I got to perform my first-ever Gel Crossmatching yesterday. It made me nervous. In case you're wondering what I'm talking about, Crossmatching is a procedure done prior to Blood Tranfusion. It is done to verify if the Donor's blood is compatible to the Recipient's (patient) blood. Back then, Med Techs used the longer crossmatching procedure (involving slides and test tubes) but when the Gel Crossmatching technique (called as such due to the fact that the test uses GEL inside wells in a card (where Blood Typing and Crossmatching can be done) was introduced, it expedited the process and made things easier.
Since it had been my first time to do the Gel Crossmatching, I was guided by the Med Tech on duty (with other Med Techs looking on) and things went just fine in terms of making Red Cell suspensions and doing the entire crossmatching procedure. It can be done in just 30 minutes (incubation and centrifugation are involved) and then presto! The results can be interpreted. So, what made me nervous doing it yesterday? Being too aware of the fact that a Med Tech must be very, very careful when doing Crossmatching because it can put the patient's life at risk.
Early this morning, I did another crossmatching for a cancer patient. It went well and I couldn't have done it without the help/encouragement of my fellow Med Techs and above all, with the help and grace of God.
I'll talk more later. I'm still a little tired from my 8 am to 4 pm duty. All in a day's work. YAWN!
Bravenet Blog 
Blog Community
Get a Free Blog
Manage your Blog
bravenet.com