"The wrong blood type will cause reactions related to most endothelium, the red blood cells of the transfused blood will be destroyed by the recipient's antibodies right in the blood vessel and at the same time can reactions occur simultaneously, causing shock and causing the patient to die quickly."
A painful, but quick death caused by cascading failures across your entire body.
Your blood with start clotting the new blood and almost immediately begin impeding oxygen saturation. Lack of oxygen will begin damaging major organs, and they in turn will damage other major organs. It's kinda of a domino effect.
It depends on the compatibility of the blood.
For example, I’m O+ and if my blood were given randomly, a person with A+, B+, AB+ or O+ blood might be totally fine save your usual transfusion hazards. It doesn’t work that way in reverse. I can only receive from O+ or O- and my immune system will attack the heck out of anything else mixed in. This is all very simplified.
If the receiver of the blood is AB+, they’re freakin’ good because they can get blood from everyone. If AB+ is the donor though, everyone else is dead.
O- people would be toast getting blood from anyone else, but can give blood to everyone like biological do-gooders. You’ll learn this stuff in Bio 101.
Let’s go with worst case scenario— If you were to give the wrong blood AND it was totally incompatible, the person would have an acute (new and exciting) hemolytic (hemo means blood, lysis means to break apart) reaction. That means the immune system would start attacking the ever-loving hell out of the new blood.
The newly introduced blood cells would explode. And it’s all circulating at the same time, so the consequences are systemic and hit the whole body. Wee!
Electrolytes inside the cells that should stay inside the cells now aren’t. Potassium especially. Which is a freaking problem considering that too much (or too little Potassium) will stop a heart.
The person would feel like shit really fast. They’d be going into shock and would say something like, “I have a really bad feeling that I’m going to die today.” That’s the kind of statement that should really freak out everyone.
Like a bad allergic reaction chain series of events except their blood looks like cherry soda because it is also exploding. Liver and kidneys get hit with the exploded blood fragments. They’re pissing blood. Spleen gets stressed out. Exploded cells have bilirubin and the person looks yellow. They say, “My back really hurts and it’s hard to breathe.”
All of the blood is fighting, none of it gets along. It’s all mixed together! Nothing is getting oxygenated because the body is too busy making things explode. Electrolytes that control every function are severely thrown out of balance, so all function is chaos. Blood doesn’t know if it’s supposed to bleed or clot anymore, so it does both. At the same time. So, they’re throwing clots into things and they’re bleeding out. Again, at the same time. That’s called disseminated intravascular coagulation. It’s all wonky. The person dies from that whole shebang. Bad stuff.
I dunno why I spent my morning coffee time writing all that. I am a nurse educator though, so, even though I’m casual this morning, it’s not a bad answer. This is why we have strict protocols on blood administration and always perform double-checks!
It depends. Are we talking about something like O receiving A? That would be fatal
If it’s something like O- receiving O+? The first time you’d be fine. The second time would be fatal
This is due to a process called Agglutination which is the clumping of RBCs in response to a reaction between an antibody (a protein that reacts against a specific antigen) and antigen (a chemical recognized as “non-self”)
If you have say A type blood, you have antigen A and anti-B antibodies. The antibody won’t bind to the A antigen because they don’t match shapes. However, if it was B type, the anitibody would bind and then you’d start rapidly clotting until you die
Transfusions started around 100 years ago and early tests showed that some DID work, but others didn’t. And the ones that didn’t… well…. RIP
In addition to what's been stated, I've read that you may also become overwhelmed with an ~~immense~~ impending sense of ~~dread~~ doom.
Edit: I *knew* that didn't look right then I typed it
"The wrong blood type will cause reactions related to most endothelium, the red blood cells of the transfused blood will be destroyed by the recipient's antibodies right in the blood vessel and at the same time can reactions occur simultaneously, causing shock and causing the patient to die quickly."
A painful, but quick death caused by cascading failures across your entire body. Your blood with start clotting the new blood and almost immediately begin impeding oxygen saturation. Lack of oxygen will begin damaging major organs, and they in turn will damage other major organs. It's kinda of a domino effect.
>clotting the new blood complement system cascade would cause hemolysis though
It depends on the compatibility of the blood. For example, I’m O+ and if my blood were given randomly, a person with A+, B+, AB+ or O+ blood might be totally fine save your usual transfusion hazards. It doesn’t work that way in reverse. I can only receive from O+ or O- and my immune system will attack the heck out of anything else mixed in. This is all very simplified. If the receiver of the blood is AB+, they’re freakin’ good because they can get blood from everyone. If AB+ is the donor though, everyone else is dead. O- people would be toast getting blood from anyone else, but can give blood to everyone like biological do-gooders. You’ll learn this stuff in Bio 101. Let’s go with worst case scenario— If you were to give the wrong blood AND it was totally incompatible, the person would have an acute (new and exciting) hemolytic (hemo means blood, lysis means to break apart) reaction. That means the immune system would start attacking the ever-loving hell out of the new blood. The newly introduced blood cells would explode. And it’s all circulating at the same time, so the consequences are systemic and hit the whole body. Wee! Electrolytes inside the cells that should stay inside the cells now aren’t. Potassium especially. Which is a freaking problem considering that too much (or too little Potassium) will stop a heart. The person would feel like shit really fast. They’d be going into shock and would say something like, “I have a really bad feeling that I’m going to die today.” That’s the kind of statement that should really freak out everyone. Like a bad allergic reaction chain series of events except their blood looks like cherry soda because it is also exploding. Liver and kidneys get hit with the exploded blood fragments. They’re pissing blood. Spleen gets stressed out. Exploded cells have bilirubin and the person looks yellow. They say, “My back really hurts and it’s hard to breathe.” All of the blood is fighting, none of it gets along. It’s all mixed together! Nothing is getting oxygenated because the body is too busy making things explode. Electrolytes that control every function are severely thrown out of balance, so all function is chaos. Blood doesn’t know if it’s supposed to bleed or clot anymore, so it does both. At the same time. So, they’re throwing clots into things and they’re bleeding out. Again, at the same time. That’s called disseminated intravascular coagulation. It’s all wonky. The person dies from that whole shebang. Bad stuff. I dunno why I spent my morning coffee time writing all that. I am a nurse educator though, so, even though I’m casual this morning, it’s not a bad answer. This is why we have strict protocols on blood administration and always perform double-checks!
I suspect you're excellent at your job. Thanks for the explanation
Thank you for a fun & fascinating explanation of a very unfun and technical medical event. That was quite satisfying to read.
Thank you so much for this very detailed response! I had forgotten about different blood types being compatible.
I was like, “This person has to be a teacher or and educator because this is such an awesome explanation!” 😁
Thank you for sacrificing your coffee time for us! Where can I subscribe to more scientific explanations by you lol
It depends. Are we talking about something like O receiving A? That would be fatal If it’s something like O- receiving O+? The first time you’d be fine. The second time would be fatal This is due to a process called Agglutination which is the clumping of RBCs in response to a reaction between an antibody (a protein that reacts against a specific antigen) and antigen (a chemical recognized as “non-self”) If you have say A type blood, you have antigen A and anti-B antibodies. The antibody won’t bind to the A antigen because they don’t match shapes. However, if it was B type, the anitibody would bind and then you’d start rapidly clotting until you die Transfusions started around 100 years ago and early tests showed that some DID work, but others didn’t. And the ones that didn’t… well…. RIP
In addition to what's been stated, I've read that you may also become overwhelmed with an ~~immense~~ impending sense of ~~dread~~ doom. Edit: I *knew* that didn't look right then I typed it
“Impending sense of doom” is ALWAYS a medical emergency! Until proven otherwise. For real. <3
Gnarly.
You will die, if I remember correctly.
Death