all themes.

Strange , we have never had that problem. We use immucor too.  I agree with AMcCord, washing is critical for this test.  Also, how are you counting the agglutinates?  By tube or slide? If you see agglutinates by tube, you should do it also on slide so you can count the number of agglutinates per LPF.   If you get less than 5 agglutinates in 5 fields, it is negative. 

I can just speak to how we do things.......
When patient has NO previous hx, a second sample for ABO confirmation is required.  (samples collected via in house phleb with rover (electronic scanning) do not need a verifier documented on requisition.  any collection outside of in house phlebotomy/rover must have second verifier at collection. - we still use paper....and probably always will)
ABO/Rh must have been performed within the last 12 months to be valid for component orders.
Previous hx of ABO/Rh results / interpretation in BB LIS do not require second sample for TSX.
 
is that what you were asking?????
 

Very proud to have received this through the post earlier this week, to go with being elected to Fellowship of the British Blood Transfusion Society earlier this year.

We haven't been having problems with our kits, but investigations for two survey failures for false positive results a few years ago pointed to the wash step as critical. Maybe start there. What works for us is a 12 x 75 tube filled to near the top, decant well after each of the 4 washes, make sure to break up the cell button prior to adding saline, and make sure that the saline addition is well mixed (uniform color throughout the tube). We had problems when we were using NERL saline. We now use unbuffered saline with pHix added (same that runs on the Echo). I had techs that tended to fill the tube only 2/3 full with saline for the washes and who weren't making sure the saline/cells were well mixed. Changing that habit seems to have helped. 

I believe the primary action of CDP is as a mild acid, thereby eluting bound IgG (reducing DAT) and denaturation of HLA/Bg antigens (removal of "unexpected reactivity").
Perhaps the prolonged treatment time removed some of the sialic acid on the red cells and has inadvertently created cells that are easier to agglutinate, i.e., the equivalent of enzyme-treatment ?

Lots of users on this Forum are in the same place and I'm sure they have some good advice on how to approach this issue. However, I would be cautious of implementing an optional process that potentially calls into question the quality of previous work.

Merry Christmas to all

Dee, Harry and I (especially me) have cocked up in a major way this year and would like to apologise to as many people as possible who would normally expect to receive Christmas cards from us. I bought the cards, but then left it too late to write our and send any (particularly those of our friends in other countries) and, what with the postal strikes, it is now too late.

That notwithstanding, we would like to apologise profusely for the/my error, and wish everyone involved a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

We would also like to thank those people who have been much more organised that us/me and have managed to get cards sent to us. We very much appreciate it.

I realise it is still a tiny bit early, but I am conscious of two things. I am going to be incredibly busy tomorrow, and so may forget, and not everyone has the same time zone as the UK, so, for all those who celebrate it, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  For those who do not, may you have a wonderful few days anyway.  😁😁😁😁😁

Will there be lights for Christmas this year? Sometimes you just need to smash a light

I used this case study as part of my Higher Specialist Diploma in Blood Transfusion.
The IBMS have asked if I would like to give my PowerPoint presentation ('What the f?') at the 2023 Congress.
Thank you to all the contributors - I will certainly big up PathLabTalk if I do get to do it.
Rich

I ordered this book yesterday, thanks for pointing it out!!

Since the change of platelet compatibility. What are the new acceptable Groups for an AB + recepient?
 
Carmen

Since AB+ people are considered the "universal recipient" , we give them any type platelets, usually starting with the one with the closest out date. 

Dear Sir, is it possible to share the
1. percentage of invalid test result
2. venipuncture failure
please?

There was a study done here by ORBCoN in Ontario, Canada.  It showed that most (I think it was 99%) babies were delivered from people under the age of 46.  So yes, not all.  But most.
Best of luck on your journey to conceive.  I had mine at 40.  So I'm always tired, but love her to bits.

Keep  a copy of the initial validation handy for CAP inspections. I was asked by an inspector to see it years after we had gone live. I had to dig through previous computer files from my previous boss to find it. It was my first inspection as a lead and made me so nervous. I think she was just messing with me to make me more of a basket case than I already was. 
Also anytime you have a major computer upgrade, you need to test all the computer elements again to prove the rules still work as expected.  It doesn't take too long after you have the initial work down. 

Here is my old validation.   Hope it helps
 
Validation of the Electronic Crossmatch at the GGH - signed.pdf