Knowing the blood group of a person can mean the question of life and death. If you are a good Samaritan that is helping a person who is bleeding, the first thing to really consider is the blood group. Since the transfusion of blood with a wrong blood group can cause death by clotting. This is a crucial information that you need to tell the emergency transport services when the patient is being transported to a hospital.
What actually constitutes the blood and what are the different groups in the same?
There is a lot of magic that happens in our body and our blood contains Red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets, clot inducing proteins and the list goes on. Primarily containing Hemoglobin, the RBC helps in the transport of oxygen to all parts of the body, the White blood cells to help with immunity against diseases.
Furthermore, the blood group of a person is decided on the presence of antigens and antibodies and the Rhesus factor. The Rhesus factor is determined also by the presence of the antigens on the RBC, the name is kept so since it was first discovered in the Rhesus Monkey.
The blood group of a person is tested with only three drops of blood, wherein they are tested to check if there are clumps or clots formed for a particular type. The same indicates if the blood group is A, AB, B or O groups and the presence of the Rh factor gives the + or – sign to the group.
These are the most well-spread groups that exist in all of the world, but there are some other groups that exist that make them slightly different from each other. There are 36 such types of blood groups that depend on the antigen and antibodies present. The Blood type also varies from place to place, with the most well-known blood group as the Bombay blood group also known as the HH blood group as well as INRA which was found in Lok Samparn Raktdan laboratory, Surat, Gujarat.
The HH group contains only the H antigen that suppresses the formation of Antigen A and B, results in this rare group. The people with this blood group can donate to blood to any one of the ABO group but can only receive blood transfusion form the same Bombay Blood group itself.
Interestingly a similar blood group of PP or the P null was discovered in a patient in India, in the coastal areas of Manipal, Karnataka. The rare blood group was found in a person admitted in Kasturba medical college and was tested against 80 other types without a match and finally, after being sent to Blood Group Reference laboratory in Bristol, England – they confirmed that the blood group was indeed rare and belonging to the PP group. This occurs in the presence of P antigens in the bloodstream.
Also Read: The rarest blood group – Bombay Blood Group
The people with these rare blood groups have very specific needs of the same type for blood transfusion making it a difficult situation in case they need to be transported from other countries.
It becomes vital to maintain a record of the blood group of yourself and the ones close to you so that if at all; God forbid disaster strikes, you are prepared with a list of donors who can donate blood. In case there is an urgent requirement of blood transfusion, VMEDO aids in mobilizing their network of donors to help the patient in need of blood.
VMEDO encourages people to donate blood regularly and help save mankind with their contribution. Donating blood is a relatively easy and hassle-free process contrary to the myths that one gets to read outside.
BE A HERO DONATE BLOOD REGULARLY !!