Have I switched blood types?

Let me start off by saying that I don't claim to be special or feel any differently than I used to in the past 10 years. There has been a lot of talk/speculation regarding DNA changes and so called Star/Indigo children.

With that said...

About 8 years ago, I was proccesing out of the United States Marine Corps having honorably been discharged after my enlistment. As I was proccesing out, I had to be medicaly checked by the VA for any current disabilities that I may have obtained while in the service. As I was being checked, it came to their attention that my blood type(A+) was diferent than the blood type that was on my dog tags durring my initial emlistment which happed to be O+.

Now I ask myself, Was this a military SNAFU? I find it hard to believe that there would be a screw up that big in getting the wrong blood type on someones dogtags. I mean that is kind of dngerous. You would think that something like this would be checked extensively before being put on the dogtags.

Was this a military F--- Up or did I change blood types?

What are your thought?

JackCash

I think it was just a screw-up during in-processing. And luckily for you, the screw-up wasn't life threatening if they did have to give you blood. A+, which they say you are now, can take O-, O+, A-, and A+ blood; whereas O+, which your dog tags had, can only take O- and O+ blood.

You are right CO vet. That is a pretty big screw up, but knowing what the implications of this mistake would be, you think that the military would be the last to make this kind of mistake.

It has to be a mistake, your blood type is genetically determined and does not change. Some of the tests arent as sesitive as others. Thank god you didnt need blood though during your time there, it would have gone badly.

It happened to me too. When I was in bootcamp years ago, they told me I was A negative. They printed it on my dogtags and sent me off into the field. Later on during a flight physical they identified me as O positive. They said it would have most likely killed me if I had had to have blood given in the bush. Just Uncle Sam's way of making routine colossal screwups. Just be glad you found out.

There are several possibilities:

1. They screwed up your original test. You're really type A
2. They only sort of screwed up your original test, you're a subgroup of A which can test as type O, since the anti-A antisera may not agglutinate with your subgroup type.
3. You got a transfusion. If you were type A but got a lot of type O blood (often given in an emergency) your own blood would be temporarily washed out and you'd type a O for a short period.

Rare situation:
You got a transfusion of bone marrow, type A and your original type has changed due to wbc engraftment. (rare, and unlikely, especially going from O to A)

The most likely is the military screwed up and mis-typed you originally. It's not uncommon. In fact if you're going to be mis-typed the safest "mistake" is to type you (wrongly) as type O since you'd only get type O blood, which is also compatible (as packed cells) to A, B and AB persons.

HTH.