Would a hospital do this?

[Alpo]

You are in an accident. You are taken unconscious to the hospital. You are wearing a set of dog tags.

 

Would they automatically give you the blood type that it said on the tag, or would they check first?

 

Online story. He is wearing his dead wife's dog tags. I presume that it would just have initials for the first middle name - S.J. Johnson, like that? Because I'm pretty sure that "Sarah Jane Johnson" would be a good clue that these were not his dog tags.

 

And he and his wife did not have the same type of blood, so they gave him the wrong blood and he goes into a coma.

 

Would a hospital actually do something like that, or was that just the author's way to make putting him in a coma work?

 

Seemed kind of dumb to me,  but a lot of things people do seem kind of dumb to me.

[John Barleycorn, SASS #76982]

No, and full my name is on my dog tags, only initial is middle name.

[Cypress Sun]

 

They'd check. That's why they have all of those whistles and bells every time they come into the room...lawyers and lawsuits.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

I was told they always check. They have seen mistakes.

[Ozark Huckleberry]

In the time it would take to warm the blood for transfusion, the type can be checked -- it only takes about 10 minutes or so.

 

In the event that it was such a dire emergency that there wasn't time, the ER would probably just go straight to type O (universal donor).

[Okie Sawbones, SASS #77381]

O Neg blood would be given in a life or death situation, while the lab did a type and cross match.

[John Kloehr]

6 hours ago, Alpo said:

You are in an accident. You are taken unconscious to the hospital. You are wearing a set of dog tags.

 

Would they automatically give you the blood type that it said on the tag, or would they check first?

A bit of assumption, but a military hospital (field hospital or other) would go by the tags because the tags presumably belong to the individual.

 

A civilian hospital will not go by the tags, protocols get followed. Events happen in s certain order. Every. Single. time.

[Cypress Sun]

11 minutes ago, John Kloehr said:

A bit of assumption, but a military hospital (field hospital or other) would go by the tags because the tags presumably belong to the individual.

 

A civilian hospital will not go by the tags, protocols get followed. Events happen in s certain order. Every. Single. time.

 

The last time that I was in the hospital, I was in for 10 days. Every time anyone came in the room or did anything (including BP read), the first thing they would ask is Name and Date of Birth. I must have said it at least 20 times a day/night. It was that was the entire time I was in there...until...

 

They took me down to an area to take the drain tubes that went into my Pleura/lung area. The area consisted of a bunch of stalls with curtains between each stall.

The doc came in, removed the tubes and left. One problem, they never asked my name or dob until AFTER the procedure. Right after the doc left, the nurse behind a desk, about 15' away, said "Oops, we never asked your name or dob. You are (real name) aren't you?"

 

At this point, I knew I was getting out real soon, so I decided to mess with her so I said "Who?" She repeated my name but a lot less casual that before. I said "Never heard of him." She rose from the desk and said "Well, what is your name" with a note of alarm in her voice. I replied "Jacob McCandles". Just then, the guy in the stall next to me (who I couldn't see because of the sheet) said "I thought you was dead." At this point I started to laugh, which hurt like hell, and the nurse figured out that I was just messing with her. I thought it was quite funny...her, not so much.

[John Kloehr]

8 minutes ago, Cypress Sun said:

 

The last time that I was in the hospital, <great story follows>

Many years ago, my ex-BIL.s girlfriend was studying to be an RN, so she was taking everyone's blood pressure. I obliged.

 

I let her get about 4 or 5 pumps in before going ow-ow OW! The panic on her face was so obvious I busted up! She punched me hard. I deserved it.

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

Hospital stays suck enough as it is without tweaking the nose of someone who has the power of making your stay relatively comfortable - or miserable. 

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

12 hours ago, John Kloehr said:

Many years ago, my ex-BIL.s girlfriend was studying to be an RN, so she was taking everyone's blood pressure. I obliged.

 

I let her get about 4 or 5 pumps in before going ow-ow OW! The panic on her face was so obvious I busted up! She punched me hard. I deserved it.

I’ve been known to say OW before getting stuck.

[bgavin]

Always make friends with your nurse(s) and treat them like the angels of mercy they are.
Sometimes, the nurse is the only thing preventing the doctor from killing you.
Two of my daughters are RNs, and both will attest to this.

50% of all medical people graduate in the bottom half of their class.
The quality of the entire hospital is determined solely by the quality of the person working on you.

[Dusty Devil Dale]

On 8/21/2023 at 9:34 AM, Alpo said:

You are in an accident. You are taken unconscious to the hospital. You are wearing a set of dog tags.

 

Would they automatically give you the blood type that it said on the tag, or would they check first?

 

Online story. He is wearing his dead wife's dog tags. I presume that it would just have initials for the first middle name - S.J. Johnson, like that? Because I'm pretty sure that "Sarah Jane Johnson" would be a good clue that these were not his dog tags.

 

And he and his wife did not have the same type of blood, so they gave him the wrong blood and he goes into a coma.

 

Would a hospital actually do something like that, or was that just the author's way to make putting him in a coma work?

 

Seemed kind of dumb to me,  but a lot of things people do seem kind of dumb to me.

No.  It takes only a few minutes to type and cross a blood sample, so the hospital would do that first.  But that is not saying mistakes don't get made.  quite a few people handle donated blood, so there is opportunity for human error in labeling, etc.