HOW CAN BLOOD SAVE YOUR LIFE?

SURGERY, YES -BUT WITHOUT TRANSFUSIONS

Many people today will not accept blood.  For health reasons, they are requesting what Witnesses seek primarily on religious grounds: quality medical care employing alternative non-blood management. As we have noted, major surgery is still possible. If you have any lingering doubts, some other evidence from medical literature may dispel them.  

The article "Quadruple Major Joint Replacement in Member of Jehovah's Witnesses" (Orthopaedic Review,  August 1986)  told of an anemic patient with "advanced destruction in both knees and hips."  Iron dextran was employed before and after the staged surgery, which was successful.  The British Journal of Anaesthesia (1982)  reported on a 52-year-old Witnesses with a hemoglobin level under 10.  With the use of hypertensive anesthesia to minimize blood loss, she had a total hip replacement. A surgical team at the University of Arkansas (U.S.A.) also used this method in a hundred hip replacements on Witnesses, and all the patients recovered .  The professor heading the department comments:  "What we have learned from those (Witness) patients, we now apply to all our patients that we to total hims on." 

The conscience of some Witnesses permits them to accept organ transplants if done without blood. A report of 13 kidney transplants concluded:  "The overall results suggests that renal transplantation can be safely and efficaciously applied to most Jehovah's Witnesses."  (Transplantation, June 1988) Likewise, refusal of blood has not stood in the way even of successful heart transplants.  

'What about the bloodless surgery of other types?' you may wonder.  Medical Hotline (April/May 1983) Told of a surgery done on "Jehovah's Witnesses who underwent major gynecological and obstetric operations [at Wayne State University, U.S.A.] without blood transfusions."  The newsletter reported:  "There are no more deaths and complications in women who had undergone similar operations with blood transfusions."  The newsletter then commented:  "The results of this study may warrant a fresh look a the use of blood for all women undergoing obstetric and gynecological operations."

Next time: HOW CAN BLOOD SAVE YOUR LIFE?/Conclusion of: SURGERY, YES - BUT WITHOUT TRANSFUSIONS

From the Watchtower magazine