Tagreed Alkaltham: From Donor to Bedside – The Courage Behind Safe Transfusion Practice
Tagreed Alkaltham, Transfusion Medicine Lab Supervisor at KSMC, shared a post on LinkedIn:
”From Donor to Bedside: Courage to Uphold Policy Protects Every Step.
In transfusion medicine,
- Policies are not limited to one moment.
- They begin long before a patient needs blood. And they continue long after it is issued.
From donor selection to blood collection.
From infectious disease screening to grouping and cross-matching.
From storage conditions to transport.
From verification to final administration at the bedside.
- Every step is written.
- Every step is intentional.
- Every step exists to protect patients.
But policies alone do not ensure safety.
Courage does.
Because courage is tested in two directions:
1. Internal Discipline; Inside the Blood Bank:
Courage is required to follow the full process from donation to issuance.
- To resist skipping a verification step because the shift is long.
- To repeat a test because something feels inconsistent.
- To reject a unit when quality is questionable.
- To document completely, even when no one is watching.
- And to resist external pressure to decline unnecessary urgency, to refuse inappropriate activation, and to stand firm when physicians push for shortcuts.
Safety is rarely compromised by dramatic failure.
It is compromised by the quiet normalization of shortcuts in any step from donor eligibility to post-transfusion reaction workup.
Every policy protects the patient we may never meet.
2. External Pressure; On the Clinical Side:
Courage is also required before blood is even requested.
- To assess whether transfusion is truly indicated.
- To optimize alternatives when appropriate.
- To exhaust other options when possible.
- To request the correct number of units based on clinical need, not assumption.
- To avoid unnecessary urgency.
- To avoid activating Massive Transfusion Protocol (MTP) without true criteria.
Because every request affects more than one patient.
Blood is not infinite. Inventory is shared.
Activation is a system-level decision.
Urgency does not replace standards.
And pressure does not override protocol.
Policies from A to Z mean nothing without the courage to uphold them at every letter.
From donor chair to patient bedside.
From laboratory bench to clinical judgment.
Clinical teams and laboratory teams are not separate systems.
We are one safety chain.
And that chain is only as strong as our willingness to protect policy even when it is inconvenient.
Because when we protect policy, we protect patients.”
Stay updated with Hemostasis Today.
-
Jul 12, 2026, 08:50Where the Hemophilia Community Comes Together at ISTH 2026 – EAHAD
-
Jul 12, 2026, 08:2210 Posts Not To Miss from ISTH 2026, Part 1
-
Jul 12, 2026, 07:58Brian O Mahony: Could NXT-007 Minimize the Need for Perioperative FVIII
-
Jul 12, 2026, 07:50Shayan Mohammadmoradi: Connecting the Next Generation of Hemostasis Researchers at ISTH 2026
-
Jul 12, 2026, 07:42Alexandra Yakusheva: ThrombInnov Debuts at ISTH 2026 with a Focus on Translational Research
-
Jul 12, 2026, 07:34Wolfgang Miesbach: ISTH 2026 Explores the Next Generation of APS Diagnostics
-
Jul 12, 2026, 07:28Sara Zalghout: ISTH 2026 Highlights Progress in Thromboinflammation Research
-
Jul 12, 2026, 07:13Ekaterina Balaian: Finding Healing Through Art at ISTH 2026
-
Jul 12, 2026, 06:59Maaike Sybil Jongen: Flow Cytometry for Platelet Phenotyping at ISTH 2026