Transplant Patient’s Blood Use Prompts Call for Type O Donors

A heart transplant patient at Sharp Memorial Hospital used 300 units of blood in less than 24 hours, and the San Diego Blood Bank on Wednesday put out an emergency call for Type O positive blood donors.

Mel Foreman, 58, went into surgery at midnight Tuesday and had used about 300 units of Type O blood--about 150 pints--by 6 p.m. Wednesday, said Diane Larson, a spokeswoman for Sharp Hospital. He was suffering from a common heart disease called cardiomyopathy, Larson said.

Foreman, a Poway resident and retired Navy commander, received the heart of an unidentified local donor after spending 28 days on a mechanical heart pump while awaiting a new organ. Larson said that surgeons blamed Foreman’s excessive use of blood on the fact that he was receiving anti-coagulants to thin his blood while on the heart machine.

The anti-coagulants were necessary to keep the blood from clotting and preventing a stroke, Larson said. The surgery was successful, but Larson called Foreman’s case “unique” because the mechanical pump, called a ventricular assist device, has been used on only 15 patients in the world.

“The surgery went absolutely beautifully. The heart is beating beautifully. But Mr. Foreman has required so much Type O positive blood that the blood bank has put out a call for blood donors. We critically need O positive donors,” Larson said.

Foreman, who is married with four children, had been suffering from heart disease for 18 months, she said.