On a fine Tuesday afternoon, already exhausted from my work at the donor screening bench, a fine, young and elegant fair-skinned man walked towards the donor bay with a boy.
“Phew, extra work for me”, I thought.
I approached him, we exchanged greetings and I offered them seats. He told me that his son had stomach upset and not long after, the stomach started enlarging. They’d seen a doctor and the son had been booked for surgery. He had just come to donate blood ahead of the scheduled date for surgery. I was actually impressed because most patient relatives I’ve worked with wait until the surgery day and then come to the blood bank to ask for blood they did not keep. I looked at the boy, dropped some playful remarks and proceeded to do my business on the donor screening bench (a work space for conducting lab tests to ascertain if a blood donor is fit for blood donation).
After asking the necessary questions, I took venous blood samples from the boy and his dad, and went ahead to run the tests.
After some minutes, I came back with the test results.
“Sir, your PCV is okay but your blood group does not match with your child’s. You’re B positive and your child is O positive. You cannot donate blood for him” I said.
He looked so disappointed. He told me how he didn’t want any other person’s blood to be given to his child. I asked of the mother and he called her on phone.
Few minutes later, a beautiful young woman with another boy walked down to the donor bay. It was past my work time but he begged me to be done with them before I go and I obliged. I proceeded with the same process and came back with the test results. But the wife was gone, she had an emergency to attend to
Yet again, I broke the news to the man.
“I am sorry Sir, her PCV is okay but she can’t donate for the child. She’s A positive. Her blood group does not match with his”.
It was like a bomb shell, the man was thrown into confusion. He was like, “wait I don’t understand. What are you trying to say?”. I already knew what was on his mind and I know you might be thinking same too.
I tried to calm him down but no, he refused to listen to what I had to say. I gave him some alone time to accept the news I had just given him and after a while, I then proceeded to explain what might have happened…
Now, dear readers, do you think the child is his or not? Is it possible for an A+ mother and a B+ father to give birth to an O+ child?
Drop your comments in the comment box and watch out for my next blog post which will be a comprehensive answer to these questions.
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Stay safe!
Maureen
Medtrix 