Lab coats and gloves were on as Georgia Gwinnett College (GGC) students recently practiced blood typing in a laboratory setting. The exercise followed classroom lessons about the immune system, with students applying their knowledge to determine the blood type of four patients using synthetic blood samples.
Dr. Victoria Bali, assistant professor at GGC, emphasized the significance of proper donor-recipient matching during transfusions and highlighted the dangers of mismatched blood types. “I stress the importance of matching correct donors and recipients for transfusions and understanding mismatch reactions,” Bali said. “The immune system recognizes foreign substances and will defend the body by attacking them. That’s why accurate blood typing is critical – so your immune system does not attack the new blood you are receiving.”
Bali explained that understanding how antibodies work is key to identifying blood types: “One way the immune system defends the body is by producing antibodies that target these foreign substances,” she said. “We use this property of the immune system to correctly identify a person’s blood type.”
Her lecture also covered universal donors and recipients, noting that O-negative individuals can donate to all blood types while AB-positive individuals can receive from any type.
Sherika Wilkerson, a senior nursing student from Lawrenceville, found practical value in the lesson. “Dr. Bali’s lecture helped me to work with my lab partners to easily identify the different blood types we had,” Wilkerson said. “This is important to know so that patients I’m helping receive the correct blood.”
Rame Muner, a junior planning for a medical career, agreed: “Receiving the correct blood type is lifesaving,” he said.
According to information from the National Institutes of Health, receiving an incompatible blood type can cause reactions such as destruction of red blood cells, fever, back pain, kidney failure or even death.
Blood donations remain vital for hospitals treating trauma victims, surgical patients, mothers during childbirth and those battling diseases like cancer or Sickle Cell disease.
The Association for Blood Donor Professionals notes that Type O is both common and highly sought after because people with O-positive can donate to any positive blood type—a group representing over 80% of people.
