In a recent episode of the TV drama Next Station, Happiness, a doctor claimed that “direct relatives cannot donate blood to each other,” just in the nick of time for the leading lady Ady Ann to stop Vanness Wu from donating blood to little Hsiao Hsiao Pin. Vanness was still unaware that he was the little girl’s natural father. This got fans of the show talking, wondering whether or not there was actually any scientific basis for what the doctor said.
Medical professionals have told us that the writers of the show had got it right, and that if direct relatives donated blood to each other it could be fatal.
Although some people in the Internet chat rooms thought this was just a myth about similar blood types clashing, it did spark an online war of words amongst a lot of the show’s fans about whether it was true. Some thought the writers were just making it up; others said they had been given blood from their parents without any problems.
However, hematologists in Taiwan, Dr Marie Lin from the Mackay Memorial Hospital and Dr Tzeon-Jye Chiou, attending physician in the hematology department in Taipei’s Veteran General Hospital, have told us that the writers were not mistaken. Blood transfusions between direct blood relatives could, in fact, cause the serious illness Graft Versus Host Disease (GVHD).
Dr Lin explained that there were some extremely unusual genotype combinations within some families. If blood from someone in one of these families was donated to another member of that family, the donor’s blood might attack that of the recipient, like invited guests turning on the host. The results are often fatal.
Although this combination of genotypes is found in only about two percent of families in Taiwan, with a likelihood of GVHD occurring in as few as one percent, there is no treatment for it if it does occur, and the fatality rate is very high. It is, then, extremely important to prevent it from happening.
If it really is impossible to find an alternative donor at the time, and an emergency transfusion from a direct relative is the only choice, it could be considered. As Dr Lin pointed out, in such cases the blood given to the patient needs to first be irradiated so that the lymphocytes in the donor’s blood cannot harm the recipient. Only then can the blood be transfused into the patient.
According to Dr Lin, in addition to serious diseases such as this one, many people may have underlying diseases that they are not aware of, and for this reason using emergency donations from relatives is not as safe as using blood that has already gone through and passed tests.
(LIBERTY TIMES, TRANSLATED BY PAUL COOPER)
偶像劇「下一站，幸福」劇情漸入高潮，日前劇中醫師一句「直系血親不能輸血」，讓女主角安以軒及時阻止仍不知道自己是小孩生父的吳建豪輸血給小小彬，也引發戲迷們熱烈討論，此話究竟是否真有科學根據？
對此，醫師表示，偶像劇的編劇沒有寫錯，直系血親間輸血確實可能要命！
雖然部分網友認為這又是一個血型認親的老套，不過，網路上卻意外引發不少戲迷討論為什麼直系血親不能輸血？有人認為是編劇鬼扯，還有人說自己曾接受過父親輸血並沒有問題。
不過，國內血液醫學專家、馬偕醫院林媽利醫師及台北榮民總醫院血液腫瘤科主治醫師邱宗傑均表示，編劇並沒有寫錯，直系血親間輸血確實可能引發「移植物抗宿主」的嚴重疾病。
林媽利解釋，某些家庭因其親子間的基因型態組合非常特別，以至於直系血親間輸血時，輸入患者體內的血液，反而對患者發動攻擊，就像是「乞丐趕廟公」一樣，導致嚴重致命反應。
雖說台灣只有二％家庭有這類基因組合，且這些家庭發生「移植物抗宿主」疾病的機率也只有一％，但因一旦發生就無藥可解，且死亡率非常高，仍然不可不防。
如果真的一時找不到其他血液，只剩直系血親能緊急輸血時，也不是完全沒有解套方法。林媽利指出，只要先將要輸給患者的血液以放射線照射，讓血液中可能對患者發動攻擊的淋巴球不能作怪，再輸入患者體內即可。
林媽利說，除了這類嚴重致命疾病外，由於多數人不見得清楚自己是否有潛在疾病，因此親屬間緊急輸血，並不比已經檢驗過關的血液更安全。
（自由時報記者洪素卿）
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