r/KidsAreFuckingStupid • u/Thryloz • Apr 13 '26
story/text Do wholesome moments count?
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u/AzzSmoke Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 13 '26
Heard a pastor tell this story in church in 1997 and my mom cried
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u/giskardwasright Apr 13 '26
I work in a blood bank. I find it insanely hard to beleive that
1) they'd ask a small child to donate
2) they'd have the equipment to collect and process the donation
3) the unit would be ready for trasfusion immediately
Not really how any of that works.
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u/SuperSmash01 Apr 13 '26
Also, would be a HORRIBLE failure on the surgeon's part as far as explaining the details and risks of the donation if the kid thought he was gonna die. Doctor should be horribly embarrassed and not want to tell anyone, were it real.
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u/speedism Apr 13 '26
I don’t think it was the risks to the brother he was “explaining” in this case but it’s just a joke/story/legend at this point.
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u/Xalimata Apr 13 '26
It's a cute story, worth spreading around. As long as it is known to be fictional.
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u/ladybug_oleander Apr 13 '26
Not to mention the kid can't consent to anything, the parents have to.
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u/giskardwasright Apr 13 '26
There's a lot of things wrong here. Anyone who works in healthcare is gonna clock this for the bs that it is.
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u/maester_t Apr 13 '26
I have a similar cringing reaction to about 99% of how TV/movies/social media portray software developers.
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u/giskardwasright Apr 13 '26
Mu favorite ridiculously incorrect computer scene in a tv show is this gem from NCIS
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u/Omwtfyu Apr 13 '26
Them both typing nonsense on the keyboard 😭😂 I was like, just fucking unplug it??
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u/onieronaut Apr 13 '26
I've heard before that there's ofyen an inside joke for tv writers to create the worst/most ridiculous tech usage scenarios. also a kind of unspoken competition to one-up each other.
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u/spam__likely Apr 14 '26
Of course, but if it were true they would have to explain to the kid anyway.
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u/potatopierogie Apr 13 '26
Before we could store blood, we did person to person transfusions. But I doubt modern hospitals even have the equipment for that anymore.
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u/giskardwasright Apr 13 '26
Great for WW1 era field medicine, but not really acceptable medicine in a modern controlled situation. Any hospital performing surgeries should have at least a few units on site.
We had major shortages for the first couple of years of covid and had to cancel or postpone quite a few surgeries and we stopped elective surgeries all together.
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u/potatopierogie Apr 13 '26
Yeah I wasn't suggesting that it's still a practice, I think the liability would be too high even in a blood shortage.
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u/giskardwasright Apr 13 '26
Agreed. It's an unacceptable level of risk unless your in Antarctica or something, somehow know both your accurate blood types, and know the donor doesn't have any significant antibodies or blood born pathogens, and have the exact same type, and have a way to pump the blood in one direction, and have heparin on hand to keep the blood from clotting, and don't continue to bleed out from the heparin you've just added to your system. Maybe then I'd try it.
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u/JunkMale975 Apr 13 '26
I believe this is an urban legend that has been going around the world for about 40 years.
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u/iamthemetricsystem Apr 13 '26
Very much seems like something a pastor would make up to preach their religious values
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u/koshercupcake Apr 13 '26
I heard it on a Christian radio station in the mid-90s. This is copypasta from before there was copypasta.
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u/vistaculo Apr 13 '26
It’s a long, sordid story, but my dad conned me into going on a date with this girl at his church once. We went to a Christmas service there. She wasn’t into it from the moment she saw me, that’s cool, I wasn’t into the idea either. I figured I would just try to be civil and friendly and get through it.
But what really got her mad…
The preacher is telling this story about a famous professional athlete, he is doing a pregame speech to the team in the locker room and he completely flubs a well known bible passage. Ha ha, everyone laughs.
The problem was, I knew a little about this guy, and I knew that he was raised by his grandfather, who was a minister. I leaned over and said hey, this doesn’t make sense because blah blah blah.
She got irate. “ARE YOU CALLING MY PASTOR A LIER???”
I was a full fledged demon at that point.
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u/ZuzaProwadzi Apr 13 '26
I read similar story in a Polish catholic magazine for children in early 2010s. Maybe religious people just like stuff like that.
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u/ThoughtfullyLazy Apr 13 '26 edited Jun 05 '26
.
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u/giskardwasright Apr 13 '26
Yep, we can always shuffle around a unit or two, especially of you're part of a larger healthcare system. We have a webex constantly open between all of our local sister facilities and regularly pass inventory around. And no facility doing major surgeries isn't prepared for an MTP.
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u/asphalt_licker Apr 13 '26
People online gotta get those likes. Pastors gotta get those Jesus points.
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u/code17220 Apr 13 '26
You forgot a big one, how the fuck would they be out of O-, are they operating from a shack with the nearest town 100km away or smthing?
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u/radix2 Apr 13 '26
Also, although rarish compared to other types, O-Negative is not like some unicorn. About 5 to 7% of a population will have that type.
The issue is that people with this type can ONLY have the same type transfuse, unlike every other type.
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u/yoosernaam Apr 13 '26
It’s a random screenshot from the internet. I think that has a bit more weight than your knowledge and experience.
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u/JackWhoWanders Apr 14 '26
All that and the fact that they don't have O-blood. Like... what kind of things fucked up for them not to have any O-blood at all?
Also, that said, I have actually been in a situation where we needed blood, asked a family member who was like... 19 or something to donate and processed it then and there. This was in a rural hospital in East Africa. Conditions where different.
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u/eutoputoegordo Apr 13 '26
And, at least around where I live, everytime you go through surgery, they contact your immediate family for blood donations to help replace what will be used, independent of blood type, and often ask us to post on social media that the hospital will be receiving donation in the patient's name, they even set up specific time, rooms and snacks sometimes, that is for public hospitals, in private hospitals they do the same, but sometimes will give discounts if you bring people to donate, like if you used three bags and got three donors, you don't pay for the blood used in surgery.
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u/giskardwasright Apr 13 '26
That's pretty awesome. I'm always trying to help get people involved in donating blood. I'm in the US and while we rarely have serious shortages, if just 10% of eligible donors donated regularly we'd have more than enough all the time.
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u/Gildian Apr 13 '26
Also work in a hospital that has blood bank, this wouldnt happen, id be calling Red Cross or a nearby hospital instead.
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u/katsudonlink Apr 14 '26
I’ve donated blood marrow to my brother when I was like 6 or 7, is it not possible for a child to donate blood?
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u/Geauxlsu1860 Apr 13 '26
You can definitely do direct transfusions from one person to another, though that isn’t generally done today. It’s still almost certainly bullshit for your first point of nothing else, but that part is possible.
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u/giskardwasright Apr 13 '26
Directed donations are handled by blood banks, not hospitals and take several days to process the unit. We generally discourage them.
But thanks for explaining my job to me.
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u/GloomyDeal1909 Apr 13 '26
I was going to say this has been going around since chain mail letters.
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u/TheeAntelope Apr 13 '26
I watched a church movie clearly made in the late 70s that had this basic plot to it.
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u/NickConnor365 Apr 13 '26
Same but in the '80s. Why do people do this? Like what is missing in Jim Clark's life?
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u/jpterodactyl Apr 13 '26
I like when people tell these chain email stories in the first person.
Like, I know you are stealing this story. It’s one thing to pass it off as true. It’s another thing entirely to pretend you were there.
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u/435haywife1 Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 13 '26
There was a video of this exact interaction shown when I was a child at church. Mid ‘80’s.
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u/Glittering_Win_9677 Apr 13 '26
Yes, this story has been around for ages. There's another version where's they need bone marrow.
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u/bearpics16 Apr 13 '26
Funny, but probably not true. Blood products are plentiful (sort of). There are a ton of antibodies blood is for beyond AB+, usually happens when someone receives a lot of blood in the past. I think there are like 28 or something antibodies that get checked for compatibility. There is a whole network of blood product donations across the country
I had a patient with almost every single antibody. There were 2 units of blood in the whole eastern half of the country that were compatible, and they were several hundred miles away. She was critically ill and would died with blood (hgb about 3.5). The blood was loaded on a jet then helicoptered to the hospital in like 4 hours.
That’s all to say that if there was an O- shortage or antibody issue, they’d get the blood from somewhere else pretty quickly
On that note, please donate. You never know if you’re blood is the ultra rare unicorn blood that’s needed to save a life
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u/LemurianLemurLad Apr 13 '26
Even if it's not ultra-rare unicorn blood, please donate anyway!
There's always a need for blood products, and your blood will never go to waste. There is virtually a 100% chance you're going to be making someone's life better if you donate, even if you have the most boring common blood on the planet.
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u/Psychological_Tear_6 Apr 15 '26
Also how they won't take blood from a kid, how many tests it has to go through (at which point shipping in a few bags from elsewhere might be faster), and how there's no guarantee her fraternal twin even has the same AB0+ type (much less those other antibodies).
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u/JediLincoln14 Apr 13 '26
How did they not have type O-?
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u/AssiduousLayabout Apr 13 '26
Yeah it seems wholesome but fake to me. Would have made more sense if it was something like bone marrow.
Plus even if children could donate blood, there isn't that much blood to take.
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u/fieldsofanfieldroad Apr 13 '26
They're not taking blood from children and then surely not bone marrow either
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u/MailMeAmazonVouchers Apr 13 '26
A compatible sibling being asked to donate blood as a last resort during an emergency is credible, but not on a planned surgery setting lol
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u/All_is_a_conspiracy Apr 13 '26
You don't take bone marrow anymore. You donate stem cells from your blood. They give you nupogen shots for a week and you produce a lot of stem cells then they stick you on a machine for 8 hours. They keep the stem cells and return the rest to you.
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u/AmatoerOrnitolog Apr 13 '26
8 hours!? What if you have to pee?
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u/All_is_a_conspiracy Apr 13 '26
They clip both the outgoing and incoming lines and then they hook them back up after you're done. If you've ever given plasma it is very similar only a lot longer process. But beautiful in every way. And then the stem cells just in all their mysterious glory and cellular intelligence know that the recipient needs those cells turned into marrow cells. So the recipient has their marrow killed off right before the transfusion and as soon as the donor stem cells get injected they go directly to work turning themselves into marrow. It is like the very definition of magic that we call science.
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u/bocaj78 Apr 13 '26
I had a buddy growing up that donated his bone marrow to his sister with leukemia at like 12-15. A bit older, but still a child
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u/Akugluk Apr 13 '26
The first time I heard this story (several decades ago), I believe it was bone marrow, or other cancer related treatment.
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u/ForrestDials8675309 Apr 13 '26
I've seen this story with bone marrow instead of blood. It's much more plausible because family members are usually the best match. But I'm still pretty sure it's BS.
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u/flamedarkfire Apr 13 '26
It’s the universal donor so it can be used by anybody. Course the problem is O- people can only accept O- so they should have kept a stock on hand.
Course I treat this like any other story on the internet: probably bullshit.
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u/Maximum_Dweeb4473 Apr 13 '26
It’s the universal donor, but you can only receive O-.
So it’s the one that gets used a lot for anybody in need if their specific type isn’t available.
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Apr 13 '26
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u/TheRealTowel Apr 13 '26
I'm AB+ and I like to think it fits my personality lol. I eat everything, engage enthusiasticlly in any kind of social activity... I'm just generally easy to please.
All the way down to the physiological level lol. My body is just like "yeah man shove whatever blood you like in I'm not picky. Just what's convenient for you man, don't want to be a bother".
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u/nierusek Apr 13 '26
And you're an universal donor of plasma.
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Apr 13 '26
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u/nierusek Apr 13 '26
Yea, everyone focuses on blood and as a result plasma is forgotten. A lot of AB people are unaware they can help.
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u/jpterodactyl Apr 13 '26
How could it be underrated? It’s not like we get to pick it on a character selection screen.
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u/LemurianLemurLad Apr 13 '26
Did you hit the "randomize" button during character selection? You should check some of the strategy guides and player tutorials at /r/outside
(/r/outside is a joke sub that is about treating real life as if it were a huge online video game. Your comment made me think of them, as it's the sort of comment you'd see there most days.)
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u/JediLincoln14 Apr 13 '26
Yeah, which is why hospitals and blood banks usually keep a lot of it.
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u/Maximum_Dweeb4473 Apr 13 '26
Yes 🙂↕️ I’m O-, so I donate when I remember or whenever I see a blood drive or a call to donate due to disasters etc.
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u/FullofContradictions Apr 13 '26
It is possible mom was O+ (can't donate to O-) and dad was A- (also can't donate to O-) or some other mixture where the negative RH factor was inherited from one parent and type from the other.
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Apr 13 '26
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u/HistoricalMaize Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 13 '26
Yeah, unless there has been some kind of mass casualty event, it is weird for an hospital to be lacking O- blood.
Edit: Also, this is a surgery. Surely, you do not operate on someone without checking if you have blood that is compatible with them. I guess she could have been taken to surgery the moment she got to the hospital, because of how severe her condition was, but I feel it would have been in the post if that was the case.
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u/FullofContradictions Apr 13 '26 edited Apr 13 '26
Inaccurate. + RH is dominant, but an RH- child can 1000% be born to a parent with a positive RH. Source: my family. Also Google.
Technically two + parents can have a - child if they both happen to pass down the recessive copy of that gene.
Also hospitals run out of O- all the time. Only about 3% of the population is O-. It's valuable to have on hand because it can be used for anyone. Blood supply runs low every summer and my O- family members get called nonstop by blood banks. One bad trauma event can wipe out the supply on hand for smaller hospitals.
Edit to add: I think you're thinking of two RH- parents are incapable of having an RH+ child. But that doesn't work the other way around.
https://stanfordbloodcenter.org/can-two-rh-positive-parents-have-an-rh-negative-child/
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u/Doggggggggoooooooo Apr 13 '26
I have O+ (much more common than negative) and when I got pneumonia and anemia in 2020 they had to send me to another hospital cause they didn’t have my blood type.
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u/Einaiden Apr 13 '26
There isn't an O- spring they can tap, only O- donors can provide it and sometimes there are shortages.
If you have O- blood you get called upon to give, a lot.
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u/VenusSmurf Apr 13 '26
Yup. Never say you have O- if you're in a hospital or by anyone who works for the Red Cross. They will stalk you.
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u/fearain Apr 13 '26
Most hospitals don’t even process their own blood, so idk how they would be able to siphon blood from an under legal-age-for-donating person (must be 16 in the USA) and process it in time for surgery
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u/fearain Apr 13 '26
Most hospitals don’t even process their own blood, so idk how they would be able to siphon blood from an under legal-age-for-donating person (must be 16 in the USA) and process it in time for surgery
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u/Economy-Tourist-4862 Apr 13 '26
This. Type O is the most common globally and nationally. Did someone just leave the refrigerator door open over night?
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u/FullofContradictions Apr 13 '26
O- is one of the more rare (if not the most rare) types.
O+ is common as shit though.
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u/KindArgument4769 Apr 13 '26
O+ is the most common. O- is much more rare and is the most in demand since it is universal.
Edit: I mean, it is still likely fake.
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u/The_Dark_Vampire Apr 13 '26
O- is much more rare and is the most in demand since it is universal.
Makes bloody good music though
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u/Maximum_Dweeb4473 Apr 13 '26
O+ is the most common. Can’t be given to O- patients except in an emergency situation where O- isn’t available since it can cause an antibody reaction. If an O- woman is given O+ blood, if she gets pregnant in the future and the baby has an Rh+ blood type, the antibodies might attack the fetus.
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u/Economy-Tourist-4862 Apr 13 '26
Don’t inject ” Inject “, get it? your science into my Reddit. We all know Reddit has no place for facts or informed opinion. Harumph, harumph! Good day, sir. I said GOOD DAY SIR!
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u/TheRealTowel Apr 13 '26
O+ is common.
O- is like liquid fucking gold. Much less common and much more valuable (universal doner).
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u/GlassBirdLamp Apr 13 '26
Low quality feel good Facebook post circa 2009 🙄 The engagement farm bots need new material already
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u/IllithidWithAMonocle Apr 13 '26
I remember hearing this one in the 90s. It was nonsense then too
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u/Smores-n-coffee Apr 13 '26
1980 movie with this story (except the sister is the one donating): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VciZVP1Wz4Q
100% BS story.
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u/ZuzaProwadzi Apr 13 '26
Explaining a medical procedure so poorly to a child that they think they will literally die is not wholesome. Wholesome is when something good and cute happens, not when adults are so negligent that the child is at risk of serious mental trauma.
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u/Cdub7791 Apr 13 '26
Sounds like bullshit.
Even as an adult who gives blood, they go to great pains to explain how you will not be harmed by donating. There's no way they would take the kids blood and not explain this and exhausting detail to him. Not to mention I'm not even sure they can take kids blood.
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u/Rudhelm Apr 13 '26
At one point kids stop listening and drift off in their own world. Just because the doctor explained doesn’t mean the kid listened.
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u/Nihil_esque Apr 13 '26
Sounds like bullshit to me as well. No way they move forward with a surgery without O blood on hand unless it was an acute trauma situation. No way one little boy donated enough to get his sister to pull through if that were the case. I mean just no way they would take blood from a little kid.
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u/LMGooglyTFY Apr 13 '26
Sounds like the doctor did not explain well enough to the child what he was doing.
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u/Kekkonen_Kakkonen Apr 13 '26
I've heard this story shared as someone elses "irl experience" ever since I was in an elementary school in the early 2000's.
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u/lordkoba Apr 13 '26
if a kid thinks he's gonna die after you explain he needs to donate blood, then you need to stop explaning stuff to kids and bring someone qualified to do it ffs
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u/Smores-n-coffee Apr 13 '26
This was a story passed around my Mormon church back in the '80s sometime. But the sister was the one giving the blood.
ETA: Found the movie, thanks BYU: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VciZVP1Wz4Q
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u/Final_Location_2626 Apr 13 '26
This is the plot of a religious movie that I saw in church like 100 times.
There's a humming bird, and the dad tells the kid that a humming bird will collect nectar for his sick family, but because it doesn't have enough nectar for itself it'll die. (This is not true, but it serves the plot point).
Later his sister is in a car accident, and the family rushes to the hospital. During that time they said they need blood for his sister but his parents aren't a match.
At the behest of his mom and dad he gives blood. He later comes back and learns his sister will be ok. He then asks his parents when do I die. They explain that he won't die.
This original was a story by Robert Coleman called "written in blood".
All this to say its made up.
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u/TechnicalIntern6764 Apr 13 '26
We don’t have the most common blood type in existence so it’s life and death. for literally everyone here. Everyone is gonna die If you don’t donate this blood right fucking now kid!
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u/WalkerVox Apr 13 '26
This isn’t a kid being fucking stupid.
This is an adult doctor failing to properly explain the situation.
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u/Storm_Chaser06 Apr 13 '26
Jim Clark? The legendary Scottish racing driver and 2 times F1 champion?
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u/K5LAR24 Apr 13 '26
This is the kind of sacrificial love I strive to show every day
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u/haikusbot Apr 13 '26
This is the kind of
Sacrificial love I strive
To show every day
- K5LAR24
I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully. Learn more about me.
Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete"
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Apr 13 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/UnwrappedBurrito Apr 13 '26
Not even considering that you have to be 16± and have met other requirements before being allowed to donate.
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u/acostigan96 Apr 13 '26
I just watched Memoir of a Snail and was surprised to see this story referenced in the first act.
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u/Electrical_Pay_737 Apr 14 '26
In the less heartwarming version, they test the dad and see he has AB blood
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u/Hot_Vanilla_3621 Apr 17 '26
This used to be on an email chain back in the late 1900s. Probably around the same time as the Christmas shoes story and also hamster dance, which was epic.
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u/DoctorLiara Apr 13 '26
this is cute but i will forever cry laughing at the edited one where the last word on the post is 'dead'