Blood-Vital for Life! - BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS -HOW SAFE?

Before submitting to any serious medical procedure, a thinking person will learn the possible benefits  and the risks.  What about blood transfusions?  They are now a prime tool in medicine.  Many physicians who are genuinely interested in their patients may have little hesitation about giving blood. It has been called the gift of life.

Millions have donated blood or have accepted it. For 1986-87 Canada had 1.3 million donors in a population of 25 million.  "[In] the most recent year for which figures are available, between 12 million and 14 million units of blood were used in transfusions in the United States alone." -The New York  Times, February 18, 1990. 

Blood has always enjoyed a 'magical quality,' notes Dr. Louise J.Keating.  "For its first 46 years, the blood supply was perceived as being safer than it actually was by both physicians and the public."  (Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine, May 1989)  What was the situation then, and what is it now?

Even 30 years ago,  pathologist and blood-bank personnel were advised:  "Blood is dynamite!  It can do a great deal of good or a great deal of harm.  The mortality from blood transfusion equals that from ether anesthesia or appendectomy.  There is said to be approximately one death in 1,000 to 3,000 bottles of blood transfused." -New York State Journal of Medicine, January 15, 1960.

Have the dangers since been eliminated so that transfusions are now safe?  Frankly, each years hundreds of thousands have adverse reactions to blood, and many die. In view of the preceding comments, what may come to your mind are blood-borne diseases.  Before examining this aspect, consider some risks that are less well-known.

Next time: Blood -Vital for Life! - BLOOD AND YOUR IMMUNITY

From the jw.org publications