by Mary 153 Replies latest watchtower medical
Mary,
I'm so happy you were there to say OK, while the A$$holes were out for coffee Hopefully now that the bleed has been cauterized his Hgb will come up with time. You are still in my thoughts. Try to get some rest, even if it's sitting in a chair. He needs you to be strong and without rest and food you won't be able to take care of him and you mom!
Love, hugs and support
nj
Oh hun, you and your dad are in my thoughts.
That is so sad and wrong!!!!
Pls keep us updated.
Thinking of you
Luv es
wow - what an ordeal. What is this HLC, anyway? We didn't have it when I was in the org.
There is nothing wrong with plasma. With todays technology it's really quite safe. Those ulcers can sure give trouble. I sure hope everthing works out
Mary, My "inbox" does not work. If you need me, please look at my p.m. to you. It has my contact info. I'll be by one of those phones all weekend. Call if you need anything. Skeeter
Mary,
<br><br> If you can't get the hemopure...have a conversation with the anesthesiologist. Ask him if washed, frozen/packed red blood cells could be used for your father. Ask him to expalin the difference between these cells & hemoglobin.
<br><br><br> Meanwhile, go over with the rest of the family the changes in the blood doctrine. Here's a chart, and below my signature are the quotes:
<br><br> Year Policy
<br> 1934 & 1940 Whole blood transfusions were approved.
<br> 1945 Whole blood transfusions were banned.
<br> 1954 Any blood fraction derived from whole blood was banned, (notably gamma globulins).
<br> 1958 Certain blood fractions allowed as disease prevention (gamma globulins and diphtheria shot).
<br> 1961 Blood fractions that sustain life are not allowed.
<br> 1961 Vaccinations allowed by personal decision.
<br> 1964 Serums allowed by personal decision.
<br> 1974 Small fractions allowed and serums very favorable.
<br> February 1975 Hemophiliac clotting factors banned.
<br> June 1975 Hemophiliac clotting factors unofficially allowed
<br> 1978 Hemophiliac clotting factors officially allowed.
<br> 1981 Journal of American Medical Association prints article stating that fractions are allowed
<br> 1982 Society informs followers that many blood fractions allowed by personal choice.
<br> 1992 Fraction hemoglobin officially banned.
<br> 2000 Fraction hemoglobin officially allowed.
<br> 2004 All blood fractions allowed by personal decision, but followers asked to heavily weigh their decision.
<br><br> Then, ask the doctor to talk with the rest of the family about it. If your family can see that the difference is "the skin" of the red blood cell, then they may cave in.
<br><br> Skeeter
Consolation, 19 (December 25, 1940); Luz y Verdad, 91 (June 1934) [Translated from Spanish,“The majority of those [who donate blood] are strong and healthy youth, of diverse backgrounds, that contribute in this way in a really generous fashion to the salvation of the sick or injured. They are not paid a cent for their contribution, but society knows them and it respects them as they deserve to be respected.”], available at www.ajwrb.com/watchtower/data1.whtml.
The Watchtower, 198-201 (July 1, 1945), available at www.ajwrb.com/watchtower/data1.shtml; The Watchtower, 12 (October 22, 1948) available at www.ajwrb.com/watchtower/data1.shtml.
Awake!, 24 (January 8, 1954) (“We are told that it takes one and a third pints of whole blood to get enough of the blood protein or "fraction" known as gamma globulin for one injection. And since from the foregoing it must be admitted that such use of human blood is highly questionable, what justification can there be for the use of gamma globulin? Further, those interested in the Scriptural aspect will note that its being made of whole blood places it in the same category as blood transfusions as far as Jehovah’s prohibition of taking blood into the system is concerned.- See Leviticus 17:10 - 14; Acts 15:20, 28, 29.”), available at www.ajwrb.com/watchtower/data1.shtml.
The Watchtower, 575 (September 15, 1958) (“Are we to consider the injection of serums . . . and blood factions . . . for the purpose of building up resistance to disease by means of antibodies, the same as the drinking of blood or the taking of blood or blood plasma by means of transfusions? - N.P., United States. No, it does not seem necessary that we put the two in the same category, although we have done so in times past. While God did not intend for man to contaminate his blood stream by vaccines, serums or blood factions, doing so does not seem to be included in God's expressed will forbidding blood as food. It would therefore be a matter of individual judgment whether one accepted such types of medication or not.”), available at www.ajwrb.com/watchtower/data1.whtml.
The Watchtower, 670 (November 1, 1961) (“. . the infusing of some blood faction to sustain one's life is wrong. As to the use of vaccines and other substances . . .it should not be concluded that the Watch Tower Society endorses these . . . However, vaccination is a virtually unavoidable practice . . . of modern society, and the Christian may find some comfort under the circumstances in the fact that this use is not in actuality a feeding or nourishing process, . . . So, as was stated in The Watchtower of September 15, 1958, page 575, ‘It would therefore be a matter of individual judgment whether one accepted such types of medication or not.’”), available at www.ajwrb.com/watchtower/data1.whtml.
The Watchtower, 680-683 (November 15, 1964) (“Therefore, whether a Christian will submit to inoculation with a serum, or whether doctors or nurses who are Christians will administer such, is for personal decision.”), available at www.ajwrb.com/watchtower/data1.whtml.
The Watchtower, 351-352 (June 1, 1974) (“It can thus be seen that serums (unlike vaccines) contain a blood faction, though minute....What, then, of the use of a serum containing only a minute faction of blood and employed to supply an auxiliary defense against some infection and not employed to perform the life - sustaining function that blood normally carries out? We believe that here the conscience of each Christian must decide.”), available at www.ajwrb.com/watchtower/data1.shtml.
Awake, 30 (February 22, 1975) (“Certain clotting ‘factors’ derived from blood are now in wide use for the treatment of hemophilia, a disorder causing uncontrollable bleeding. However, those given this treatment face another deadly hazard: the Swiss medical weekly Schweizer Med Wochenschrift reports that almost 40 percent of 113 hemophiliacs studied had cases of hepatitis. ‘All these patients had received whole blood, plasma, or blood derivatives containing [the factors],’ notes the report. Of course, true Christians do not use this potentially dangerous treatment, heeding the Bible's command to 'abstain from blood.’”), available at www.ajwrb.com/watchtower/data1.shtml.
<br> Raymond Franz, CRISIS OF CONSCIENCE, 120-121 (4th ed. 2002).
The Watchtower, 29-31 (June 15, 1978) (“What, however, about accepting serum injections to fight against disease, such as . . . hemophilia? ...This seems to fall into a 'gray area.'...Hence, we have taken the position that this question must be resolved by each individual . . . ”). Also available at www.ajwrb.com/watchtower/data1.shtml.
<br> Be Guided by the Living God, The Watchtower, 19, 21 (June 15, 2004) (“[Jehovah’s Witnesses] supplied an article to The Journal of the American Medical Assocation . . . ‘While these versus are not stated in medical terms, Witnesses view them as ruling out transfusion of whole blood, packed RBCs [red blood cells], and plasma, as well as WBC [white blood cell] and platelet administration.”).
<br> Awake!, 25 (June 22, 1982) (“While these verses are not stated in medical terms, Witnesses view them as ruling out transfusion of whole blood, packed RBCs, and plasma, as well as WBC and platelet administration. However, Witnesses religious understanding does not absolutely prohibit the use of components such as albumin, immune globulins, and hemophiliac preparations; each Witness must decide individually if he can accept these.”), available at http://www.jwfiles.com/blood.htm; See also The Watchtower, 31 (June 1, 1990) (“Others have felt that a serum (antitoxin) such as immune globulin containing only a tiny faction of a donor’s blood plasma and used to bolster their defense against disease is not the same as a life-sustaining blood transfusion. So their consciences may not forbid them to take immune globulin or similar factions. They may conclude that for them the decision will rest primarily on whether they are willing to accept any health risks involved in an injection made from others’ blood. That some protein factions from the plasma do move naturally into the blood system of another individual (the fetus) may be another consideration when a Christian is deciding whether he will accept immune globulin albumin or similar injections of plasma factions. One person may feel that he in good conscience can; another may conclude that he cannot. Each must resolve the matter personally before God.”), available at http://www.jwfiles.com/blood.htm.
<br> Questions from Readers, The Watchtower, (October 15, 1992) (“It would be right, of course, to avoid products that listed things such as blood, blood plasma, plasma, globin (or globulin) protein, or hemoglobin (or globin) iron.”), available at http://www.ajwrb.org/basics/hemopure.shtml.
<br> Questions from Readers, The Watchtower 29-30 (June 15, 2000) (“Other Christians decide differently. They too refuse transfusions of whole blood, red cells, white cells, platelets, or plasma. Yet, they might allow a physician to treat them with a faction derived from the primary components.”), available at http://www.jwfiles.com/blood-WT6-15-00.htm; http://www.ajwrb.org/basics/hemopure.shtml (“According to a September 24, 2000 article in the Sacramento Bee, a patient was recently transfused with Hemopure®, a highly purified oxygen-carrying hemoglobin solution made from fractionated bovine (cow) blood and manufactured by Biopure Corporation. Dorsey Griffith, a medical writer for the Bee, states that Gregory Brown, a representative from the Jehovah's Witnesses Hospital Liaison Committee, approved the use of the oxygen-carrying solution that was transfused into the patient, Jose Orduño. The article notes: ‘When Orduño woke up from his drug-induced slumber, about a month after the ordeal began, Angelica was there …His sister told him about the accident and how he almost died, and about the drug made from cow blood that had saved his life.’”).
<br> Be Guided by the Living God, The Watchtower, 19-24 (June 15, 2004).
<br>
Hortensia:
What is this HLC, anyway? We didn't have it when I was in the org.
HLC = Hospital Liaison Committee.
These are teams of hand-picked elders, who have the WTS "training" to "assist" JW patients in asserting their patient rights with respect to blood transfusion refusal. Each major city has such a committee. They are supposed to be aware of which blood fractions are acceptable to JWs and advocate for treatments that are WTS approved.
One of the ulterior motives of these committees, however, is to ensure that JWs in hospital who may be faced with the blood issue are watched around the clock by pairs of other JWs or even members of the committee - under the guise of keeping vigil and offering moral support to the patient. This way, a JW who might otherwise accept a blood transfusion or other treatment that the WTS does not regard as acceptable would basically be intimidated into maintaining a stance of refusing these products, because to be seen by "two eye witnesses" accepting a blood transfusion or non-approved blood product would be considered grounds for DFing (or more than likely now, DAing).
This arrangement was initiated in the early 1990s - I remember there was a special insert in the Kingdom Ministry about this new arrangement.
Skeeter
According to a September 24, 2000 article in the Sacramento Bee, a patient was recently transfused with Hemopure®, a highly purified oxygen-carrying hemoglobin solution made from fractionated bovine (cow) blood and manufactured by Biopure Corporation. Dorsey Griffith, a medical writer for the Bee, states that Gregory Brown, a representative from the Jehovah's Witnesses Hospital Liaison Committee, approved the use of the oxygen-carrying solution that was transfused into the patient, Jose Orduño.
I may have had something confused...wasn't there a press release in 1999, from the Sacramento Bee or some other California newspaper, that said hemoglobin was OK as a 'conscience matter' ?
Rabbit
Mary,
I have written a study that is deliberately aimed at lawmakers and medical administrators regarding JWs and blood.
It is my conviction that the HLC and others MUST be kept away from the patient and from their medical records!
go to:
http://au.geocities.com/doug_mason1940/Loyalty_Test.pdf
My heart goes out to you!
Doug
Scully said: Please advocate for your dad - will he accept EPOTIN or HEMOPURE? He can start the EPOTIN right away, and the hospital will need to get HEMOPURE on a compassionate basis as it is still experimental, but it can be done.
Dad will accept the Hemopure, so I phoned Biopure yesterday and spoke to the Manager and outlined dad's situation. She said it sounded like he would be a candidate for it on a "compassion" basis and asked me to get the doctor to call her. I spoke to the doctor at the hospital about it. She had spoken to the Hemotologist about the Hemopure and apparently it's not approved in Canada yet for treatment. She outlined everything they've given him: A new drug similar to EPO but much more powerful. He gets that once a week. Mega doses of liquid iron every second day, Vitamin K and a host of other things that will boost his blood count. I phoned this morning and his blood count has come up since yesterday. He's at 53, so it looks like he's at least on the right path. They went down him with the scope again yesterday and re-cauterized the ulcer wound to ensure that it would not bleed. She said that it looked good and she has every faith that he'll make a full recovery, even though she would have preferred to give him a transfusion yesterday.
So mom and me went to have some lunch in the cafeteria and I said to her "mom, why does the Society say you can accept Hemoglobin when it's made from cow's blood, yet you can't accept packed red blood cells from a human?! It doesn't make any sense!!" She concerred that it didn't make any sense and she asked me if that was why I don't go to the Hall anymore. I told her that was part of it, but I told her how I thought 1914 was bullshit and there was absolutely no evidence to back it up. I told her about how the Society recently settled 9 sexual abuse cases out of court complete with gag order, which was extremely hypocritical of them after slamming the Catholic church for decades for the same damn thing. I told her how many lives they've ruined by telling an entire generation not to pay into their pensions, don't get an education, don't do ANYTHING except what we tell you to.
We talked more about the blood issue and I said "Mom, do you realize where these "fractions" that you're now allowed to accept come from? Stored blood!!" I told her that not even the most Orthodox Jew interprets the scriptures as anything more than dietary laws. I said "Why were the Israelities allowed to sell unbled meat to foreigners?" I said "there's a scripture that says when the Israelites were fighting someone, they were starving and they ate unbled meat, yet Jehovah did not destroy them. Why? Because it was a matter of life and death."
I also told her about what Moshe or Clam (sorry I can't remember) said the other day in a posting: 'No amount of blood transfusions will save a starving man'. And if a man were in a serious accident and needed a transfusion, feeding him blood through his mouth would not save his life, proving that a blood transfusion and "eating the blood from a dead animal" are not the same thing.
She listened to everything I said, but I didn't want to put more on her at this point. It looks as though there's a good chance dad will pull through this but I think I gave her food for thought (no pun intended).........
