In an emergency transfusion, a patient is labeled as A positive but the specimen labeling is poor and the historic ABO type is A positive. What should be given?

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In emergencies with poor specimen labeling, the priority is to avoid an acute ABO incompatibility. Red cell units that lack A and B antigens are safest because they won’t be targeted by recipient anti-A or anti-B antibodies, regardless of the recipient’s actual ABO type. Type O red cells fit this role because they are free of A and B antigens. If you also consider the patient’s history, knowing they were previously documented as Rh positive informs the choice of Rh status to minimize further immunologic risks; thus using Rh-positive type O cells aligns with the historic Rh result. While O negative would be safest if the Rh status were unknown, the historical information here supports using O positive cells to maintain compatibility and preserve the universal donor resource.