Very good advice Mabel. Many years ago we had a ruptured aneurysm with anti-K. I was working with one other tech and we had no reinforcements at hand. You try to stay ahead with the AAAs, but with antigen screening and full crossmatches we slowly lost ground until we had no more crossmatched blood. We got a panic call from the OR "Send us 10 units immediately or the patient will die!" We looked at each other, took segments and a unit# sticker off 10 units and dumped them on the dumbwaiter that went up to the OR on the floor above us. No paperwork, no testing, no nothing. The patient took those, and a lot more, but we eventually caught up with testing and documentation. I think one of the units was K+. The patient expired that day, but not from lack of blood (or a transfusion reaction - you don't have much antibody circulating after bleeding 40-50 units of RBC). For me, that's as bad as it gets, and that's what I teach my techs and students. Every place has their emergency release protocol, you follow it and do what you can to keep up.
lulabelle reacted to Dr. Pepper in Just For FunVery good advice Mabel. Many years ago we had a ruptured aneurysm with anti-K. I was working with one other tech and we had no reinforcements at hand. You try to stay ahead with the AAAs, but with antigen screening and full crossmatches we slowly lost ground until we had no more crossmatched blood. We got a panic call from the OR "Send us 10 units immediately or the patient will die!" We looked at each other, took segments and a unit# sticker off 10 units and dumped them on the dumbwaiter that went up to the OR on the floor above us. No paperwork, no testing, no nothing. The patient took those, and a lot more, but we eventually caught up with testing and documentation. I think one of the units was K+. The patient expired that day, but not from lack of blood (or a transfusion reaction - you don't have much antibody circulating after bleeding 40-50 units of RBC). For me, that's as bad as it gets, and that's what I teach my techs and students. Every place has their emergency release protocol, you follow it and do what you can to keep up.