mawyant

An auto-control and a DAT have not always given the same result in my experience!

I provide a blood type card with the antibody(ies) identified and the date.

Thanks to a very generous invitation from the organisers (in particular Phil Hoffman, aka Dr Pepper on this site, and Maddie Josephs, Chair) I will be attending and speaking at the 69th Annual Clinical Laboratory Science Convention - Central New England (ASCLS - CNE) taking place at the Rhode Island Convention Center between May 9th and May 11th 2017.  I will be talking on Wednesday 10th May 2017, giving a lecture entitled, "An In Depth Description of the Kell Blood Group System." and then, after a well-deserved break for the delegates, and for those that can stand it, a second lecture entitled, "King Henry Viii, McLeod Syndrome, Chronic Granulomatous Disease and Kx."
Sorry if this comes across as being "big headed", but I am really excited about coming back over to the USA.    

We have experienced very weak, diffuse reactivity with Selectogen I, Lot VS981, exp: 01/03/2017.  We just began them using last week, and right out of the box, we are having repeated problems with the first screening cell.  We opened a new set, with the same results.  I called Ortho on Friday, answered questions and followed up on suggestions.  We have had problems in the past, but not with a brand new shipment.
We use only manual gel right now, but  are hoping to get a Vision soon.  This does not bode well for that encounter!

That is utterly disgusting.

Do you mean a root cause analysis?

It would be great if you'd consider posting it here.  Many people could benefit.

I will occasionally get requests from a hospital to provide a divided red blood cell for a patient with congestive heart disease.  They transfuse one half over the allowed 4 hour window, then have an additional 4 hours to complete the second half.

I'm afraid that may not work.
We used to keep all of our "in-date" antisera on the top shelf, and our out-dated teaching antisera on the bottom shelf.  This meant that, if any of our "in-date" antisera fell off the shelf into the out-dated teaching antisera, and we didn't notice, it didn't matter.  Sadly, what I had not taken into account was the fact that one of our inspectors (I can't remember whether it was CPA or MHRA) knew much more about physics than did I, and explained to me, in huge detail, that the out-dated antisera must be kept in a separate fridge, in case the out-dated teaching antisera defied the Law of Gravity and flew up to the top shelf and secreted themselves there.
So, everyone out there, be aware that the Physical Laws DO NOT APPLY to out-dated antisera, which is pretty dangerous when you think about it.  In fact, I now rarely open the door of the fridge that contains our out-dated teaching, for fear of flying bottles, and NEVER without holding a stout stick, just in case! 

Thank you,  the reported post has been dealt with. 

Hi all,
I admittedly have been absent from these forums for an extended period of time.  It's good to see some familiar names on here!  It's equally good to see some new names on here as well. 
I was was just reading through a forum and saw some posts that involved name calling and general disrespectful behavior.  While I appreciate a good debate and a witty discussion of relevant topics, I find neither of those actions as fueling intelligent conversation.  I considered calling out this individual in the forum, but then discovered that there was a way to report the post to the administrator.  If you also feel that these comments are detrimental to furthering productive discourse, I would encourage you to use the Report feature.  We, as a community, do not need to tolerate such behavior.

We had one once that was sent in to us because it was getting a bit battered and bruised, and the lady wanted a new one.  The original was signed by a certain Dr Ruth Sanger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you think Antiques Road Show would have put the correct value on that one, Malcolm?  (Sorry if that reference is a bit obscure to anyone who doesn't get the BBC)

I call that the "baptism of fire".  Just remember that experience is the best teacher.  If you find yourself in such a scenario where you do not feel comfortable or need help with a decision, is there a supervisor or on call person that you can reach out to?  As a newbie there really should be some kind of support for you in these situations. 
 
Just a battle story to share....  we are not a trauma center either and a while ago when I was new,  we had a patient that came in as a trauma and they wanted emergency release.   Blood was issued and then we found out the patient had multiple antibodies.  I believe that one was a Kidd.  Of course, the units that the patient was given were incompatible.  Because "universal donor" is really kind of a misnomer in scenarios like this. I had obviously never been in a situation like this.    I learned a few things after that incident- the first is that we aren't a trauma center. Almost always the patients that we get are not stable enough to go to another hospital which leads me to my next tidbit... if the patient is bleeding so bad that they cannot wait for crossmatching and antigen typing- the immediate risk to the patient of not getting blood is greater than a potential transfusion reaction.  They just need the oxygen. 
 
Since that time we have had this happen on occasion and while it still makes me nervous it isn't that drop in the pit of my stomach anymore.  Don't be discouraged, you will gain the knowledge over time to be confident in your decisions! 

This thread is concerning me greatly.  We have been seriously considering switching from manual gel to the Echo, but if this is a recurring problem, I don't know that I want to do that.  I understand that no method is perfect, but the fact that there seems to be no explanation from Immucor is very disconcerting.  I am especially curious about those folks who are switching from the Echo to the Provue.  Why did you make that decision?  Also, the Ortho rep was here yesterday and says that their long awaited updated analyzer will be released shortly in the US.  Anyone in Europe already using it?  How different can it be?  Thanks for your input.

Just read this month's AABB News and saw Heather Vaught's name, a member of PathLab Talk:
 
Heather Vaught, MLS(ASCP)SBB, director of technical operations at Indiana Blood Center in Indianapolis, was recently recognized as one of the "Top Five" in the 40 under 40 list from the American Society of Clinical Pathology.
 
Congrats from your PathLab Talk friends!

Wow Malcolm, who needs reference books?