Woman discovered to have an entirely new blood type baffling scientists
Getting bloodwork done is a very routine part of a medical examination, especially after reaching your 30s. Doctors use the information from your blood to decipher your overall health. Before surgeries or hospital stays, doctors also use your bloodwork to determine which blood type you have in the event of an emergency which may require a blood transfusion. Due to how our bodies respond to the wrong blood type being introduced in our bloodstream, it's imperative that doctors have the right blood type on hand during surgery.
It was this routine bloodwork before a surgical procedure that thrust an unnamed woman at the center of scientific discovery. The woman went in for a pre-surgery appointment where her blood was drawn to prepare for the procedure but something peculiar happened during the typing of her blood. No matter what blood type doctors mixed with in, her blood rejected it. The blood type of most people are positive or negative A, B, AB or O. Typically AB- is the blood type that is considered most rare but this woman has got that blood type beat.
Blood bags ready for life-saving transfusions.Photo credit: Canva
The 69-year-old woman was first discovered in 2011 but due to limited DNA technology at the time researchers were unable to identify her blood type. It wasn't until 2019 when they were able to do complete DNA sequences of her blood discovering that she has PIGZ Gene, a mutated gene that changes how protein bonds to red blood cells according to 10 News in Australia.
The woman from Guadeloupe, a French Caribbean island, isn't the only person with a blood type outside of the main eight types. There are actually 48 blood types in the world but the majority of people fit into one of the well known types. But when it comes to the woman of Guadeloupe, she's the first and only person with her blood type, which has now been named after the island in which she hails–GWADA NEGATIVE.
Patching up with love: Hands joined, hearts on sleeves.Photo credit: Canva
Since the unnamed woman is the only person with her blood type, she's only compatible with herself. Meaning that if she were to need a blood transfusion, she would need to be her own donor which can make things a little tricky. How exactly would she donate to herself if her blood is only compatible with itself? It would seem that in order to make sure there was blood available for the woman in the event of an emergency would be for the local hospital to ask her to donate her own blood. Logically, this seems to be the only thing that would make sense.
Hospitals keep a fairly large supply of donated blood to use during blood loss emergencies caused by accidents, gun or knife wounds and surgeries. That means they realistically should be able to stockpile and store her blood in the event that she would ever need a blood donation. It's unclear if that is something that the hospital has done or is considering. The woman does not want to be identified so there's no way to find out from her directly and hospitals have HIPAA protocols that would prohibit discussion on what they have decided.
Either way, the discovery raises questions about what happens in the future. Will they keep her blood to experiment and type other people who have the same mutation? Will they always need it stockpiled? Will researchers begin looking for more people with this one of a kind blood type? So many questions and no real way to have them answered.