Finding myself at a bit of a loose end I
thought I might do a BTLP-TACT exercise.
I was presented with one case – a seventy-two
year-old chap in A&E needing six units of blood for an AAA. Sadly neither
the NHS number nor the hospital number on the ample agreed with that on the
request form, so I rejected the request.
If it was truly urgent a repeat sample
could have been in my hands in minutes. That sample is only as good as its labelling,
and if the information on it comes from two different patients I have no way of
knowing from which sample it comes.
Giving six units of the wrong blood
group is not quite as sure a way of killing someone as letting them bleed to
death… but with a little effort both eventualities might be avoided.
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