Autologous Transfusion

ONE DAY a middle-aged married couple came to the blood bank requesting that a unit of blood be drawn from the husband. The wife was scheduled for surgery in ten days and the blood to be drawn was to be kept for possible use at that time. Although the woman had been told that there was only a remote possibility that a transfusion would be required she thought that if she were to get any blood she wanted it to be "safe" blood from someone she thought had not had hepatitis or any other disease with which she could be infected through transfusion. Her fears were prompted by recent federal interest in hepatitis transmission through blood, as well as by malpractice cases concerned with instances of hepatitis resulting from blood transfusion (all of which have been covered in depth by newspapers and other lay publications). It was soon learned that