Blood Transfusions

I'm not absolutely certain but I believe that the blood in many cases is separated into it's component parts before it is introduced into another body. As for a direct transfusion I suppose there are different methods used depending on the urgency of the situation.

Check these out ;

http://www.medicinenet.com/blood_transfusion/article.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_transfusion

It don't sound stupid question at all.

I am also not very sure about all blood transfusion process and methods, But as of I know in some cases they do direct transfusion. probably trace amount of these hormones is acceptable in some cases.My guess.

Hi ally 8,

You question on Blood Transfusion is not at all stupid!

I think you have asked what others may have wondered about but, because most people have little to do with transfusion directly, it is not that obvious what that 'red stuff' is they are pumping into you? Of course they do not pump it in bu drip it in as fast as the body and circulation can take it.

Get back if you want to know more. I see you have some advice so will leave it at that.

Take care

Number 3 is totally correct except for the freezing part.

A few years back my wife had some serious spinal surgery. During the third of five all-day surgeries, a blood vessel was torn, and she received 32 units of whole blood before the tear could be repaired. The first two units were 'self donations' that she had banked in the weeks before surgery, the rest were from whichever fine citizens of San Francisco had felt the urge to donate blood that month. When she awoke from surgery she was of course groggy, but she was her normal outgoing self. But a day later both I and her doctors noticed a major change in her personality. She became very sullen and withdrawn. I asked the lead surgeon and the other doctors what was up, and if they thought the blood from a few dozen strangers might be the cause. They were of course vague in their responses (the threat of lawsuits is always and issue), but did admit that it was a possibility. Within a week or so she had her own personality back. I knew that the body replaces all the blood in circulation within about a week, so it was likely that by this time all the blood was now 'hers', with her own hormones and whatever other chemical messengers go to make up what we call personality.

While this hardly a scientific answer to the question, my guess is that yes, the hormones (both sex and mood) were responsible. Since then she has had two more equally gnarly surgeries, but without the blood loss. In neither of these cases did the strange personality changes occur.

johnfotl another possibility is that she may have been chilled down and put on a heart lung machine during the surgery to protect her brain during surgery due to blood loss. there have been NUMEROUS reports of people who have undergone cardiac bypass surgery (and were put on heart lung machines while their heart was stopped.) who experienced significant neurological defects for months and in some rare instances, years, after having been put on heart lung machines. the current thinking is that HL machines can cause small clots to form due to turbulent flow causing platelets to stick to each other in the plumbing of the pump that in turn cause small "micro-strokes". but the phenomenon is still not well understood. The colloquial term is called "pump head".

Hello johnfoti,

Sorry to hear about your wifes troubles, and hope she is as well as can be.

I doubt the blood would effect mood and other similar changes.

As Rorschach said, it is to do with the chilling during the operation. In effect they possibly 'wiped' a few minutes of memory and, the change in mood could be a natural safety kind of thing, 'to be constantly aware' if all is not well and comfortable around someone personally. (No pun intended).

I think the Doctors were telling you what you wanted to here when they said what they did about the blood coming from strangers. Just to help stop you from worrying quite so much.

The mood change is also more than likely to do with the Anaesthetics and large amounts of pain suppressants.

When someone is very ill or recovering from a sever illness, they almost always go 'into themselves,' become introverted and do not appear to want to discuss anything. This is just the bodies 'auto-immune' and other systems doing their job, and in effect concentrating your wife's focus on everything that has to do with her recovery, while stopping her from having to concentrate on what, to her was not something necessary at that moment in time, for however long "that moment" lasts...... Anytime fro a few minutes to several months or years if someone is having Kemo'?

Do not forget, that type of extremely invasive Surgery, involves just about every organ and sub system which go to help anyone stay on an even keel.

Any blood would soon have been cleaned by the liver and kidneys, and mixed with her own blood very quickly and would have gone back to being the carrier of oxygen and nutrients and all its other vital work.

You say your wife had other "gnarly" operations where there was no lose of blood? Perhaps they were "Key-hole" procedures which often does not loose a lot of blood, as the surgeon is working in a 'cavity' which is a part of the bodies flesh or skin pumped up with air or similar to give room to operate with no need for a large cut which in turn can lead to complications.

The last bit was guessing on my part but I think you can see what I mean.

FYI:

http://www.newenglandblood.org/faq.htm#faq63

Can't Blood Be Stored For Future Disasters?
Whole blood is separated into its component parts after donation. Red blood cells can be stored as liquid for only 42 days. Because of the cost, special handling and logistics involved, red blood cells are not routinely frozen for future use. Red blood cells from extremely rare donors are sometimes frozen for up to 10 years; however, platelets are viable for only five days and can't be frozen. Frozen plasma can only be used for up to one year. Because red blood cells have a 42 day shelf life and platelets, commonly used for cancer patients, only last for five days, we must replenish the national supply daily to ensure a steady blood supply when and where it's needed.

Take care and good luck to your wife and you of course!

Hi Babybear,

Thank you for your kind words and thoughts. I would be inclined to agree with you, but when I said gnarly that is what I meant. My wife has had her spine fused from the pelvis to just between her shoulder blades, with two titanium rods and about two dozen screws into her vertebrae. This surgery is so involved, that in fact it requires two 8 to 10 hour surgeries: one from the front where bone fragments are placed around the spine, and a second about a week later from the back, where the rods and screws are installed. If you put the incisions end to end they would run maybe one and a half meters. The surgeries (front and back again) had to be repeated a year later because the rods and screws were comming apart. A fifth surgery was required about two years after that to extend the rods further up the spine because two of the screws at the top had pulled loose. Again if you put all the incisions end to end the grand total would be over three meters. Only after the one surgery where the blood vessel was torn did she have this problem. You may be right, but if the personality change was a result of the anaesthetics and large amounts of pain suppressants, she had these with every surgery. One other issue - I don't think it likely that after loosing 32 unints of blood, that any of the ten units of her own blood that she started with was left. But again, thank you for your kindness and for the helpful links.

Thanks for all the comments!

but with regards to your wife, i like the idea that it could be the hormones in the blood. it'd be interesting to know for sure.

but i'd probably say her change in mood and personality was just depression or shock from having such a major life changing operation, which sounded awful. If this had happened to me i'd take some time to get over it.

Hope all is well now though :)

The blood banking industry as well as the pharmaceutical industry has specific guidelines when individuals donate blood. One very prominent prostate medication advertized currently on US channels stresses at the end of the commercial not to donate blood until after stopping the drug for 6 months. The particular hormone in the drug can cause birth defects if women of child bearing age were to touch the pill or recieve the medication in a blood transfusion. The hormones can bind in the serum (liquid part) as well as bind to platelets and Red Blood Cells(RBC's). When we transfuse platelets and RBC's in some "compromised" patients we can "wash" the platelets and RBC's to remove some of the undesirable proteins and chemicals. Blood transfusions can cause some patients to react to the hormones when certain blood products are given. In particular female hormones seem to be somewhat more prominent. An example frequently seen are male infants born to women with higher than average hormone levels. At birth, they can have enlarged breast buds. This is caused by blood to blood transfusion across the placenta of the female hormones. Hope this gave you some more info.

Yes, I truly believe the new blood from a blood transfusion contains hormones. How your body accepts and responds to the hormones is truly up to the individual.

The 3 parts of blood: Red Blood Cells- which carry oxygen throughout the body Platelets - which help stop bleeding Plasma -(the liquid part of blood) which carries the red blood cells and platelets throughout the body. Plasma also helps platelets in stopping bleeding.

From Wikipedia:

Blood plasma is the yellow liquid component of blood in which the blood cells in whole blood are normally suspended. It makes up about 55% of the total blood volume. It is the intravascular fluid part of extracellular fluid (all body fluid outside of cells). It is mostly water (90% by volume) and contains dissolved proteins, glucose, clotting factors, mineral ions, hormones and carbon dioxide (plasma being the main medium for excretory product transportation).

Recently I had to have a blood transfusion (2 units) due to severe chronic anemia & menometrorrhagia (severe chronic vaginal bleeding).

Not only did the bleeding stop, but because of the "new, fresh" hormones in the blood, I am cured of my chronic heaving bleeding, clotting & spotting. My periods are back to normal. I am convinced this is due to the blood transfusion, along with its high hormonal contents.

I hope this helps someone who who might need a blood transfusion.

The hormones would be very unlikely to have remained in your system more than 24-48 hours at most. your cure cannot have been due to that.