Question

You have entered a patient's room and explained that you need to draw blood, and the patient repeatedly refuses. What should you do?

1) Respect the patient's decision and document the refusal
2) Forcefully draw the blood against the patient's will
3) Call for assistance to hold the patient down and draw the blood
4) Try to convince the patient by explaining the importance of the blood draw

Answer 1

The agglutination of blood samples with both anti-A and anti-B antibodies indicates a normal response for a person with AB blood type. This is crucial to determine for blood transfusions, especially before a surgery.

Step-by-step explanation:

When a lab technician adds anti-A antibody to a blood sample and observes agglutination, and then adds anti-B antibody to another sample of the same blood which also agglutinates, this result indicates that the patient has blood type AB. Agglutination occurs when antigens on the surface of the blood cells bind with the added antibodies, causing the cells to clump together. In this case, the presence of both A and B antigens is confirmed, and so it is a normal response demonstrating that the patient has the AB blood type, which can accept both A and B antigens without an adverse reaction. This is particularly important to determine before a surgery to ensure that any blood transfusions are compatible with the patient's blood type.