BBQuality

Curious if anyone has ever heard of retaining the open segment (in a capped tube) post crossmatch. The justification given is to ensure the segment used for crossmatch is the segment used in workup, should a transfusion reaction be suspected. I have only ever pulled an unopened segment (either upon receipt of unit or prior to issue depending on the facility) but never heard of this other option. Please help me! If this in an antiquated process, please explain the origin or if it is of value, help me with some references. Look forward to the dialogue.

I have been on the bone marrow donor registry for 25 years and in May I got a call that they wanted to do more testing to see if I might be a match for a 20 year old male with ALL in Germany.  Now all of the additional testing is done and they say I am the match!  We are now waiting for the recipient to be ready but they think that it should happen in about a month.  I'm so excited!  I hope it goes through as planned.

I certainly appreciate everyone's feedback. Old habits are so hard to break and some techs are so nervous about this change. You would think it would be a relief given that over 2000 units a month are transfused!