History Main / ABNegative

* ''Series/{{MASH}}''. Normally averted on the show: All sorts of blood types show up and they routinely run short of all of them..

* The season-two finale of ''Series/{{Monk}}'' featured a victim whose blood group was "AB-negative with a D- antigen -- the rarest blood type in the world!" In fact, [[ArtisticLicenseBiology no such blood type exists]]. [[note]]Although it is possible for certain blood subtypes to show up this way on a test, the one doing the testing should have recognized an impossible result and retested.[[/note]] This turned out to be why he was murdered -- he was a death row inmate about to be executed, with his kidneys earmarked for a dying billionaire. A prison employee had a grudge against the billionaire and couldn't let that happen, so the prisoner's last meal was poisoned, destroying his organs in a way that LethalInjection would not.

* ''Series/{{MASH}}'':

** Normally averted on the show: All sorts of blood types show up and they routinely run short of all of them.

* The ''Series/{{MASH}}'' episode "Life Time", where Hawkeye and company are racing against the clock to save a soldier who of course has AB-, luckily Winchester has "that elusive type." In this case, the use is accurate and believable for the time period: [[ScienceMarchesOn in the '50s]], it was thought that the more blood the patient had lost, the more important it was to provide the exact blood type, and it's only stated that AB- blood would be ''best'' for him, not that he can't have any other type. Additionally, the doctors had already used up the last of the blood they had in stock (matching type and otherwise), so given that they needed to find a donor to take blood from regardless, they might as well try to find a perfect match.

** Another common order given for patients who don't need to go into surgery ''right this damn second or they're going to die'' is "type and cross-match" so many units of blood. This directly tests the recipient's serum against the donor's blood cells, to verify that the recipient won't have any transfusion reaction from secondary antigens due to antibodies that might be present in his blood.

*** Which seems to be based on "Archie Gives Blood", a season one episode of ''Series/AllInTheFamily'' where Archie donates blood and is concerned the recipient will not be Caucasian, because [[ArtisticLicenseBiology he believes blood can only be given to a recipient of the same race as the donor]].

** Rare blood types always uncover parentage secrets on soap operas. ''Series/AllMyChildren'' used it a few years ago to reveal that Jack was Greenlee's father, though the rare blood type was never named.

* Rare blood types always uncover parentage secrets on soap operas. ''Series/AllMyChildren'' used it a few years ago to reveal that Jack was Greenlee's father, though the rare blood type was never named. Much worse, ''Series/OneLifeToLive'' back in the 80s had Tina find her lost son because they both had [[ArtisticLicenseBiology Blood Type G]].
** ''All My Children'' even inverted this--when Dimitri learned that his presumed daughter Madeline was O-, he realized that she couldn't be his daughter because her ''common'' blood type was not possible, given his rare one.

* Dana from the ''Literature/PilgrennonsChildren'' series has a rare blood type, which her biological mother Jananin Blake shares, allowing Jananin to donate blood after Dana is found to be anemic [[spoiler:from a forcible blood draw]] in ''The Emerald Forge'

* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'': In ''Breaking Dawn'' the Cullens keep a refrigerator full of blood in their house. Naturally it's the very rare O-.'.

* Creator/DorothyLSayers' short story ''Blood Sacrifice'' is based on another way of classifying blood types used in Britain in the early to mid-twentieth century; how this translates to the modern system is unclear.

* Creator/RobertAHeinlein himself was AB+, and a member of the National Rare Blood Club (which he mentions in an appendix to ''I Will Fear No Evil''). To this day, sci-fi conventions sponsor.[[http://www.heinleinsociety.org/blooddrives/index.html Robert A. Heinlein Memorial Blood Drives]].

* ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'': In ''Breaking Dawn'' the Cullens keep a refrigerator full of blood in their house. Naturally it's the very rare O-.
* Dana from the ''Literature/PilgrennonsChildren'' series has a rare blood type, which her biological mother Jananin Blake shares, allowing Jananin to donate blood after Dana is found to be anemic [[spoiler:from a forcible blood draw]] in ''The Emerald Forge''.

* AB- figures in the plot of Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/IWillFearNoEvil'', which involves the protagonist's brain being transplanted into a new body. Part of the plot setup is the rarity of the AB- blood type; the protagonist is shocked when his body donor was actually someone he knew well.
** RAH himself was AB+, and a member of the National Rare Blood Club (which he mentions in an appendix to ''I Will Fear No Evil''). To this day, sci-fi conventions sponsor [[http://www.heinleinsociety.org/blooddrives/index.html Robert A. Heinlein Memorial Blood Drives]].

* ''Franchise.{{Dracula}}'':

* ''Literature/{{Dracula}}'', thanks to ScienceMarchesOn. When the book was written, the concept of blood transfusions was radical, cutting-edge science and the possibility of an allergic reaction to someone else's blood wasn't known. Thus, Lucy can get transfusions from four different men without anyone worrying about blood type compatibility. Since she's in the process of becoming a vampire, blood types may be irrelevant to her in a very easy retcon. Another easy FanWank is to claim that Lucy is AB+ (one of the rarest types), the "universal recipient."

* ''Film/BruceAlmighty'' sees Creator/JenniferAniston proudly declare herself to be AB+, a "very rare blood type." [[ChekhovsGun This comes into play later in the film]], when [[spoiler: Bruce apparently has this type as well, as {{God}} sends him some of hers when he gets hit by a truck and needs a donation. It's some pretty awful research failure if you wanted to put any drama into it since in reality, Bruce could receive blood from anybody]].
** In an [[HilariousOuttakes outtake]], she declares herself to be AB ''negative'', derailing the joke in the page quote.

* The ''Series/{{MASH}}'' episode "Life Time", where Hawkeye and company are racing against the clock to save a soldier who of course has AB-, luckily Winchester has "that elusive type." In this case, the use is accurate and believable for the time period: in the '50s, it was thought that the more blood the patient had lost, the more important it was to provide the exact blood type, and it's only stated that AB- blood would be ''best'' for him, not that he can't have any other type. Additionally, the doctors had already used up the last of the blood they had in stock (matching type and otherwise), so given that they needed to find a donor to take blood from regardless, they might as well try to find a perfect match.

* ''Series/MurdochMysteries'' toys with this concept in the episode "Tour de Murdoch", which takes place in early 1901, ''just'' as ABO blood types were codified among the scientific community. The VictimOfTheWeek -- an athlete who died of complications from blood aggulation -- was found to have been injected with the blood of his teammates (essentially [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_doping blood doping]] decades before it received mainstream attention), sending the characters on the search for athletes with "the bad kind of blood." As the investigation narrows down, they inadvertently discover that there's an AB blood type (around a decade before it would be fully codified), explaining why one combination of blood is lethal while others were not.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/6681d3ec9e1723af0f3231da330f804e.png]]

** A plot-relevant example occurs in one episode where they realize that a victim isn't who she says she is because of her blood type; the the person she's claiming to be is the child of two parents with type A blood, but the victim has type B, which would be biologically impossible if she was in fact their child.[[note]]The doctor actually asserts that her mother could not have given birth to a child with that blood type, [[ArtisticLicenseBiology which is incorrect]] -- a type A mother could have a type B child if she has the genotype AO and the father has a B gene.[[/note]] A full DNA test subsequently confirms that her identity was faked.

* In something of an inversion, 150 people around the world have been found to have an antibody that actually ''prevents'' the immune system from attacking foreign blood types; James Harrison, "The Man with the Golden Arms", is the best-known case. Scientists have discovered that plasma from these donors can be used to make a treatment to prevent HDFN in Rh-positive children of Rh-negative mothers (which is by far the most common cause of the disorder). It's still not entirely clear what causes this to happen, but it's believed that Harrison's case specifically was caused by him receiving incompatible blood during a surgery (he needed a large amount of blood and the rural hospital didn't have enough of the right type in stock) and his immune system's reaction to said blood.

* Bay in ''SwitchedAtBirth'' has AB blood, though she doesn't mention her Rh factor. This is a clue to her parentage, since both her parents are type A. (Type AB requires inheriting an A from one parent and a B from the other. A child of two type As can only be type A or type O.)

* In ''Series/Degrassi'', Holly J. only learns that she is adopted after discovering that she is type B, while both her parents are AB. She says--incorrectly--that children tend to have the same blood type as their parents, and Revelations Ensue. In fact, there is absolutely nothing unlikely about two AB parents having a B child. Even if the script had been reversed--an AB child with B parents--it might only have implied that her ''father'' wasn’t who she thought.

* In ''Series/DeGrassi'', Holly J. only learns that she is adopted after discovering that she is type B, while both her parents are AB. She says--incorrectly--that children tend to have the same blood type as their parents, and Revelations Ensue. In fact, there is absolutely nothing unlikely about two AB parents having a B child. Even if the script had been reversed--an AB child with B parents--it might only have implied that her ''father'' wasn’t who she thought.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' episode "Image", a young boy named Garfield Logan is caught in an explosion and is badly injured. Dying from his injuries, he needed a transfusion of type O blood to live, of which the isolated farm's supplies were just destroyed. Nobody on site has type O blood, except [[spoiler: Miss Martian, who can shapeshift her body to the cellular level. The [[SuperhumanTransfusion transfusion]] will later give the character shapeshifting powers and he reappears in season 2 as Beast Boy.]]

* Is a plot point in a Literature/NancyDrew file.

* ''The Bronze Horseman'' by Paullina Simons. After Major Belov is severely wounded during a river assault, his wife Tatiana, a nurse in the Red Army, saves his life by donating her own blood. Belov is told it's lucky she's a universal donor. Belov can only think with irony "[[TheHeart Of course she is]]."

* In the Joe Gunther novel ''Scent Of Evil'', the fact that the person who left saliva on a cigarette left at the scene of a murder is is type AB, along with the brand of the cigarette, winds up implicating a member of the police force because it's such a rare type. The fact that the man is a secreter is also specifically called out as a bit of good luck since it allows them to identify his blood type through his saliva. The book was written in 1992, and actual DNA testing is not mentioned, but given how new the technology was at the time and the series being set in Vermont using an ABO system was much faster.

** This gets played about with a bit more later in the same arc when Luffy is in dire need of a blood transfusion after fighting with Hody. No one else in the Straw Hats has the same blood type, but considering how small Luffy's crew is (and how one member [[DemBones doesn't even ''have'' blood]] and another one is a reindeer), this is fairly believable. There has been blood loss at least a few times with it being dealt with offscreen, so it's implied to be not particularly rare; the Straw Hats just didn't have another ready source on hand at that particular moment. Several fishmen nearby do have compatible blood, but are still hesitant to break the law. [[spoiler: Jinbe ends up donating his blood, since he's a pirate and therefore doesn't follow the law.]]

* In something of an inversion, 150 people around the world have been found to have an antibody that actually ''prevents'' the immune system from attacking foreign blood types; James Harrison, "The Man with the Golden Arms", is the best-known case. Scientists have discovered that plasma from these donors can be used to make a treatment to prevent an Rh-negative mother's immune system from attacking an Rh-positive fetus (a potentially serious complication that can lead to serious injury or death of the fetus). It's still not entirely clear what causes this to happen, but it's believed that Harrison's case specifically was caused by him receiving incompatible blood during a surgery (he needed a large amount of blood and the rural hospital didn't have enough of the right type in stock) and his immune system's reaction to said blood.