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Malcolm Needs

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Posts posted by Malcolm Needs

    Dr Patricia Tippett.

    in All other topics

    Posted

    50 minutes ago, John C. Staley said:

    Malcolm, you appear to have know all the greats.  I had the honor of meeting a few  of them over the years and it's sad to witness the passing of an era of such amazing discoveries.

    Well, the thing is John, when I first left school, I started to work as a VERY, VERY junior member of staff at the International Blood Group Reference Laboratory when it was in London.  At that time Dr Kenneth Goldsmith was the Director, but others working there were Dr Carolyn Giles, Dr Elizabeth (Jan) Ikin, and a VERY young Joyce Poole.  Across the carpark was the MRC Blood Group Unit, run by Drs Rob Race and Ruth Sanger, where Dr Patricia Tippett worked, along with Geoff Daniels, for a while Christine Lomas (before she went to the USA and became Christine Lomas-Francis) and, for a short time, Dr Marcela Contreras (before she became a Dame and a Professor).  Just up the corridor was another set of laboratories run by Profs Walter Morgan and Winifred Watkins (and the janitor was one Sid Smith - after whom the SID Blood Group System was named).

    As you can imagine, with all those "NAMES" working in such a small area of London, it was like a magnet for all of the other world's greats to come and visit (I even met Dr Arthur Mourant and Dr Philip Levine on visits).

    With all these people, ALL of whom were amazingly helpful to even me, as someone who had just left school, what else could I do but fall deeply in love with the profession, and count my blessings from day one until I retired 43 years later.  I have been one lucky man.

    Dr Patricia Tippett.

    in All other topics

    Posted

    It is with immense regret that I have to say that I learned yesterday that Dr Patricia Tippett died at the age of 93 on 1st August 2023.

    I first met Pat in the early 1970's, when I was a callow youth who had just left school and was working at the IBGRL when it was in Gatliff Road in London (when Dr Kenneth Goldsmith was the Director) and Pat was working in the opposite building in the MRC Blood Group Unit, then under Drs Rob Race and Ruth Sanger.

    Pat is probably most famous for her work on the Rh Blood Group System, including categorising the then know Partial D types and for realising that the RH genes were twofold; namely RHD and RHCE.

    She was. of course, one of the greats, but was as friendly to this callow youth as I started out in the profession, as she was to everyone who were already greats within the field.

    May she rest in peace.

    Patricia Tippett.JPG

    Transfusing O positive RBCLR to O negative

    in Transfusion Services

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Kim D said:

    We have had a physician who would not approve O positive so I guess my question should be can our medical director make decision without consent of attending.

    Was the physician happy for his/her patient to expire if there was literally no group O, D Negative blood available, or, indeed, to condemn some other patient to death if, for example, they were exsanguinating and also had an anti-D???????

    RIDICULOUS!!!!!!!  NOT you, the physician.

    Mysterious Transfusion reaction

    in Case Studies

    Posted

    Thanks gagpinks.

    Fine, but is the patient of anything other than (I'm not sure how to put this without offending people, but here goes) of pure UK ethnicity?

    As the patient is of child-bearing potential, AND is transfusion-dependent, I am CONVINCED that RCI should have taken the investigation further!

    Mysterious Transfusion reaction

    in Case Studies

    Posted

    Interesting case, and I agree entirely that the patient should be excluded from electronic issue, but how this decision be made known to any other hospital?

    I am somewhat surprised that the RCI Laboratory did not pursue the case further, unless no further samples were available, given that the patient underwent a classic acute haemolytic transfusion reaction, but I would also dispute that they tested the plasma against many (sufficient) low prevalence antigens.  Of those you list, Do(a), Do(b), Lu(a) and Kp(a) would all be classified as polymorphic in the UK greater than1% expression in the population - although I fully realise that this classification is NOT the same throughout the world), and Co(a) is a HIGH prevalence antigen.  In reality, therefore, the only low prevalence antigen against which they appear to have tested the plasma is Wr(a).

    It may be helpful in such a case to know the ethnicity of the patient, the sex and, if female, any pregnancies (and if these all went to term, or were any of the babies affected by HDFN), and, if the male partner is still available, whether or not his red cells could be typed and, possibly, tested against the patient's plasma (assuming for the moment, the patient is a female).

    I really am somewhat amazed that the RCI Laboratory did not submit a sample to the IBGRL.

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