History Main / ABNegative

* ''DerivativeWorks/{{Dracula}}'':

* ''Franchise/{{Dracula}}'':

* 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 last season of ''Series/QueerAsFolk'', after the bombing in Babylon, Michael has been seriously hurt and taken to the hospital. The ER doctor says he needs a blood transfusion, but he's AB negative and they are short on his type. Brian answers he's O negative, universal donor and wants them to take his blood. But they won't take it because he's gay and they are considered too high of a risk for HIV. Brian then goes berserk, but Ben tells him he couldn't give his blood anyway because he had cancer. This is a reference to the [[http://gaylife.about.com/od/stdsgeneralhealth/a/blooddonation.htm Ban On Blood Donations From Gay Men]] in the USA implemented in 1985, and despite what the show says the policy isn't as set-in-stone as many media outlets make it seem. Doctors at hospitals are desperate for any compatible blood type in a pinch, and in real life, they more than likely wouldn't turn Brian away if he were on the scene. It's only at blood drives that they screen for gay men. It was all just a convenient excuse for a blatantly [[RuleOfDrama dramatic]] take on a real gay issue.

* While it doesn't rise to the level that examples of the trope generally make it out to be, Rh-negative blood types ''are'' comparatively harder to find compatible matches for because only about15% of the population is Rh-negative and most people with Rh-negative blood types (with the exception being, ironically, AB-) are limited to only a subset of that due to ABO compatibility. O- patients are the most limited as they can only receive blood from the approximately 7% of the population that is also O-, and B- is only slightly above that since those patients can only receive O- or B- and the latter appears in less than 2% of the population (A- is moderately less so because it's not as rare, appearing in about 6% of the population, so between A- and O- donors, those patients are compatible with blood from about 13% of the population, and AB- patients are compatible with any Rh- donor).[[note]]Rh-positive types are much easier because not only are all of them far more common than their Rh-negative counterparts -- even AB+, which is still fairly rare, is over three times as common as AB- --, but the most common of them all is O+, which is compatible with all Rh+ types.[[/note]] None of this is likely to be a problem as long as a hospital is dealing with a relatively well-stocked blood bank -- this is probably the biggest difference between real life and the trope's use in fiction, which would make you think that all hospitals perpetually run short of rare blood types --, but it does come into play in places where shortages are more common (often hospitals in less developed countries and/or more isolated areas), or if a hospital has an unexpected run on the blood bank that depletes their supply, such as in the case of a high-casualty disaster.

* While it doesn't rise to the level that examples of the trope generally make it out to be, Rh-negative blood types ''are'' comparatively harder to find compatible matches for because only 15% of the population is Rh-negative and most people with Rh-negative blood types (with the exception being, ironically, AB-) are limited to only a subset of that due to ABO compatibility. In particular, O- patients can only receive blood from the approximately 7% of the population that is also O-, and B- is only slightly above that since those patients can only receive O- or B- and the latter appears in less than 2% of the population; A- is moderately less so because it's not as rare, appearing in about 6% of the population, so between A- and O- donors, those patients are compatible with blood from about 13% of the population. (Rh-positive types are much easier because not only are all of them far more common than their Rh-negative counterparts -- even AB+, which is still fairly rare, is over three times as common as AB- --, but the most common of them all is O+, which is compatible with all Rh+ types.) None of this is likely to be a problem as long as a hospital is dealing with a relatively well-stocked blood bank[[note]]this is probably the biggest difference between real life and the trope's use in fiction, which would make you think that all hospitals perpetually run short of rare blood types[[/note]], but it does come into play in places where shortages are more common (often hospitals in less developed countries and/or more isolated areas), or if a hospital has an unexpected run on the blood bank that depletes their supply, such as in the case of a high-casualty disaster.

* ''Series/{{House}}'' both lampshades the first and subverts the second. The subversion is something we expect from a medical show, while the lampshading comes later as House solves a case based on a patient's blood type (and a conversation with Wilson): the patient had blood type A, but [[spoiler:due to his condition, his body was producing the wrong antibodies causing the blood type test to give an incorrect result]], so when he was given a blood transfusion, it was the wrong type. Nobody ever thought to ASK him what his blood type even was to begin with. Then again, the fact that doctors do not ask patients their blood type is TruthInTelevision. Many people don't know, some think they know but are wrong, and very few people know that more than the ABO/Rh factors even exist. And that's assuming the patient is conscious and coherent. It's easier just to do a spot test across the board, and those tests are usually correct; [[spoiler:false results as in the episode are rare.]]

* ''Film/TheGreatestShowOnEarth'', winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1952, involves a train wreck with a victim that needs a blood transfusion. Guess what his blood type is? (And the fact that his AB- blood could accept a transfusion from ANY Rh-negative donor is completely unknown to the ''doctor'' who is treating him. The donor has to be AB-, or nothing!)

* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' it was claimed that a man with AB blood had a son who was O-.

* In one chapter of ''Manga/FrankenFran'' students become obsessed with PersonalityBloodTypes to the point of establishing a caste system around it...which becomes a problem for living organ bank Adorea, who technically has ''all'' blood types, and whose dominant type fluctuates.
-->'''Student:''' Circumstance dependent blood type?

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* The plot of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanAndMisterFreezeSubZero'' involves Mr. Freeze kidnapping Barbara Gordon because she shares the AB- blood type with his wife. Barbara even brings up that he could use any negative blood for a blood transfusion, but it turns out that [[OrganTheft he needs more than just her blood]]. TruthInTelevision in that organ transplants are ideally done between people of the same blood type to reduce the risk of rejection, and Mr. Freeze is obsessive enough over getting his wife back that he'd try to be as exact as possible.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' second season episode "Blood Feud," Mr. Burns needs a OO- (double-O negative) transplant, and Bart is the only person in town with the same blood type. He uses it as a bargaining chip.

* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', as children, Vento of the Front and her brother were injured when an amusement park ride broke down. They both needed transfusions, but they both had Type-B RH negative. Since there were no donors on hand, Vento's brother [[HeroicSacrifice told the doctors to give his remaining blood to her]]. Afterwards, Vento blamed the doctors for failing to save her brother and developed a hatred of science.

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

* ''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 the AB blood type (beating the rest of the scientific community in real life by almost a decade), explaining why one combination of blood is lethal while others were not.

* ''Series/DueSouth'' [[InvertedTrope inverts it]] in one episode, when an over-eager FBI agent excitedly declares that they now know the suspect's blood type. Fraser points out that the suspect's blood type is shared by a significant portion of the population of Chicago.

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E7TheEnemy The Enemy]]", a Romulan that gets brought up to the ''Enterprise''-D has a unique blood type that only one person on the ship has - Worf. Unfortunantly, Klingons and Romulans hate each other's guts and Worf refuses to give blood and the Romulan doesn't want it. Picard realizes that they need to save the Romulan to try and prevent an incident with the Romulans, but he isn't willing to force Worf to give blood. Ultimately, the Romulan passes away. [[note]]This episode actually makes zero sense whatsoever, as Romulans are an off-shoot of Vulcans, and have copper-based blood, which would be totally incompatible for donations from species with iron-based blood such as Klingons or Humans.[[/note]]
* In ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E10JourneyToBabel Journey to Babel]]", Ambassador Sarek requires open heart surgery which is hampered by his T- blood, noted as being rare, even for a Vulcan. Luckily, another person on board also had T- blood -- Sarek's son, Spock, and that had to be filtered because of Spocks [[HalfHumanHybrid human heritage]]. Since Vulcans have copper-based rather than Humans' iron-based blood, it's realistic that it would use a different blood type system.

* One of Ban and Ginji's jobs in ''Anime/GetBackers'' is getting a dose of Bombay Blood for a sick girl named Yumiko. Too bad [[PsychoforHire Akabane]] is the one who has the handiest blood bags...

* The Bombay blood type is used in a case of ''Manga/KindaichiCaseFiles'' as a clue to discover the killer and the town's dark secret. [[spoiler: Despite being a rarity in Japan, at least 4 characters have this blood type]].

* ''Series/TheRatPatrol'' has a rare justified version. Moffitt, who has a B-negative blood type, gets hurt and needs a transfusion. However, they're stuck in the desert far from any trained medical help on their side, so they decide to raid a nearby German camp to steal blood and wind up kidnapping an American POW with the same blood type.

* One of Ban and Ginji's jobs in ''Anime/GetBackers'' is getting a dose of Bombay Blood for an IllGirl named Yumiko. Too bad [[PsychoforHire Akabane]] is the one who has the handiest blood bags...

* While it doesn't rise to the level that examples of the trope generally make it out to be, Rh-negative blood types ''are'' comparatively harder to find compatible matches for because only 15% of the population is Rh-negative and most people with Rh-negative blood types (with the exception being, ironically, AB-) are limited to only a subset of that due to ABO compatibility. In particular, O- patients can only receive blood from the approximately 7% of the population that is also O-, and B- is only slightly above that since those patients can only receive O- or B- and the latter appears in less than 2% of the population; A- is moderately less so because it's not as rare, appearing in about 6% of the population, so between A- and O- donors, those patients are compatible with blood from about 13% of the population. (Rh-positive types are much easier because not only are all of them far more common than their Rh-negative counterparts -- even AB+, which is still fairly rare, is over three times as common as AB- --, but the most common of them all is O+, which is compatible with all Rh+ types.) None of this is likely to be a problem as long as a hospital is dealing with a relatively well-stocked blood bank[[note]]this is probably the biggest difference between real life and the trope's use in fiction, which would make you think that all hospitals perpetually run short of rare blood types[[/note]], but it can become one in the event of a significant shortage (which is rare to the point of unheard of in some parts of the world, but unfortunately not so in others), or if there's a sudden, unexpected run on the blood bank, such as from a high-casualty disaster.

* In ''Fanfic/SevenDaysInSunnyJune, Part 1'', it's revealed that [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirls Sunset Shimmer]] has a rare blood type ([=A2B-negative=]), most commonly found in ungulates, primarily horses. In RealLife, it's present in 2% of the USA's population. Averting this trope is the fact that the author did do some research about it.

* Averted in ''Film/SomeLikeItHot'', where it is reiterated that one of the main characters is a type O.

* (Sort of) averted on ''Series/{{Angel}}'', where when a vampire has refrigerated blood on hand, it is usually "O-neg".

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

** Played with in another episode, where a wounded racist marine is worried about getting the "wrong" blood -- meaning blood from a black donor. To teach him a lesson, they start applying makeup to make him darker and darker until he believes he's turning black. After they tell him the truth, he learns some tolerance.
** In another episode, a soldier is given the wrong blood and has a severe reaction. They gave the blood type listed on his dog tags, but it didn't match his actual blood type. The doctors assume that someone just made a mistake on the tags, but it turns out this was actually because they weren't ''his'' tags; he [[DeadPersonImpersonation stole them from a buddy who was killed]] in the attack he was wounded in because the buddy [[{{Retirony}} was about to be sent home]].
** A common order given in the show is 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.

* Averted in ''Film/AllTheYoungMen'', a long-forgotten Korean War military drama featuring a young Creator/SidneyPoitier. His white CO needs a transfusion and is Type O, but they're all out of bottled O. Guess who else is Type O. This was considered '''daring''' in 1960.

** [[Recap/MashS1E11GermWarfare An early episode]] has a North Korean patient with AB- needing a transfusion, and the only one in the entire camp with the same blood type is Frank. When the patient shows signs of hepatitis, HilarityEnsues when Hawkeye and Trapper must keep him away from Hot Lips until his test results are in.
** The episode "Your Hit Parade" in Season 6 features an AB- patient during a period of heavy casualties. Hawkeye asks for 4 units during surgery, Klinger informs they only had 2 to start with and both were used during the first batch of wounded. They mention collecting the patient's blood during surgery to filter and give back to him, then spend the rest of the episode trying to find more. The unavailability of any donors is partly justified by the heavy casualties and the other medical units being forced to bug out, but it is implied there are only 2 other people available to donate in Asia with the correct blood type; not once does anyone suggest using a different blood type, even as an emergency measure. (It also creates a possible ContinuitySnarl with "Life Time" because there's apparently no one in the unit who can donate AB negative blood, but Winchester is already in the unit; even if there's a reason he can't donate at that time, you would expect it to at least be mentioned. A further snarl comes with the episode [[Recap/MashS7E20Cave C*A*V*E]], in which Klinger, Mulcahy, and Winchester are all stated to have the same blood type - and Klinger's had already been stated as B+.)

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'' episode "[[Recap/BobsBurgersS11E4HeartbreakHotelOween HeartbreakHotelOween]]," we learn that Bob is O-, the universal donor, which makes his blood very attractive to people holding a blood drive. The problem is, Bob is very squeamish when it comes to blood.

In reality, while doctors do ''prefer'' to match blood type exactly when possible (especially when doing organ transplants, to reduce the risk of rejection), in a life-or-death situation -- which is the only situation this trope would find worthwhile -- any compatible blood type will do. [[note]]In a sufficiently critical situation, such as when a patient is literally going through dozens or hundreds of units, even incompatible blood can be used, with compatible units reserved for the first few and last few transfusions; all the problems that would normally result from transfusing a type O patient with type A blood are negated when the patient's own blood is long gone and the type A blood is hemorrhaged out almost immediately. This is also how James Harrison became "The Man with the Golden Arms". [[/note]] When it comes to compatible matches, AB- blood is actually not that hard to match, because an AB- patient can receive transfusions of any Rh negative blood type (A-, B-, AB-, or O-), which are found in about 15% of the population. The most difficult type to match is actually O-, since the same factors that make O- the universal donor also mean that O- patients are only compatible with O- blood[[note]]and O- being the universal donor can also reduce the availability of this type, given that it's the go-to for emergency situations where blood type is unknown and is also a fallback for all blood types when other compatible matches run out[[/note]], while every other blood type is compatible with at least itself and O-; however, O- blood is also not as rare as AB-, appearing in just under 7% of the population, so the chances of having some available or finding a donor are better.

* 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]].

** The 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.

* In ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'', they mentioned that Sarah had O- blood but John had AB- blood; this would mean that she couldn't possibly be his mother, barring vanishingly rare situations like mutation or [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hh_antigen_system Bombay blood type]][[note]] For the record, type O is recessive, and Sarah is therefore by necessity homozygous for O. Johny could be AO (type A) or BO (type B), but type AB is not possible[[/note]]. Sarah being unable to give blood to the AB- Derek Reese despite being a universal donor is correct due to compatibility for plasma being reversed compared to blood cells -- someone with type O is the least useful donor because their plasma could contain antibodies against non-O blood types.

** Homer is also stated as being "N negative", [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MNS_antigen_system which does exist]].

* While not as difficult as matching extremely rare blood types, blood transfusions to infants present an additional challenge because infants cannot receive blood from donors who have antibodies for CMV[[note]]a common virus that is harmless to adults, but dangerous to babies[[/note]], which it's estimated that 85% of people will have by the time they turn 40. This extra layer means that finding suitable blood for transfusion in these cases often isn't easy, even moreso if the infant also has an uncommon blood type (and especially if that uncommon blood type only has a few compatible matches).

* In ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E10JourneyToBabel Journey to Babel]]", Ambassador Sarek requires open heart surgery which is hampered by his T- blood, noted as being rare, even for a Vulcan. Luckily, another person on board also had T- blood -- Sarek's son, Spock, and that had to be filtered because of Spocks [[HalfHumanHybrid human heritage]].
** And since Vulcans have copper-based rather than Humans' iron-based blood, it's realistic that it would use a different blood type system.

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E7TheEnemy The Enemy]]", a Romulan that gets brought up to the ''Enterprise''-D has a unique blood type that only one person on the ship has - Worf. Unfortunantly, Klingons and Romulans hate each other's guts and Worf refuses to give blood and the Romulan doesn't want it. Picard realizes that they need to save the Romulan to try and prevent an incident with the Romulans, but he isn't willing to force Worf to give blood. Ultimately, the Romulan passes away.
** This actually makes zero sense whatsoever, as Romulans are an off-shoot of Vulcans, and have copper-based blood, which would be totally incompatible for donations from species with iron-based blood such as Klingons or Humans.