by AlanF 59 Replies latest watchtower scandals
I was with my father when the surgeon said the only posible chance to help was a blood transfusion and he said no. The surgen then said he had tried all other methods and now that there is nothing he could do, and it was now time to cry.
steve
edited to add: Time and Place. 2001 England
Hey Doc,
She had lymphoma a long time, the Drs. missed it. Her bowel perforated at a weakness around the mass. They operated to repair it. She only lasted a few days, the infection was under control, she had not received chemo...there wasn't enough time. They did say the cancer had spread. They used all the usual JW 'blood expanders', NO hemoglobin. They tried every medical trick to get her O2 stats up, but in the end they said she needed red blood cells for the oxygen.
I don't know what happens to the red blood cells she had in this situation. I guess she was already anemic ? Blood loss because of perforation & surgery ?
My non-jw father was trying to respect her wishes, so when the docs asked about hemoglobin and other blood fractions...the "JW Elders Hospital Liasion" guys told him only one version -- that ANY kind of blood products would be a sin to his wife.
THE ELDERS AND MY RELATIVES TOOK IT UPON THEMSELVES...TO KEEP MY FATHER IN THE DARK ABOUT WHAT 'OTHER' JW'S COULD TAKE CONSCIENOUSLY, WITHOUT FEAR OF DISPLEASING GOD OR THE WTS.
Wanna know why ? They did not want to 'confuse' him, ya' know, some witnesses could do things with a clean conscience, that others could not ! They were afraid that might make him and others thinks Jehovah's Witnesses did not really have that much vaunted --- unity !
To keep an illusion of religious unity alive -- someone has to be the martyr...
My dear mother had to die -- for that !
This whole thing is very sad, and very sick. There are people on the inside of the organization who know better than anyone, that the thinking of the Borg is beginning to rethink its polcy on blood!"
Rabbit, I will try and keep this post as free of medical babel-speak as I can. Also, this in no way shape or form constitutes a medical opinion by myself since I would need far more info and the patient's chart to really understand everything.
As you may or may not know lymphomas are cancers that originate in tissues of the lymphatic system. All lymphomas other than Hodgkin's disease, are known collectively as non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. There are 13 major types of non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, and others that are very rare.
The lymphatic system is part of the body's immune system, for fighting disease, and part of the blood-producing system. It includes the lymph vessels and nodes, and the spleen, bone marrow, and thymus. The narrow lymphatic vessels carry lymphatic fluid from throughout the body. The lymph nodes are small, pea-shaped organs that filter the lymphatic fluid and trap foreign substances, including viruses, bacteria, and cancer cells. The spleen, in the upper left abdomen, removes old cells and debris from the blood. The bone marrow, the spongy tissue inside the bones, produces new blood cells.
Red blood cells are the largest part of the circulating blood. They carry oxygen, in the form of hemoglobin, to the tissues and organs in the body. Red blood cells are produced in the bone marrow. The normal red blood cell count in adult men is between 4.5 and 5.5 million per cubic millimeter of blood. Women have slightly fewer red blood cells?between 4.2 and 4.8 million per cubic millimeter. The average life of a red blood cell is about 120 days. New cells are produced at about 1% per day. A decrease in the number of red blood cells causes anemia and shortness of breath due to reduced O2 handling of the blood.
Since your mother had a perforated bowl she had been (probably) bleeding slowly for a long period of time making her anemic. (Please keep in mind that if you are bleeding inside slowly but regularly you become anemic, meaning not enough red blood cells.) Only two or three tablespoons of blood daily over a long period of time can do this. Then when she had surgery she lost blood as well, so she probably had a reduced RBC (red blood cell count) to start with and then lost more blood as a result of the surgery. The red blood cells are the largest percentage of blood cell volume. Within each red blood cell is a molecule called hemoglobin. When the heart pumps blood through the lungs, oxygen you breathe in attaches to the hemoglobin. This oxygen-rich blood then moves through the body, releasing its energy-giving cargo to our tissues. The blood eventually circles back to the lungs and picks up more oxygen. Red blood cells are produced in the bone marrow. Hemoglobin is most of what red blood consists of and is considered to be a "blood fraction" by the Dubs. Without enough hemoglobin the body essentially suffocates itself since the body tissues cannot get enough O2 to sustain themselves.
So if your mom was simply not getting enough O2 to her organs then a "fractional transfusion" of hemoglobin would/could have been all she needed to stay alive. However, you did mention that the Drs said that the cancer had spread. Without knowing the exact type and extent of the cancer I cannot say what her long term prognosis would have been. It sounds like the medical community did their best but they had their hands tied because of the Dub's silly blood stand.
I hope this helps. If you need any additional in-depth responses you can PM me and I'll do my best to answer. Sorry for your loss.
Thanks Dr. Evil,
I kinda figured the hemoglobin would/could have done the trick.
How much more efficient is whole RBC than, hemoglobin ?
Rabbit
well hemoglobin makes up about 95% to 97% of RBC....
Is there any advantage in using one over the other ?
From your posts it sounds like your mother needed the O2 carrying capability of hemoglobin. So either RBC or hemoglobin only would have served the identical purpose.
Hey EvilForce just out of curiosity, how does the Watchtowers postion on blood sound to you strictly from a medical perspective? Like say you were never a witness but had to help one medically, read the scripture in Acts about obstaining from blood and then heard about what components they are allowed, and the explanations for these exceptions. What would you honestly think?
GBL
Well I'm not sure I can look at it as if I don't know what the JW's used to preach. But I was stunned to learn of their new ALLOWABLE fractions. And what stuns me most is the stupidity of this stand. It makes no sense whatsoever. It's like I could give them an entire blood transfusion so long as I have it in their 9 or 10 individual drips and bags. It's a legalistic stand to be sure. I would imagine the next step is allowing them to store their own blood to reuse at a certain point in time once everyone forgets about their former stand.
