why is it that a corpe's blood cannot be use in blood transfusion?

Question

i had a friend who really needed a blood type ab and it so happened that we heard of a guy who recently died and is in the morgue rigth that moment.. we thought of using the corpse blood to tranfer to him but we were amazed when they said that it is not rigth. why?

Answer 1

I hope you are kidding.

Answer 2

Just like what everyone had been saying, the main reasons are:
1. The blood start clotting when the person died and getting it out will be difficult.
2. The blood cells die fairly quickly, so even if you get the blood out it's useless.
3. Even in normal blood donation, the donor (with blood pressure) need to pump his/her hand from time to time to help the blood flow out. For somebody without blood pressure? Impossible.
4. Donated blood need to be assessed meticulously for any possible blood-borne diseases such as HIV (AIDS), Hepatitis B, etc. You can't really do that on the corpse's blood... and you never know what the person died of.
5. Consent of the family... of course.

Finally there is a question I must ask. Your friend is type AB? For sure? Because if so I really cannot understand the need to use corpse blood. I'll assume your friend is AB+ for the sake of argument. Blood type AB+ is what we call "universal recipient", i.e. they can actually receive ANY type of blood. A, B, AB, O, +, -... So if your friend need blood that desperately and the blood bank is raided, YOU can give your blood to him, and leave the dead alone. AB- will be a little bit trickier, but that just mean he'll only receive - blood, but still all of the ABO blood groups.

Answer 3

There are a lot of possible reasons...

The guy who died may have had something serious...the blood does need to go through heavy screening before transfusions...if the guy had a blood disease, then there would be a hefty law suit. It's not easy to screen blood...it does take a number of tests to ensure that the blood is safe.

They are super picky about taking blood. If you have a piercing or tat it's 6mths to a year minimum before you can give blood. There's a number of criteria that need to be followed. Without the guy being alive to answer the questions, the doctors wouldn't know if he fit the criteria. Having anal intercourse is a no-no if you want to give blood - they wouldn't know otherwise. If you've been in jail for more than 48 hours, you can't give blood.

Or, you do need permission to use another person's organs or blood. Even if he's dead, him and his family still hold rights to the body

Or, blood requires oxygen...obviously when a person is dead they don't have oxygen...so the blood becomes deoxygenated and the red blood cells (they carry oxygen) will shrivel up.

Or, the blood begins to coagulate - or stick together. Think of when you cut your hand, the only reason why you stop bleeding is that your blood can coagulate.

Saying blood type AB is just the tip of the iceburg in terms of blood typing. We have to consider AB+ and AB- as well. You cannot be sure that the person was a direct match. If the person wasn't a complete match, then your friend's body would start attacking the transfused blood because it would be recognized as 'foreign'...this can have serious outcomes.

Answer 4

As soon as the person passed the heart stops pumping and the blood coagulates- a bit like jello. Also the blood no longer being cleaned by the kidneys....is contaminated.
In order for any body part to be given to another patient the deceased person needs to remain on life support to keep the oragns needed to retrive for transplant need to be continually oxygenated. Other wise the transplanted tissue is no longer viable. A person needs to be a know willing organ owner in order to give an organ to a person needing it.

I am almost sure that your question goes beyond what it seems to be.

Answer 5

well, even for the drs to use a dead person's organs, the dead person would have to give that permission while living.

When someone dies, I am sure the blood is no longer have oxygen and the organs able to filter out toxins, etc...so..


But I have always wondered, women who menstruate, why can't they make a special vacuum and collect that, some women bleed a lot! But now, many young girls take birth control pills and this stops much of it.

Please don't be too grossed. We are talking about possibly saving more lives with potential medical inventions.

Who would have thought tree bark would make aspirin or enzymes in certain worms make seraptalease (that anti-inflammatory and plaque eater used in Asia and Europe). Did I spell that right?

Answer 6

The biggest problem is that you can't get it out - there is no blood pressure so it won't go into the transfusion bag.
In addition, all organs, and blood is an organ, need to be removed from the body while fresh - meaning that the heart, lungs, liver, etc., are taken out immediately after death and any artificial support (heart machine, etc.) is kept going until just before removal.
Once the body is in the morgue, it is too late.

Answer 7

Blood begins to break down quickly after death, and starts to settle into the lower parts of the corpse, making retrieval difficult. Not to mention not knowing what the person died of, getting consent from relatives, etc.

Answer 8

are the blood banks really short ?

i would think that even if this was possible , would the blood be disease free ? i do not have any idea how long it takes to get a test result but i do know that the blood banks have made transfusions supposedly safer ?

assume your freind has no family ?

Answer 9

Blood carries Oxygen to the whole body, even blood itself.
The blood in a corpse has no oxygen, and therfore would
be of no benefit .( the blood would be dead as well).

Answer 10

Because it is dead blood. Rigor mortis sets in, causing the body to get stiff. Hense, corpses are called stiffs. The bio-chemical process that stiffens the muscles cannot be good for blood.

However, some doctors do use cadaver blood, as its called, with good results. Dr. Death (Dr. Kevorkian) has: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,872489,00.html

Answer 11

Blood clots. There's no useful blood in a corpse, not to mention there's no convenient way to extract enough to do any good once there's no circulation, even if it weren't clotted.