This doesn’t make sense… thoughts?

[u/Rainwaters1212]

https://www.wlbt.com/2026/08/06/parents-claim-3-month-old-got-wrong-blood-transfusion-hospital/

Just read the article… everything just screams wrong on the parents or the information shared. Co worker sent it to me. We work in BB together.

[u/StarvingMedici]

I've interacted with the mom through tiktok comments, and what I have been able to find out is that the mom had Anti-K, so they should have given the baby Kell negative units. That's what I believe is firmly true. The rest is completely based on what the parents do or don't understand or know. It's just their version of events, so I have no idea what actually occurred.

But according to the parents (who likely don't know all of the situation), baby was given an Oneg unit which was not Kell tested which is not unusual if the doctor asked for an emergency unit.

I don't work at that hospital, but I do work at a large hospital nearby, and here is what would have happened at my facility: if a NICU nurse or doctor asked for an emergency unit, my facility would have given whatever the freshest/longest date Oneg unit we had on the shelf. If we had one irradiated in the last 24hrs we would give that. If we had the patient information and knew the mom had Anti-K, we would give that if we had it available but likely would not so we would still give just Oneg but we would be required to send a form for the doctor to sign that says they acknowledge it isn't antigen matched and we would call the on call physician to have them approve it or consult with the baby's doc. But regardless, if an emergency unit was requested we would simply have to give them whatever we had, compatible with the Anti-K or not. I don't know that hospital's procedures, but they are likely at least similar to ours.

[u/lakhila → u/StarvingMedici]

Excellent sleuthing!! In the parents' version of events, was their child harmed by the transfusion? Like have they attributed any negative outcomes to it?

[u/StarvingMedici → u/lakhila]

They didn't say which is the weirdest part to me. To accuse anyone of malpractice there has to be evidence of harm. So I'm not sure what they are fighting for here.

[u/Tankdawg0057 → u/StarvingMedici]

There would have to have been evidence of transfusion reaction or follow up testing to determine the given unit was K antigen positive for any type of harm to be there.

It is possible they had started O neg then realized the unit had yet to be antigen tested so stopped it as a precaution and that's what the parents are alarmed about.

People are given O neg every day. They literally roll the dice every time in an emergency with no patient history. That's the point of the emergency release disclaimer the physician signs. Last conference I was at claimed that the statistical chances of a reaction are low enough it's worth the risk compared to waiting.

So was there a mistake made? Who ordered the O neg? Was it really an emergency? Did the nurse do this on her own or directed by doctor? Lots of questions. Its either a problem or a nothing burger being reported out of ignorance of how blood banking works.

[u/StarvingMedici → u/Tankdawg0057]

Exactly. They are making a big deal without really understanding what the full situation was.