A Hospital in Another World? Chapter 484: Trying a Blood Transfusion on the Dead?

Hirudin— or rather, using leeches as casting materials, releases an anticoagulation spell with immediate effects.

At the very least, when Garrett centrifuged the blood again to separate the serum and red blood cells for cross-matching, he could observe coagulation in some tubes, while others did not coagulate—at least, some tubes also showed signs of hemolysis.

"Look, if it neither coagulates nor dissolves, that means it's the same type of blood!"

Garrett held up the test tube excitedly. In his previous life, without considering RH positive or negative, humans had four common blood types. Finding one of each type among four samples was unlikely; it was more probable to find two of the same type.

Continuing on this path and increasing the sample size, although it was not possible to prove the presence of A, B, AB, and O types—under current conditions lacking antigen and antibody research—at least, it could be demonstrated that there were several different blood types!

Then they could proceed with blood transfusions! For surgeries and such, although healing spells could handle much of the work, having a blood transfusion available would give more confidence...

Garrett’s eyes sparkled with excitement. Turning around, he was met with a bunch of puzzled looks:

"That... The lack of coagulation, isn’t it just because the anticoagulation spell is too strong?"

"It might also be because too much anticoagulant drug was added! The principle of the anticoagulation spell is to use the effective power within the casting materials to influence the blood!"

"Exactly!"

"And it could be that thing—" pointing at the centrifuge, "spun too fast, or spun too many times, and shattered the blood cells inside, so it doesn’t coagulate?"

Garrett took a deep breath in, and then out, not annoyed but rather finding it somewhat endearing. When he first entered the medical field, he too was full of questions and imaginative ideas, thinking he was very creative...

And then, he got a stern talking-to from his teacher:

"Go read 'Physiology'! 'Immunology'! Thinking wildly without understanding the basic theories, each of you, trying to fly before you’ve learned to walk!"

Later, of course, he understood. The coagulation mechanism in blood type testing and the mechanism of anticoagulants are different routes. Modern blood type testing's "coagulation" involves the reaction between antigens and antibodies, clumping red blood cells together for observation;

Whereas anticoagulants counteract the natural coagulation mechanism. For example, heparin inhibits thrombin, EDTA removes calcium ions... So, no matter how much anticoagulant is used or how strong it is, it won’t interfere with the agglutination during cross-matching.

As for the centrifuge, the red cells might burst due to excessive centrifugal force, but it has nothing to do with how many spins.

However, the centrifuge Garrett used, though he didn't know the exact force, he was sure of one thing:

It was similar in size and speed to the ones used in the labs of his previous life. So, it definitely wouldn’t burst the red cells!

But still, the same point stands: without the conditions or means to study antigens and antibodies, Garrett could only conclude simply:

"As long as it works! A batch of blood samples, made in the same casting session, some coagulate, some lyse, some neither—this shows that the influencing factors are not the casting strength or materials, but something else!"

This rationale was somewhat reasonable. If not, just perform more experiments to verify. Archmage Grom nodded:

"So... proving that some blood can neither lyse nor coagulate, what then?"

"If it neither lyses nor coagulates, it belongs to the same blood type, and can be transfused with each other!—In cases of excessive blood loss in humans, using the same type of blood greatly reduces the likelihood of a transfusion reaction!"

The necromancers exchanged glances. For people who had lost too much blood, giving them a blood transfusion to save their lives—necromancers had certainly tried that. They had experimented with transfusing cow blood, horse blood, sheep blood, human blood, and various other types...

The experiments with animal blood saw few brief successes and mostly failures; with human blood, a small part succeeded, but most failed. The failure rate was too high, completely overshadowed by the advantages of healing spells, and no pattern of success could be discerned.

The council's archive, containing dozens, even hundreds of papers detailing these failures, was filled with the corpses of the subjects.

So, the secret to successful blood transfusions was matching blood types?

"May I perform an experiment to verify this?" one of the

 necromancers, who had provided mosquitoes as casting materials but had been switched to leeches by Garrett, stepped forward and bowed slightly. Garrett responded without hesitation:

"Of course, the experiment must be done! Definitely!—How do you plan to do it?"

"Bring in a group of people, follow your method for the experiment, and verify the success rate of transfusions..."

The necromancer answered without hesitation.

"What?!" Even with mental preparation, Garrett was taken aback. Using healthy, living people directly? His voice unconsciously rose as he declared:

"No!"

"We’ll pay..." the pleading necromancer explained cautiously. Black Crow Swamp always kept a group of living subjects on hand for experimental materials, for experiments—of course, they weren't used for free, schools had to pay.

And these living subjects, normally paid, required payment for materials, and should any fall ill, become disabled, or die, compensation would be provided to their families. Wanting to be a test subject for Black Crow Swamp, without connections, you couldn’t even queue up.

Of course, if a mage mishandled the test subjects too harshly, causing a sudden shortage, there were plenty of poor on the streets. Just throw out a handful of gold coins, and whether you needed the dead or the living...

"No, absolutely not." Garrett shook his head vigorously.

The necromancers collectively frowned. It’s not like they weren’t paying, and the test subjects had all signed life and death waivers, why couldn’t they be used? This Mage Nordmark was being overly controlling...

But there was no choice. Having attended his lecture, using his experimental scheme, performing validation experiments for him, they had to follow his rules. A younger necromancer next to the petitioner cautiously raised his hand:

"Then... how about trying a blood transfusion on me?"

I volunteer! To sacrifice for research, without shame! Well, before doing the experiment, we need to bring over some mages from the neighboring medical branches...

"No!" Garrett continued to shake his head:

"It’s not about whether you’re willing—using healthy people directly for experiments is not permissible!"

It doesn't conform to medical ethics!

Where to find people who had lost too much blood and might die, to try giving them blood transfusions? Garrett massaged his temples, then again. Excessive blood loss, injuries, in this era, the most likely group to encounter such situations was... he had an idea!

He turned to Archmage Grom:

"How about... you take me to the Temple of the War God? Or perhaps to some army? I find a group of people, verify their blood types, then find an opportunity to give them transfusions?"

"When would we go, though...?"

The necromancers collectively groaned. The problem was, they didn’t have a good relationship with the Temple of the War God, unable to blatantly mooch off their experiments. Finding an army, lately, the nearby areas had been peaceful, with no major conflicts between lords...

Hoping for injuries during training?

The odds were too low!

"Then... try using animals? Cats, dogs, pigs? Or horses?"

Garrett proposed another solution. The necromancers were shocked:

"What? Animals have different blood types too?"

"They should..." Garrett answered, completely lacking confidence. Indeed, cats have different blood types, so do dogs, many animals do—but how many blood types these animals have, what their proportions are, how many samples needed to determine different types—?

Garrett had no idea. He remembered a classmate complaining that although cats only had three blood types, over 95% of cats were of the same blood type. Meaning, transfusing any two cats would likely not cause any problems...

Then there was no experimental value!

He himself was not confident, and others were even less likely to agree. The room full of black-robed mages unanimously shook their heads, their robes billowing, their gaunt, sallow heads swaying, creating a rather spooky scene. As they shook their heads, someone suddenly had an idea:

"We could transfuse blood into dead bodies!"

"Exactly, right! Transfuse blood into dead bodies!"

"I'll go get a body!"

"I’ll go too! I haven’t used up my quota for high-grade corpses this year!"

A group of mages ran off. Garrett was baffled:

"Wait... what?!"

Transfusing blood into dead bodies, what kind of nonsense was that?! Do your dead at home need blood transfusions, no, do your dead even have blood in their veins?!

"You wouldn’t know about this." Archmage Grom chuckled. Since Garrett had entered the Sleepless Tower, he had always been the one shocking others, it was rare for him to be shocked—

"The School of Necromancy has always had a theory that maintaining the vitality of blood is more conducive to manipulating bodies, even reviving them. So, many high-grade corpses still have flowing blood in them. Since you don’t

 want to use living people, let’s try using dead bodies instead."

...Wait, you can test blood types in those preserved bodies?!

Garrett continued to be baffled. Soon, a large group of necromancers returned, each dragging one to two bodies, cheering as they rushed into the laboratory.

Garrett had to direct:

"Don’t rush! Don’t rush! First organize the experiment table, wash the test tubes, label them!"

"Don’t be lazy with cleaning spells on test tubes!—Cleaning spells only for the first wash, then it must be manual! The standard is that water inside the tube neither forms droplets nor streams down!"

"Don’t draw too much blood, 5 milliliters per tube is enough! Only a drop or two of blood is needed for cross-matching!"

"The centrifuge must be balanced! Balanced! You can’t start the machine if it’s not balanced!"

"Squeak—"

The axle made an unpleasant noise. Garrett, quick to react, refreshed his protective spells and leaped behind Archmage Grom.

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Reflecting on the past, many medical research developments owed their progress to the advantage of low human rights. If it were today, just randomly pulling healthy people for a blood transfusion test?

The medical ethics committee would knock your head off!

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