Not sure if this really counts but it was one of those times I felt super vindicated.

I was working blood bank when a patient came into ER with a GI bleed, a 3.8 hemoglobin, and an antibody. Only history was four units given a month prior at which time the antibody screen was negative. Since I had a previous type on file I had set up antiglobulin crossmatches at the same time as the antibody screen and one came back 3+ incompatible in addition to the positive screen. I set up an antibody screen but it was all weak and 1+ reactions with one 3+ reaction. I couldn't get anything out of it. I convinced the resident not to give uncrossmatched blood and to ship the patient closer to the blood center given her hemoglobin and washed my hands of the whole thing. I called the blood center the next day and they told me with peg, they had identified an anti-K. I got a little blood banker madness because K is super easy, obviously, and if I made a patient be shipped because of a K I was going to feel pretty embarrassed. I went back and repeated everything. Nothing added up, especially that the 3+ incompatible unit was K negative. Our blood center is our reference lab and it's kind of the rule that you're not supposed to argue with them but I called them and raised a stink. They went back and repeated some of their testing and found the antibody I was seeing- a strong low frequency (about 7%) antibody, then modified their transfusion recommendations to include an AHG crossmatch being required. They offered to send it out for ID but in the end, it's not worth the cost to say for sure, "it's a Dob" or whatever it is.

Did I save the patient's life? Probably not. But I got to be a hero in my own head for a day, so I'm pretty satisfied. For once my anal retentive behavior was actually constructive rather than obnoxious to all involved.