Joachim Boldt - Two More Retractions for WT's bloodless "expert"

by OrphanCrow 20 Replies latest watchtower medical

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  OrphanCrow

  From Retraction Watch:

  When you have 94 retractions, what's two more?

  Attention Joachim Boldt: The 1990s are calling, and they want their papers back.
  The Annals of Thoracic Surgery has retracted two papers from the early 1990s on which Boldt was the first author – bringing the retraction tally for the disgraced German anesthesiologist to 96, by our count. Both articles were found to contain manipulated data.

  more about Boldt here: http://retractionwatch.com/?s=boldt

  (the following material is from an earlier post I made on reddit concerning Joachim Boldt)

  Dr. Jocahim Boldt has been quoted in WT literature as a bloodless expert.

  The January 8, 2000 Awake magazine published an article "The Growing Demand for Bloodless Medicine and Surgery". This article has been quoted extensively by JWs as support for their "scientific" justification for refusing blood products.

  A quote from that article that is familiar to most JWs and exJWs is this one:

  “All those dealing with blood and caring for surgical patients have to consider bloodless surgery.”—Dr. Joachim Boldt, professor of anesthesiology, Ludwigshafen, Germany.

  *to add - another quote from the Awake:

  "What Some Doctors Say

  ‘Bloodless surgery is not only for Jehovah’s Witnesses but for all patients. I think that every doctor should be engaged in it.’—Dr. Joachim Boldt, professor of anesthesiology, Ludwigshafen, Germany."

  Dr, Boldt has been exposed by the scientific community as a fraud.

  http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f1738

  "The withdrawal of almost 90 fraudulent studies by a German anaesthetist is one of the biggest medical research scandals of recent time. Jacqui Wise examines what happened and what lessons have been learnt Joachim Boldt was a prominent German anaesthetist with an international research reputation. He was regarded as a leading specialist in intravenous fluid management and was an advocate for the use of colloids, particularly hydroxyethyl starch solutions, to boost blood volume during surgery. However, a lengthy investigation has led to 88 out of the 102 studies that Boldt has published since 1999 being withdrawn from the medical literature. He has been found guilty of research misconduct, including failure to acquire ethical approval and fabrication of study data, and sacked from his position as professor at Klinikum Ludwigshafen, a large teaching hospital in Ludwigshafen, Germany, where he carried out his research. The retraction of such a large body of work has had far reaching effects on clinical practice, research oversight, and editorial policies."

  The one place where Dr. Boldt's research has not been withdrawn is in the textbook "Basics of Blood Management". The textbook is co-authored by a JW doctor from Germany, Dr. Petra Seeber*. The textbook was published in 2012, after Boldt was exposed as a fraud.

  *also see this thread here

  Much of Dr. Joachim's Boldt's research concerned hydroxyethyl starch, a substance that has been promoted by the WT's HLC for use in "bloodless" methods. You can read more about that on this thread here:

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5700923452030976/watchtowers-medical-bible-hlc-handbook?page=1&size=20#/5138780784689152

  
  
  
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  redpilltwice

  Thanks for this added information orphanCrow. I indeed remember an earlier thread about dr. Boldt. very interesting!

  Most JW's however would not bring up the blood issue in field circus unless they are triggered by a person that has critical questions. I hope in cases when dr. Boldt is refered to as an authority regarding bloodless surgery, this info has already reached that person/householder.
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  OrphanCrow

  redpilltwice: Most JW's however would not bring up the blood issue in field circus unless they are triggered by a person that has critical questions. I hope in cases when dr. Boldt is refered to as an authority regarding bloodless surgery, this info has already reached that person/householder.

  The chances of blood being discussed with a householder are pretty slim.

  This material is most valuable for those people who have already been indoctrinated with "blood cult" thinking. I am thinking of exJWs who are still walking around with the WT's pseudo-science stuck in their brains. And of the active JWs who still want to desperately believe in the WT's medical advice.

  The WT's history of promoting and supporting quack science is lengthy and this recent exposure of one of the WT's "experts" on bloodless surgery can be added to the list of other medical frauds that the WT is noted for: radio active belts, the Abrams electrical box to just name a couple. Now we can add the WT's blood phobia to the list - headed up by Dr. Joachim Boldt, the great pretender.

  Once a person starts to unravel the deception around the WT's interpretation of Biblical doctrine, I think it is important to keep going and expose the ways that the WT has used deception in their medical doctrine as well.

  However, even though it is unlikely you would use this information at the door with JWs, this material could be valuable to exJWs who get into discussions with their JW families. The links I have posted at the beginning go to Retraction Watch and it would be difficult to argue that it is an apostate website. It is pretty clear that the WT has used a fraudulent researcher as one of their "experts" on bloodless surgery and that is something that is backed up all over the place on the internet from several credible sources.

  
  

  
  
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  redpilltwice

  I think it is important to keep going and expose the ways that the WT has used deception in their medical doctrine as well.

  Everyone has the right to be well informed so I totally agree, keep up the good work.

  It's just that I remember the warnings during field service not to be sucked into discussions with householders regarding blood. From my personal experience, it was discouraged. I'd only wish that more people would be as informed as the community that keeps a watch on the watchtower. But hey, every informed soul counts, right?
  
  
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  OrphanCrow

  redpilltwice: It's just that I remember the warnings during field service not to be sucked into discussions with householders regarding blood. From my personal experience, it was discouraged.

  Of course it was discouraged. The Blood Taboo was more than just refusing blood - it was all about refusing to discuss it other than the pat answer: "It is what I believe. The Bible says so." Blood was/is an uncomfortable topic. And never, never, talk to the media about blood!!!

  And when it comes to actual, solid medical information, the regular JW just says: "Whatever the HLC says." Their ears are closed and the HLC are their voice.

  But hey, every informed soul counts, right?

  Absolutely. All it takes is one. Just one. One to hear and listen, to know about the WT's deceptive medical advice, and another one will live. And they will let their children live.
  
  

  
  
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  scratchme1010

  Thanks for sharing this. What I find interesting is that the WT in fact does have a point in terms of not using, replacing and/or minimizing the use of blood in medical treatment, but they do it for their own selfish purposes and reasons.

  In medicine there are issues with using blood for certain purposes and now they are using other methods when possible, but not because of the WT. Their reasons are:

  1. Money of course is the number one reason. The cost of getting, treating, processing, maintaining, transporting, delivering and administering blood is way higher than alternatives, not to mention tracing and tracking transfusion-related adverse events and incidents, both infectious and non-infectious, that affect blood donors and recipients.
     
  2. Technology and advances in medicine. There are new technologies, products and procedures that can be used instead of administering blood (directly or by derivatives) for certain treatments, reducing the risk of post-transfusion reactions, and/or contaminated blood.
  3. Low supply/high demand. Blood banks always have to deal with the issue of having enough blood. It is in the best interest of medicine to have alternatives.

  The WT wants to take credit for the medical field making advances in finding alternatives to blood transfusions, when the reality is that it's just a common interest that they have with the WT, only the WT uses that to their advantage and to claim that they are in fact influencing medicine (which is laughable).
  
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  OrphanCrow

  Scratchme, all good points.

  I want to address the first one you made:

  Money of course is the number one reason. The cost of getting, treating, processing, maintaining, transporting, delivering and administering blood is way higher than alternatives, not to mention tracing and tracking transfusion-related adverse events and incidents, both infectious and non-infectious, that affect blood donors and recipients.

  The Netherlands has been dealing with de-implementing patient blood management in their ortho practice for the last couple years. After years of following PBM guidelines in ortho surgical practice, a surgery that typically has high blood requirements, the Dutch concluded that blood transfusion alternatives were either way too costly (EPO) or were not effective in reducing the need for blood. You can read about that here:

  http://www.verekeskus.ee/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Marian_van_Kraaij.pdf

  Patient blood management (aka bloodless medicine) may be effective in some situations, but ortho practice in the Netherlands is not one of them.
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  Lee Elder

  We need to publish an article on this fellow at AJWRB, don't you agree?
  
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  jwleaks

  We need to create a JW / Watchtower Hall of Infamy. After all, jehovah saw fit to include certain writers to bolster and try to prove his own doctrinal teachings.

  We could then add Joachim Boldt and Johannes Greber to the founding fathers, Charles Taze Russell, Joseph F. Rutherford and Fred Franz.
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  OrphanCrow

  Lee: We need to publish an article on this fellow at AJWRB, don't you agree?

  Yes, I agree. I'll get working on it... :)