How much did this set the Borg back and is this normal practice?

by Crumpet 21 Replies latest watchtower scandals

• 

  Crumpet

  United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust is one of the largest Trusts in the country. The Trust provides a

  comprehensive range of hospital based medical, surgical, paediatric, obstetric and gynaecological services to the

  people of Lincolnshire – currently 641,000 – from nine hospital sites. It has an annual revenue budget of £258

  million. It employs almost 7000 staff and in the previous year has treated 175,000 accident and emergency patients,

  nearly half a million outpatients and almost 100,000 inpatients.

  06/017

  PHOTO/INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITY

  Wednesday 8 February 2006, 3.15pm

  Resources Room, First Floor,

  Pilgrim Hospital, Boston

  JEHOVAH’S WITNESS SOCIETY DONATES

  CELL SALVAGE EQUIPMENT

  The Jehovah’s Witness Society has kindly purchased two cell salvage

  machines for theatres at United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust, one of

  which has already been presented to the operating theatres at Lincoln County

  Hospital.

  The equipment is used for those patients who do not wish to accept blood

  products. The machines take blood from a patient being operated upon, add

  clot busting agents, wash the red cells in saline and then the blood is given

  directly back to the patient.

  E N D S

  IS THIS COMMON PRACTICE? They are no subsidising their own personal treatment facilties in hospitals? Surely thats costing the congo mega spondulees?!
• 

  OUTLAW

  It`s nothing new Crumpet..I`ve seen them donate money for things like this before...OUTLAW
• 

  Clam

  Crumpet yep it's the rank and file raising the money by the sounds of it.

  They're in quite a lot of UK hospitals now. Here's a story from a local paper of mine.

  Blood saving machine will benefit patients

  From the archive, first published Thursday 2nd Oct 2003. Falmouth Packet Newspaper

  A new blood saving machine at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro is set to benefit patients who do not want to receive a transfusion of someone else's blood - thanks to the generosity of Jehovah's Witnesses and their friends in Cornwall. The new blood salvage machine, which will replace an older model already at the hospital, works by recovering, cleaning and re-using a patient's blood during an operation. Lars Jakt, consultant anaesthetist at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, said "The machine works by collecting blood from the operation site and then washes out tissue debris leaving clean red blood cells which are passed back to the patient. When there is a substantial loss of blood during an operation, this machine can process the salvaged blood and re-transfuse some or most of it back to the patient. This reduces the dependence on blood from the Blood Bank, much to the patient's advantage by avoiding the inherent risks from using alien and stored blood. This technique for blood conservation is not suitable, or available, for all kinds of surgery, but its use is being expanded." Assistant theatre manager, Steve Renfree added: "Reusing a patient's own blood also helps to reduce the pressure on precious blood stocks and can be particularly useful for patients with the rarer blood groups. An added bonus is that the cost of disposable supplies needed each time the machine is used are less than the cost of a single unit of donated blood." As this technology recycles the patient's own blood, rather than blood from a donor, it can be used to carry out surgery for patients who are Jehovah's Witnesses. Robert Canning, a Jehovah's Witness elder in the St Austell Bay Congregation and the Cornwall trustee of the South West Hospital Equipment Fund, the Charity that has donated the blood saving machine, commended staff at the Royal Cornwall Hospital for using the equipment. He said: "This machine promotes bloodless management in surgery and will help us to keep to what we believe to be the Bible's principles. But of course, it is not only Jehovah's Witnesses who will benefit, but more and more of the general public. Indeed, our Hospital Information Service at our London headquarters is getting more enquiries regarding bloodless surgery from non-Witnesses than they do from our own members." Similar machines have been donated by the charity to Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton and to the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital. The charity is hoping that extra fund raising efforts will enable them to purchase a second Cell-Saver for the Royal Cornwall Hospital.
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  greendawn

  I can't understand what's the use of this machine taking out blood and then immediately returning it to the patient. And does that mean that they now allow self transfusion which was banned up to recently?
• 

  blondie

  Donating these machines the WTS creates a great deal of "positive" media coverage and educates JWs as well that JWs can use these machines. I understand that the money comes from the local congregations not the WTS headquarters itself. It goes back at least 25 years that JWs have been able to use this procedure. The question is does a JW's health insurance cover the use of such machines and do they have to pay out of pocket?

  ***

  g9812/8p.21DoctorsTakeaNewLookatBloodlessSurgery***

  After the conference in Riga and upon hearing of Latvia’s need, Jehovah’s Witnesses in Sweden donated two cell-saver machines to Latvia. The arrival of the first one and the benefits of bloodless surgerycreated so much enthusiasm in Latvia that the event received national television coverage there.

  ***g9111/22p.10PioneeringBloodlessSurgeryWithJehovah’sWitnesses***

  Preventing

  andControllingHemorrhageWithoutBloodTransfusion/13.OperativeandAnestheticTechniques:

  d. Intraoperative blood salvage machines, e.g., "cell-saver"

  ***

  g826/22pp.25-26Jehovah’sWitnesses—TheSurgical/EthicalChallenge***

  However, many Witnesses permit the use of dialysis and heart-lung equipment (non-blood-prime) as well as intraoperative salvage where the extracorporeal circulation is uninterrupted; the physician should consult with the individual patient as to what his conscience dictates.

  From Google and the Noblood.org website

  In 1998, following a hospital lecture advocating non-blood medical management of patients, a local doctor asked the speakers if they would assist in obtaining a cell-saver for the hospital. Several meetings were held with key personnel and a Charity group was appointed specifically to raise money. Such was the enthusiasm that within eighteen months five machines were purchased with funds of £60,000 ($100,000). This Charity group were then asked if they would manage monies raised from other areas in UK, with the result that now, 30 cell-savers have been placed at hospitals, with a total cost of around £250,000 ($418,000).

  http://www.noblood.org/shop-talk/848-jehovahs-witnesses-donate-30-cell-savers.html
• 

  Crumpet

  Interesting - thanks for the posts! So how are they raising the money? Has the little box for persecuted dubs in neverland been changed to the little box for bloodsucking?
• 

  LittleToe

  Hehe, I never thought of it that way. A bloodsucking cult is encouraging its members to pay for a bloodsucking machine!
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  blondie

  I'm not familiar with the charity laws in the UK, but I would think they establish a charity per UK laws, advertise it's existence to the local JWs and they are the ones that donate. In the Latvia case, I'm sure the local JWs don't have a lot of money so it was the local JWs in Sweden that donated the machine.

  What I wonder is what the hospitals who receive such machines charge JWs to use them? Do they get a free ride based on their income? What if they have an insurance carrier...are they charged the full amount.

  This procedure is "different" in the WTS opinion because the blood of the individual is not "stored" as it is in hemodilution. But is blood still stored in hemodilution or has the definition changed.

  It would not be a bad idea to call the PR people of any local hospital to see who such things are arranged and if they have any written material.

  Blondie
• 

  Crumpet

  Blondie - the health service in the UK is free and these machines were donated to an NHS (state) hospital so it will be free to use them I would imagine.
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  blondie

  Not much free about health care in the US unless you are dirt poor and/or deep in debt...then to find a hospital or clinic that will let you in the door and stay.

  This probably maximizes the possibilities of certain procedures being available locally to JWs.

  I wonder how many JWs prepare ahead for their medical treatment? A "no-blood" clinic had a large meeting with local elders and other JWs interested in what the clinic had to offer. A couple hundred came but only 2 filed the prerequisite healthcare proxy with them. The clinic had made it clear that it would not likely treat JWs that came in on an emergency situation. And the 2 who filed the forms were not elders...the clinic was not impressed.

  Blondie