by Witness 007 89 Replies latest jw experiences
jefferywhat:
I bet my 2.5 grams of red blood cells that more people have died from transfused diseases and adverse reactions than from refusal
That's almost certainly true, given that only around one in a thousand people would refuse blood when needed. I'm sure you realise it's also true that more lives have been saved by people accepting blood transfusions than refusing them.
It appears to me that Jefferywhatever has missed the point of the initial post and the thread. The point is the WT Society's stand on blood. And the ensuing confusion and loss of life they cause.
Not the medical field's stand.
momz
JefferySoWhatDoICare
I bet my 2.5 grams of red blood cells that more people have died from transfused diseases and adverse reactions than from refusal, and as the Australian government is realizing, its not the best option, especially now.
Why dont we hear as much condemnation against this travesty as we do about the poor old men in new York trying their best to keep us spiritually clean?
You "...have not experienced that pain..." of losing a loved one over the blood issue ? Do you have to ??? Can you have no empathy for those of us who have ?
I held my JW mom's hand as she died -- in a perfectly good, fully equipped, fully staffed hospital, because of the lies of those "poor old men in New York". Their demands, in the name of their god, murdered my mother. They are blood-guilty.
The only sense in which those "poor old men..." are poor...is in their mistranslation of a Old Testament dietary law. One that even the Jews who pass down those teachings understand that a blood transfusion has nothing to do with "eating blood."
Do you really believe your god is that petty ? To require humans to sacrifice what little life we have left -- over some old words found in a cave ? And if you fail that test...you're screwed for eternity ?
Come to think of it, the OT "jealous" god always was a bit of a psychopath, what with all the bloodshed and temper-tantrums He had. Violence was always better...probably fun for him. Punish hundreds of generations of innocents for 'the sins of the father' ? Sure, why not ? He made us...He can play with us any way He wants to, right ?
I sincerely hope that YOU 'tick' "NO BLOOD PRODUCTS OF ANY KIND" on your POA. And, if (I hope it does not happen) you are fading into death, I hope you see the eyes of your loved ones and the doctors who will be trying to save your ungrateful ass. I hope then...you will realize...that now YOU are screwed.
And... I hope you remember this thread.
Rabbit
I had a look at Jeffery's link ..
Although red blood cell transfusions are an important part of the treatment of some haemodynamically stable patients, there is evidence to suggest that a number of transfusions in such settings are inappropriate.
I guess that is fair enough. Few people would want an unnecessary transfusion. Many of us would prefer other treatments if posssible. But as it says - they are still an important part of medicine, especially trauma and Accident Emergencies..No issue with that......
I bet my 2.5 grams of red blood cells that more people have died from transfused diseases and adverse reactions than from refusal, and as the Australian government is realizing, its not the best option, especially now.
I don't know how we could possibly resolve such a bet, (And it would be macabre anyway) but a comparison of applicable studies strongly contradicts this idea.
From a JW perspective, the most favorable study was done by Kitchens. He compiled 1404 cases involving Jehovah's Witnesses and collated them into 16 surgical catagories Short-term mortality directly attributable to refusing blood ranged from 0 to 8.33%, depending on the type of surgery. Overall, increased mortality from refusing blood was 0.5% to 1.5% (Kitchens, C. Are Transfusions Overrated? Am J Med 1993;94:117-119)
On the flip-side of the coin, the risk of accepting blood was covered in a study by Sazama. Here, the short-term mortality rate, from accepting blood was 1 to 1.2 per 100,000 patients who received blood transfusions. In other words, receiving blood transfusion increased the mortality by 0.001 to 0.0012%, whereas refusing blood transfusion increased the mortality by 0.5% to 1.5%. (Sazama, K.: Reports of 355 Transfusion-Related Deaths: 1976 - 1985 Transfusion 1990;30:583-90)
The risk of blood transfusion was again extensively reviewed in the "Medical Progress" review in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1999. In this progress review, the overall number of deaths from blood transfusion is estimated at 23 and 44 deaths per million units of blood. These numbers include every complications from blood transfusion, not just short-term mortality as in Sazama's report. The short-term mortality which corresponds to Kitchens' estimate should be smaller than these numbers. Thus, a typical blood transfusion of two units carries the risk of 46 to 88 overall deaths per million patients, or 0.0046 to 0.0084%. If a larger amount of blood is transfused, this risk increases further, to 0.01 to 0.03%. (Goodnough LT, Brecher ME, Kanter MH, et al.:Transfusion Medicine. First of two parts--blood transfusion N Engl J Med 1999;340:438-447)
Based on this data, the risk of refusing blood is greater than the risk of accepting blood by an order of magnitude. --Roughly 100 times greater.
As someone outside of the Borganization I had never heard of the blood issue. Then when my husband started his studies with Them I started taking note of everything I saw or heard about the Witnesses. One of the first things I saw (that really got me wondering: what the hell is wrong with these people?!) was a news article about a boy in Florida. He had died after being granted (by the court system) the right to refuse a transfusion. I can't seem to find it now (I carried it in my purse for months, wondering how a religion could convince a CHILD to sacrifice his life...and WHY would they want that?!) but he had Lukemia, I believe. The article did not line out the Witness blood beliefs, only said that he was a Witness. I think the point about the Jews is a good one. Bizzare. -Potential
Does anyone have the US version of this new card? I've done a search but came up with nothing.
"Sooner7nc" sorry to hear about your wife's kidney problems. She as a Witness is lucky they changed that doctrine in 1980 since before that Witnesses were told Transplants were "Canabalism" and a disfellowshiping offence. Many died, but today I know a sister who had a new liver put in her abdomin. Now she's doing fine. Medical technology is improving everyday and that's where the hope lies.
My Mother and Sister-in-law both died; because, life saving surgery could not be done without blood. Go back under the rock you came out from.
I agree.
WITNESS 007------What you are doing is scaring people, where they will not want to get blood.
Sometimes you have to have blood, or you will die.
