Blood is thick!

“Flows like water but is thick and red!
Goes to your toes and to your head!
It warm and fresh and a nick gets a flood!
It your protection, your life! Tis your blood!”

It was the day before the exams (when is it not!?) and after a quick revision I ‘allowed’ myself a quick peek at the Amitabh Blockbuster!
It was a typical hindi masala and one scene I particularly remember when the three long lost brothers who do not know that they were brothers give their ‘blood’ to the mother of everyone which also they did not know; Nirupa Roy!

In the background of the three blood bottles, you get the title screen of the movie; ‘Amar, Akbar Anthony!’ Goosebumps!

khoon ka rishta!

read on!

If I had seen the scene in my medical college; it would have made my friends laugh and ridicule me for watching that in the first place!

Then again if you are watching such movies, you must not think logically! There are very few movies which get the ‘medical’ part right!

I remember watching one movie with one of my most favourite song called ‘Yeh wada raha’ in which Poonam dhillon meets with an accident and then after ‘plastic’ surgery gets turned into ‘Tina Munim’! Even as kids that did not seem right but the songs and the situation demanded such a drama and we did not think much about it!

One movie which defeated all logic and sense was our Mithun da movie! Mithun da gets injured and dies! Then his friend, ‘Keeps’ his brain intact and later on ‘transplants’ it to his wife who is in a coma and ‘brain dead!’ The wife wakes up with Mithun da in her brain with a female body! The reels of that movie cracks me up even now! But it was so entertaining!

Coming back to the blood brothers! So in the movie the blood from all the three ‘brothers’ was taken and ‘mixed’ in a single big bottle and given to the Mother which was the icing on the cake (though I actually like eggless sponge cake without any cream!)!

Then again, movies are not real is what we get to know when we see these movies!

The blood transfusion part though is not so unreal!

In fact in the olden days of wars and injury and trauma; the standard treatment was blood donation directly to the injured person!

Yes! Remember that all blood is red and since the colour of the blood is the same, there was no doubt that the blood which is running in two humans is the same! If you do not think his or her blood is good enough for someone then that is discrimination!

So ‘medical professionals’ also used to give blood directly to the injured! The only catch was that only some lucky folks who had this great luck of receiving the proper blood used to survive!

Most of the times though, the recipient would experience severe reactions including and not restricted to full body system failure or shock and even death!

If you survived a blood transfusion that makes you very lucky!
Many times there would be people who used to donate blood regularly who had high success rates of transfusion. Which means that the people who used to receive these blood usually survived and lived to tell the tale!

All these went on and the unpredictability remained till a scientist actually ‘discovered’ that not all blood is the same! Well, the colour is the same but all that is red is not blood or even the same blood!

Forget about humans having groupism! Even nature has already decided to ‘divide’ you into ‘groups!’! Now before you start getting angry (for that matter stop getting angry so much!); the group of blood are the Blood groups!

But even after the discovery of the primary groups called the A, B, AB and O; some incidents still used to happen. Till they discovered the Rhesus group!

Now practically there are several groups which is why even now some reactions do happen but we cannot test all the groups right?

So a blood type or blood group is a classification of blood, based on the presence and absence of antibodies and inherited antigenic substances on the surface of red blood cells (RBCs). These antigens may be proteins, carbohydrates, glycoproteins, or glycolipids, depending on the blood group system. Some of these antigens are also present on the surface of other types of cells of various tissues.

Blood types are inherited and represent contributions from both parents of an individual.

As of 31 December 2023, a total of 45 human blood group systems are recognized by the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT).
The two most important blood group systems are ABO and Rh; they determine someone’s blood type (A, B, AB, and O, with + or − denoting RhD status) for suitability in blood transfusion!

Another issue with the Nirupa roy scene above is that very rarely do people get whole blood transfusion! The blood you donate is actually separated into many components! Most whole blood donations are spun in centrifuges to separate it into transfusable components: red cells, platelets, and plasma. Plasma may be processed into components such as cryoprecipitate, which helps control the risk of bleeding by helping blood to clot! Also component called Granulocyte is separated. Granulocyte transfusions are commonly used in chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation patients.
Factor VIII and factor IX replacement products may also be derived from plasma or may be genetically engineered through recombinant technology that uses mammalian cell lines transfected with normal human genes that code for clotting factor proteins.

So when you donate blood, it can effectively go and save not one but three or more lives!

Now finally you would ask if there are so many blood groups, effectively which is the safest blood you can take!? Well, that safest blood for you is your own!

Which is why sometimes blood is taken from you before a major surgery in case you need a transfusion! This self donation Using your own blood, called autologous donation, can minimize your need for donated blood and reduce – but not eliminate – the risk of transfusion-related infections and allergic reactions! Or you can simply watch the golden days of multiple blood transfusion! Which reminds me of the golden voice of celebrity Ravindra Jain!

Now ‘donate’ your body some rest!
Shubh ratri!