The nurse is administering a blood transfusion to a patient over 4 hours. after 2 hours, the patient complaints of chills and has a fever of 101�f, an increase from a previous temperature of 99.2�f. what does the nurse recognize is occurring with this patient?

Any adverse reaction to the transfusion of blood or blood components should be reported to Blood Bank personnel as soon as possible.

Speed is essential in such situations because of the possible life-threatening nature of acute transfusion reactions. The evaluation of all adverse reactions to transfusion is the responsibility of the medical staff of the Blood Bank and the notification of such a reaction by the patient unit serves as a request for Blood Bank physician consultation.

The Blood Bank is required to report any death resulting from transfusion to the Food and Drug Administration.

Reactions may be separated into reactions that present in proximity to the transfusion and those that present at some time subsequent to the transfusion. Suspected post-transfusion disease, which may present at a considerable time following transfusion, must also be reported to the Blood Bank. Investigation of these reports may result in identification of "carrier" donors who are removed from the donor pool

A Blood Bank physician should be consulted regarding the evaluation of patients with reactions, as well as selection of appropriate blood components for future transfusion.

In the case of a mild urticarial and febrile reactions, with no other signs or symptoms attributable to blood transfusion, it may be possible to reinitiate the blood transfusion Such a decision must be arrived at through consultation between the physician reporting the reaction and a Blood Bank physician

Premedication for Recipients of Granulocytes