The \u2018Er\u2019 grouping could help doctors identify and treat some rare cases of blood incompatibility, including between pregnant mothers and fetuses.<\/p>\n
The unborn baby was in trouble. Its mother\u2019s doctors, at a UK hospital, knew there was something wrong with the fetus\u2019s blood, so they decided to perform an emergency C-section many weeks before the baby was due. But despite this, and subsequent blood transfusions, the baby suffered a brain hemorrhage with devastating consequences. It sadly passed away.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t clear why the bleeding had happened. But there was a clue in the mother\u2019s blood, where doctors had noticed some strange antibodies. Some time later, as the medics tried to find out more about them, a sample of the mother\u2019s blood arrived at a lab in Bristol run by researchers who study blood groups.<\/p>\n
They made a startling discovery: The woman\u2019s blood was of an ultrarare type, which may have made her baby\u2019s blood incompatible with her own. It\u2019s possible that this prompted her immune system to produce antibodies against her baby\u2019s blood\u2014antibodies that then crossed the placenta and harmed her child, ultimately leading to its loss. It may seem implausible that such a thing could happen, but many decades ago, before doctors had a better understanding of blood groups, it was much more common.<\/p>\n