eli5: What happens when you get a blood transfusion with the wrong/incompatible blood type?
In: Biology
The recipients immune system attacks substances in the donor blood, causing a transfusion reaction. There are six major types of transfusion reactions, which depend on the immune cells involved and their attack target in the donor blood. Depending on the type of transfusion reaction, symptoms vary from mild to life threatening, and treatment varies as well.
Depends on whats incompatible about it. If its ABO incompatible for example, you could die pretty quickly. If its RhD incompatible, maybe you’ll get a delayed hemolytic transfusion reaction, you’ll not feel great but won’t likely die. If its M/N incompatible, you may not even notice it or know about it until someone pehnotypes you and the units you were given and found it incidentally.
So, like just about everything in the world, it depends.
Your immune system thinks the blood cells are invading and the immune response turns your blood chunky and makes it impossible to flow
Your body has security guards called “white blood cells.” These security guards check the badges of workers called “red blood cells.” The badges are called antigens and there are different types depending on the “building” aka body. When an intruder with a mismatched badge comes in the security calls back up known as an immunal response. This response causes an inflammation throughout the body as all the “red alert” security system are activated known as a hemolytic reaction which is similar to a severe allergic reaction called anaphylaxis.
Your immune system sees it as something dangerous, and attacks as if it’s a virus or something equally dangerous. The killed cells release a lot of stuff, and your already-weakened body will basically give up on living if you aren’t given very intense medical care very quickly.
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