Blood Type Tape

[NREMT-Basic]

Hey military types-

My disaster team has recently started talking about having us wear blood type tapes sewn on our BDUs. Since we dont have the abundance of velcro that you all do, any suggestions as to wear it might be seen, yet not affect the look of the uniform and also not go overlooked. I have thought of the back of my boonie, back trouser pocket flap and have even thought about stitching it to my boot

Any help from you military types would help.

thnks.

[p3medic]

I would be very surprised if a medical facility would use the tapes blood type without double checking it, I could be wrong....In the service we had the blood type on our dog tags, and its on my body armor, but again, Its probably not necessary, they'll re-check anyway....IMHO

[Ridryder 911]

Waste of time and money. Before any hospital administers a specific type, they will have to type and cross match. The old ARC blood cards, etc.. is for PR purposes only. Legally, they have to perform this, of course O- can be administered until a specific match is made.

R/r 911

[chbare]

Agreed. With the exception of emergent O- transfusions pending a crossmatch, facilities will do a type and crossmatch prior to administering blood products. Spend the money on additional equipment or educational material. IMHO.

Take care,

chbare.

[Just Plain Ruff]

plus there is a good chance that you may get a hole where the ribbon is if you go into combat. If there is a hole where the ribbon was, then it defeats the purpose.

[NREMT-Basic]

plus there is a good chance that you may get a hole where the ribbon is if you go into combat. If there is a hole where the ribbon was, then it defeats the purpose.

We are a state funded medical disaster response team. Though it exists, the chance of us getting shot are significantly less than some of the others we take. Also, type on a tape or tag has never been used as a totally reliable source, but rather as a place to start...a short cut of you will.. As far as "universal type" transfusions, you can only get along so far on those.

[Asysin2leads]

Type and crosses take about 2.6 secs. I don't care if the Terminators are coming over the next ridge, the chances of you being in a position where whole blood is readily available, you need it, and for some god blessed reason they just can't do a type and cross, is really, really, really, really, really slim. I know you increase the chicks-dig-danger-factor, but seriously, its not necessary.

[Dustdevil]

Yeah, even out here, we don't take anybody's word for it. Not even the dog tags. Way too much risk for no gain. Early in the war, somebody thought this was a good idea, and you'd see entire platoons with their blood type Magic Markered on their hand. And ever now and then I still see some n00b Army National Guardsman wearing a blood type tag, but it goes away pretty quickly. There's just no use for it. And if we don't use them here, you can bet that no hospital in the U.S. is going to use it.

I dunno... maybe your team is so tight that they are comfortable relying on these things for treating their own team members. I suppose that is possible. But really, I'd be surprised to find two or more nurses or physicians on that team agree to it.

[NREMT-Basic]

I decided to save the money and have CPR instructions tattooed on my sternum.

[Asysin2leads]

You can never go wrong with duct tape and a sharpie.