Woman dies after Blood Transfusion

I like the summary of problems with blood in this article. SR woman dies after transfusionInvestigators suspect death tied to pint of blood administered before death; supply called 'safe'

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

By CAROL BENFELLTHE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Health care officials are focusing on a single pint of blood to determine what went wrong in the death of an 86-year-old Santa Rosa woman Sunday following a transfusion at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.

Memorial Hospital and the Blood Bank of the Redwoods, which supplied the blood for the transfusion, are investigating all aspects of the handling, storage and administration of the blood in an effort to find out what killed Margaret Perry of Santa Rosa.

No other units of blood have been recalled, and transfusions are continuing at Sonoma County hospitals, said Cathy Bryan, president and CEO of Blood Bank of the Redwoods.

"The blood supply is safe," Bryan said, citing the regular screening and testing of donated blood. "We have every reason to believe this was an isolated incident, involving one unit of blood only.

"She would not comment on the details of the investigation. The state Department of Health Services and federal Food and Drug Administration also are investigating, as they do when a hospital patient dies under unusual circumstances.

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Each year, more than 4 million people undergo blood transfusions, according to the American Association of Blood Banks.

About one in every 500,000 people who receive a blood tranfusion dies as a result, according to a 1997 paper in the American Journal of Clinical Pathology.

Most transfusion-related illnesses and deaths are the result of mismatches, where the donor's blood is not compatible with the patient's blood, or of viral infections carried from the blood of the donor to the recipient.

The risk of receiving infected blood has been greatly reduced in recent years as tests have been introduced for such things as syphilis, hepatitis, HIV and West Nile virus.

However, non-infectious reactions continue to be a risk. Bacterial contamination may result from skin bacteria that get into the bloodstream through the injection site, contaminated injection apparatus or during handling or administration of the blood.

Deaths from bacterial contamination occur about once in every 9 million transfusions, according to medical journals.

Of 182 transfusion-associated fatalities reported between 1986 and 1991, 29 - 16 percent - were caused by bacterial contamination, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.