Blood transfusion.................and I felt sick.

by Summer wine 10 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Summer wine

  Although my opinion of the use of blood has dramatically changed. I was surprised with my reaction when I recently visited someone in hospital and the blaz a way the nurse said that the patient had been given 2 units of blood to "build him up". When I looked at the hooked up line of red blood, I felt physically sick, not because of the sight of blood as some people are, but that he was was been intravenously "fed" blood. I still feel the same now, days later. I feel something was not right.

  Has anyone felt this way, when actually faced with an non threatening life blood transfusion?
• 

  Mandette

  Summer,

  It's many years of conditioning.....it's hard to get over....it still strikes me a little wierd too. It'll pass. The JW's make such a point of portraying transfusions as the quick ticket to eternal death that it's hard to retrain your mind........and this conditioning is how they keep people in the organization.....fear fear FEAR!!!

  Mandette
• 

  wobble

  If the blood is being administered to "build him up" surely it is being used as food,and in this case would be unacceptable to Christians who do respect God's word on not using blood as food?

  Love

  Wobble
• 

  Scully

  Transfusions are not ordered by physicians unless there is a clinical necessity. The benchmark is usually when hemoglobin is less than 70 mg/litre (normal levels are around 120 mg/litre), and the patient is experiencing symptoms from acute anemia (from sudden serious blood loss), like dizziness, shortness of breath, headaches, lethargy, etc. They are not able to function as they normally do and their quality of life is diminished until their hemoglobin levels improve, which can take weeks without blood transfusions. Referring to it as "building up" someone is not the same as "feeding" - the focus is entirely on improving oxygen delivery, and often giving oxygen directly has not been effective simply because there are not enough red blood cells to do the necessary job.

  Sometimes we'll see patients who have chronic (long-standing) anemia, who are not symptomatic and have no impairment in their day-to-day functionality, who don't want blood transfusions and they don't have blood transfusions ordered in that case.

  The function of blood transfusions is to improve the body's ability to transport oxygen through the body. There's no nutritional value to a blood transfusion as the WTS wants JWs to believe, when it gives the comparison to "feeding" on blood. The idea of drinking blood is offensive to a lot of people, but nobody seems offended when people symbolically "drink the blood of Christ" when they "celebrate" the Eucharist or the Memorial of Christ's death.

  It may take quite some time for you to shake off the fraudulent information that you have been programmed with by the WTS regarding blood transfusions. You may need to remind yourself over and over and over that blood transfusions are about improving OXYGEN DELIVERY, not about "feeding" before you no longer get that "sick" feeling.
• 

  Mandette

  Well said, Scully!!! Blood is definitely NOT intravenous nutrition. It replaces components that a turkey sandwich just won't!!

  Mandette
• 

  SixofNine

  but it taste great on a turkey sandwich too!

  .

  Seriously though, if you know your old beliefs are wrong, and yet they somehow speak to you as if they are right, you have a problem to work out. Maybe you haven't really researched the facts about blood transfusion? Perhaps you just assume witnesses are wrong, because they are wrong about everything else, and besides, who would let their kid die?

  .

  Well, true as that may be, it's still no substitute for actually knowing WHY witnesses are so wrong, exactly WHERE they are dishonest and immoral and death-dealing in their argumentation, and HOW blood transfusions are good medicine in the (fairly common) specific situations where nothing else (invented so far) can do the job.
• 

  ataloa

  Summer wine, I felt that same sickness right before my mother's scheduled surgery, when they decided to give her some blood beforehand; partly because of what we were taught, but mostly because I was afraid of what might be in that blood. I was surprised at how easily she went along with it, never even questioning such a serious matter.
• 

  Homerovah the Almighty

  Summer wine what you most likely experienced is pent up emotional anxiety pertaining to the blood issue

  with JWS, actually most people who view a blood transfusion get a little queasy viewing this take place JWS or not,

  for JWS and ex-jws this can be intensified some what.

  But in over all when you see the person the following day that has had a transfusion they tend to look healthier with

  a better skin tone this is for the reason that Skully mentioned.

  The purpose is for health , the reason is for health.
• 

  StAnn

  Summer, I think we ex-JWs often get that feeling the first time we are faced with something that our programming caused us to reject as Dubs.

  Boy, it was torture to decorate my first-ever Christmas tree. My hands actually shook!

  You'll get over it, as time goes by.

  Serena
• 

  defective light

  I felt physically sick, not because of the sight of blood as some people are, but that he was was been intravenously "fed" blood. I still feel the same now, days later. I feel something was not right.

  Gosh ! I get the same feelings when I hear about the thousands of active JW's being force fed "Spiritual Food" on a regular basis ... I also feel something is not right !