It takes a lot of combined specifics to be a Living Liver Donor. None more important than Blood Type. Noncompatible blood causes a reaction in the blood that is deadly. Even the positive and negative can be seen as a noncompatible Blood Type match. So lets lay out some matches and nonmatches with a not so common and kind of anomaly in the A family.

The Blood Types are A+, A-, B+, B-, AB+, AB-, O+ and O- (there are a few rare types that we won’t discuss). Based on your blood cell antigens and antibodies it can be determined if you could be a match. The reason Type A and type B can’t match is based on the fact that if you are type A then you will have A antigens but you will also have B antibodies. And if you are type B then you have B antigens and A antibodies. Type Ab has both antigens and no antibodies. Type O has no antigens but both antibodies. The antigens and antibodies will attack each other if mixed. RH factor is that little + or -. The + means there is antigens in the factor and the – means there is no antigens. With a basic understanding let’s look at the Blood Type matches.

So, The Power of The “O” donor is very important as it can only receive from another O Blood Type. AB Blood Type can receive from anyone so let’s take them out of this conversation. The O blood Type is the hardest blood type to match and causes long wait times for recipients. The wait times for a liver by Blood Type are (longest to shortest) O, B, A, AB. So you can see why I feel so strongly about how important blood type O is when Donating.

If in any process it is found out that a donor is Blood Type O I strongly encourage and implore you to be open to the option of a paired liver transplant. As an O donor you have an opportunity to save 2 lives at the same time. Let’s say you are an O donor, and your loved one is blood type AB. This would mean that your O liver would go to save someone that can receive a liver from just about anyone that meets the rest of the criteria. Although this is a wonderful thing, I personally call this a wasted O liver. To lose the opportunity to transplant one of the hardest matches is something that I just struggle with understanding. Being a huge advocate of Living Liver paired transplants, I would advise everyone to research the subject and how it works. Just because the O liver is powerful it does not mean it is the only opportunity for a paired transplant. If you don’t find a match you could always trade Donors with someone that has a Donor match, and you have a Donor match for them. So, if you have an O Liver to give, I will ask you to do everything you can to get it into an O recipient. Talk with the Doctors, talk with the recipient, just keep talking! Oh, and I said there was an anomaly in the basic Blood Types. So I leave you with this. When my brother needed a Liver, He was Type O and I am Type A. Type A Blood Group has a Subgroup family. Subgroup A1 makes up approximately 80% of Type A and Subgroup 2 approximately 20%. Subgroup A2 can possibly match with Blood Type O! It takes a blood test to see if the antigens and antibodies don’t attack each other. So even though the basic chart says it doesn’t match there is always a possibility for a miracle so test for a match anyway.