Blood Transfusions...

zeroday

I found this on another board...

I asked a physican at the nurse's station to talk one night. Since there was no one around (night shift), we had time to talk.

I asked several of the "Unspoken Questions in the Pratice Of Medicine."

Whenever we have a Jehovah's Witness as a patient, a sticker is put on the chart that says, "No Blood Transfusions." One day I was talking to a Jehovah's Witness patient about what a blood transfusion is. I asked if it was okay to transfuse your own blood. The answer is, "No. A JW cannot donate his own blood into a Blood Bank and use it for himself."

Then I asked how much blood constitutes a blood transfusion. The answer was, "Any amout of blood is a transfusion."

I asked if a few drops is okay. The answer is, "No drops is okay."

Now everybody in the medical profession knows that all Jehovah's Witness patients in a hospital have an IV placed into their vein to recieve IV medications and fluids. There are IV antibotics, IV cardiac medications, and all kinds of fluid replacements. Therrefore, a nurse has to place (insert) an IV line (catheter) into the patient's vein.

How do you know you hit the vein with the needle? You observe the 'blood return' as it flows backward into the IV line. THE BLOOD LEAVES THE PATIENT'S BODY AND ENTERS THE TUBING.

Then the blood is flushed from the tubing, AND IS TRANSFUSED BACK INTO THE PATIENT'S BODY.

Just a few ml's or drops, is pushed back into the vein, But this is a definition of a blood transfusion according to the Jehovah's Witness teaching. Apparently all doctors know this.

So what did the physician say at the nursing station?

He said, "This is a medical ethics question. We have to deal with many questions like this. I will answer your question with an example. Most heparin and insulin solutions are made from pork. We are shooting pork into the bodies of Jews every day. Some could not live without it. But they cannot eat pork. So we figure, they are not eating it. But that is not the spirit of the Law which forbids pork. We get around it that way. The same with 'sugar pills' or PLACEBO medications. We are lying to the patient, and it works. Placebo pain meds gives relief from pain."

"Concerning the mini-blood transfusions you give to Jehovah's Witnesses every day, just don't say anything."

Nobody has said said anything about this for a hundred years.

I am probably the first. Thank God DRUMMER is not my real name. I wonder how a moral person would handle a question like this in their pratice? I wonder if any Jehovah's Witnesses would advise the medical profession on how to handle this question. Should every Jehovah's Witness be advised that they cannot have an IV line inserted because of the blood transfusion that would occur???

What is the answer?

Gopher

The answer from JW's would be that this is okay (if the JW's conscience permits it

PEC

Philip

Ex Nihilo

Some surgery is done where the blood is sucked out and pumped back in without a break in the link. Many people feel this is acceptable and consider it an alternative to transfusion.

wha happened?

Ok this topic borders on absurd. Most witnesses have no clue as to what is current policy. Most just say no blood when the society has loosened the reins quite a bit.

I feel though that most of the policy is manure. I remember getting shocked by the Dr in the hospital when my mother was getting a blood transfusion. I stated I wouldn't do it because of the bible command not to eat blood. He stated "u don't eat blood any more than u would eat a kidney transplant", and explained why.

All this talk about what is still circulated is just hair splitting on a policy that has no merit.

worldtraveller

Sounds like a death sentence for people with kidney failure. Would the creator of all this really be happier to see someone choose death? So much for being pro life.

I for one will continue to donate blood to all who need it.

buffalosrfree

It is always a wonder to me how jdubs can think that a dietary law given only to Jews means they have to risk their childrens lives over it. It is a complete falacy of thought and love on the part of the parents to think that way. What is really credelous is that if the Society come out in QFR and said that blood transfusions are okay now if your conscience permits it, then it is my belief (Perry Como) that they or most all of them would do so. The nonsense that it is something they do themselves woudl fall apart when it is realized that they do it because a Publishing Company wants them too. Incredible!!!