Does my donor have to be same blood type as me?

[Mindy73]

Probably a stupid question that I should already know the answer to but somehow I don't so I just wondering, I'm blood type O so would my donor need be O also?

[WYOAnne NKF Ambassador]

This is my understanding...that type O is a universal donor ( so you could give to anyone), but you can only accept blood, kidney transplant, etc. from another type O person.

[Mindy73 in reply to WYOAnne]

Thank you 🙂

[Transplant2018]

Remember that if you have an approved donor with an incompatible blood type, you could do a paired exchange.

[PuggyWuggy in reply to Transplant2018]

E xcelent point!

[JoanC645]

Usually, yes! O is the universal donor, so anyone can receive O neg blood. A is actually AO so can receive A or O; B is BO so can receive B or O; AB is ABO so can receive A, B or O (universal recipient). For some uses, the recess factor matters - positive can have positive or negative, but negative can only have negative, but for kidney transplantation, the recess factor does not matter. So generally, you would need to have a donor with blood group O, but there are some hospitals now which can, in some cases, carry out non- ABO compatible transplants - not for everyone though - it will depend on the antibodies that the donor and recipient have in their blood. I am O neg and was tested for compatibility with an A type donor, but I had too many antibodies against blood group A. Hope this helps.

[Mindy73 in reply to JoanC645]

Thanks!

[JoanC645]

You are welcome!

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