Blood Type

Some of you know that I spent an inordinate amount of time on two way ranges. Because of this, and the fact that I was raised by Soldiers, I learned my blood type early in life. I have had occasion to need this information.

This is my point. We carry firearms every day. I, like most of you, hope not to need it, but keep it available in case.
Have you ever been shot" Stabbed? In need of blood in a hurry? I used to use a "magik marker" and write my blood type on my legs and arms. The dog tag was just not enough. Now I have a key ring on my belt with my blood type on it. More "civilized".
What do you do if anything? Do you know your blood type?

AB+. Its not written down anywhere.

Not sure it would benefit on the civilian side of the house because if they call a code grey (half blood loss) they give you uncrossed matched O- blood anyways until they can type and screen you at the lab. Then they'll send the correct blood.

O+; I have my Red Cross donor card right behind my DL.

I gave blood every 6 weeks while in college, later I became a pheresis donor (component) for a couple years, I was on the road as a service tech and the regional blood bank was a block away from the office, so almost every WED I would stop in to see what they needed. Usually they would take white cells (can be donated weekly) to help imuno-compromised patents, mostly cancer patients getting chemo and radiation. One of the nurses told me to keep my donor card behind my DL 1} If I was in an accident they would know to check if I was low on blood 2} She had been an ER nurse and if in the emergency room and two of us needed blood I would get a priority, "Those that give, get".

Several years later I started giving blood every six weeks at the red cross again and told the center I had donated at the regional blood bank. Next time I donated the gal looked me up and said "OH; we have a little something for you" and gave me a 10 gallon donation pin. It's been a while since I last donated but I topped 15 gallons before I quit.

MSG Laigaie said:

.... Now I have a key ring on my belt with my blood type on it. More "civilized".
What do you do if anything? Do you know your blood type?

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That's a lot of faith in emergency medical staff even bothering to look at your key ring.

Dog tags (the red medical ones) for a lot of us. Medic Alert or other such medical emergency info aound the neck or on the wrist for a lot more of us. There's some new stuff on the market that puts a boatload of your medical info on a UBS stick that you can wear, and is identified as emergency information, but the few folks I know in the ED say they are not going to run off and stick some strange UBS drive in a computer when the rotator is engaged and the clock counting down how much longer you may have to live.

How many years has the .mil had blood type (as well as allergies) hook&loop patches for guys in the middle of the range to stick all over themselves in case the info is needed? Those things can be sewn on, or glued on, or just jammed on something that will catch the hooks. (Besides, if you have the loop patches on your clothes you get tacticool points. Well, except perhaps losing points if they are on you Underoos.)

Personally, I am a proponent of "one is none and two is one" for emergency medical info after I became a candidate for sudden-onset cardiac intervention. It may be overkill for those whose risk of leakage or need for internal poking around is somewhere nearer that of the great unwashed, unarmed general population. YMMV, as always.

stay safe.

F350 said:

2} She had been an ER nurse and if in the emergency room and two of us needed blood I would get a priority, "Those that give, get".

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This is BS. I don't donate blood. I did however donate plasma for a very long time. I have scars on both of my arms to prove it. To think that should I be in a situation where I would need blood to save my life and I would been seen as a lower priority because I don't donate is reprehensible.

Nightmare

I quit when I arrived for my regular appointment to see a "No weapons" sign on the door. A technician phlebotomist resigned for the same reason. We appealed to no avail. I won't have anything to do with ARC. Scroom!

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This right here is a big reason why I don't go anywhere near donation stations. I got turned down for donating at a mobile donation station when it was at my college because I had a firearm on my person at the time. Screw them.

Grim_Night said:

This is BS. I don't donate blood. I did however donate plasma for a very long time. I have scars on both of my arms to prove it. To think that should I be in a situation where I would need blood to save my life and I would been seen as a lower priority because I don't donate is reprehensible.

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Donate or sell??

Plasma is the only blood component that can legally be sold.

You can wear a Velcro patch, you can write it with a Sharpie, you can even have it tattooed and notarized.... it's STILL going to be typed and matched before the ER gives a transfusion (of anything other than plasma). The legal ramifications for 'taking someone's word' and giving the wrong type are too great.

Fallschirmjäger said:

You can wear a Velcro patch, you can write it with a Sharpie, you can even have it tattooed and notarized.... it's STILL going to be typed and matched before the ER gives a transfusion (of anything other than plasma). The legal ramifications for 'taking someone's word' and giving the wrong type are too great.

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Thank goodness. I was wondering if I was going to get to the bottom of this thread without seeing this response. This is the correct answer.

I can't believe I'm the first to say it.

American.


:lol:

JTHunter said:

As I was a bio major in college and have been a blood donor for 2/3 of my life, I know my blood type, my Rh factor, and even the alleles that make my blood type. One parent was an "O" and the other was a "B", so I'm a mix.

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Mudblood ! lol

Good to see a donor ... I am not able to donate due to military service....I don't cry over it but I would like to have been able to donate.

I know mine and it is on my dog tags. In regards to those with lifeline bracelets and what not, they aren't that useful. My mom had one and had to take an ambulance ride twice. Both times the paramedics didn't bother to check it and stated they didn't care about it even though it had important info for them (like which med she's allergic to).

Think about the implications here....

You're in combat and get hit, needing a blood transfusion.
The medic looks at your morale patch and grabs a unit of compatible blood. You develop symptoms and die. An autopsy reveals you were given an incompatible blood type because some Pvt Tentpeg thought it would be funny to switch everyone's blood type patch around.

Do you think the medical team is going to just allow that to happen, or are they going to take steps to prevent such from happening?

In the civilian world, substitute verbal notarization, Medic Alert bracelet, blood type card, tattoos, or whatever else you can imagine.

Any ER is going to type and cross-match your blood before giving your blood, regardless of how many times you have written it on your body.

try this instead

The odds of medicos finding and believing anything you wear or carry are low. So I don't bother.

What I consider more constructive is a trauma first aid kit. I made two, one for each car, since I figure anywhere I am, one of my cars is likely to be nearby. (I know, there's lots of scenarios where that might not be true, but it's true most of the time and life is about managing risk more than eliminating it. I don't feel like going thru life wearing a load-carrying vest with first aid kit, fire extinguisher, maglight, etc. etc. I'd look silly(er) at the pool.) Aside from the usual gauze, tape, etc., I bought QuikClot gauze, a combat bandage, and a combat tourniquet for each one (all available on Amazon). It's all the same stuff I trained with and carried in the sandbox. It fits in a quart ziploc bag and cost less than $30 (minus the 14 ga needles for tension pneumos, which I haven't gotten yet). I gave my wife an orientation on it and endured her eye-rolling in case I'm not around or I'm the victim.