JW does not regret receiving her court-ordered transfusion

by Gopher 6 Replies latest watchtower medical

• 

  Gopher

  I love happy endings. Ms K. gave birth at an Irish hospital last year, and lost an enormous amount of blood. The hospital didn't know she was JW, and apparently she didn't have a "no blood" card with her. So, her ever-vigilant JW friend spoke up and said she didn't want blood. Her friend's advice could have been deadly. The story does have a happy ending, as MS K is grateful to be alive with her 1-year old son now !!!

  http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/1003/coombe.html

  Transfusion refusal was 'difficult situation'

  Wednesday, 3 October 2007 18:12

  The Master of the Coombe Hospital, Dr Chris Fitzpatrick, has said he and the hospital faced an unprecedented decision last year, when a young woman refused a blood transfusion after suffering a massive haemorrhage.

  Dr Fitzpatrick said he was put in a difficult situation after the then 24-year-old woman, known as Ms K, told doctors she was a Jehovah's Witness and was objecting to the transfusion.

  She suffered the haemorrhage after giving birth to her son on the 21 September 2006 and lost around 80% of her blood.

  But he said he had no doubt that giving Ms K a transfusion was the correct medical decision.

  Ms K received the blood after the hospital obtained a High Court order allowing the transfusion to go ahead.

  Dr Fitzpatrick said that in the early hours of the following morning, Ms K told him she did not regret the transfusion.

  He said the woman had been registered as a Roman Catholic on previous visits to the hospital.

  He said it was unprecedented in his experience of dealing with patients from the Jehovah's Witness faith, to be told of objections just before a transfusion was due to be administered.

  Dr Fitzpatrick said he had spoken to Ms K a number of times and told her that she may die if she was not given the transfusion.

  He said she said 'no' several times and at one stage that she suggested he give her 'coke and tomatoes' as an alternative treatment.

  He said the hospital had a number of concerns about her capacity to give an informed consent to the transfusion.

  He said there were linguistic difficulties, her objections were given through a friend, Miss F, who was also a Jehovah's Witness.

  He said she had previously registered as a Catholic and had not told the hospital she was a member of the Jehovah's Witness faith.

  He said her husband was in the Congo and was uncontactable and he feared she did not appreciate the seriousness of her condition at the time.
• 

  greendawn

  "at one stage that she suggested he give her 'coke and tomatoes' as an alternative treatment."
  
  What on earth does that mean? Coke is a kind of junk food. She is lucky that Ceasar took over and saved her life otherwise she would end up having a child that would grow up as an orphan.
• 

  Gopher

  Maybe she was desperately thinking of ways of expanding blood volume without using blood plasma.

  Tomatoes.. they're red and juicy, and coke -- lots of volume there, just a few pints will do, right?

  This is the desperate kind of straits that Watchtower leadership puts their followers into. Very strange and sad. I applaud the doctor's wisdom and persistence in getting this case done right.
• 

  AWAKE&WATCHING

  Coke and tomatoes? I never read that in the great medical journal "Awake".

  I'm glad her husband wasn't there but why the hell wasn't her husband there?

  Perhaps he had a part on the meeting .

  Priorities don't you know.
• 

  Gopher

  The style of this article makes it a bit hard to read. Seven of the last eight sentences start with "HE SAID".

  So it is hard to determine if the husband is a JW. He was in the Congo at the time, and he feared that "Ms K", his wife, didn't appreciate the seriousness of her situation. i.e. that she was really close to death. From that quote (and from the fact that he had a distant job) I infer he isn't a JW. If he was a JW, he might have been quoted saying something more theocratic than humanistic. But who knows?

  I agree, It would have been a lot better if he'd been there for the birth of his son!
• 

  DannyHaszard

  Top doctor dismisses claim blood transfusion 'like rape'
  Irish Independent, Ireland - 1 hour ago
  THE Master of the Coombe Women's Hospital has strongly rejected a female Jehovah's Witness' description of a blood transfusion administered to her at the ...

  Friday October 05 2007 THE Master of the Coombe Women's Hospital has strongly rejected a female Jehovah's Witness' description of a blood transfusion administered to her at the hospital against her wishes, after she suffered a massive, haemorrhage as being "like a rape". Dr Chris Fitzpatrick said the woman had given an "inaccurate representation'' of what had happened to her after she experienced massive blood loss following the birth of her baby boy at the Coombe Women's hospital on September 21, 2006. He was told the woman had said that during the transfusion process, people were around her terrifying her, that she wanted to fight the medical staff off before the transfusion was given but was unable to, that she was held and sedated before the transfusion was administered and had described the experience as like a rape. Dr Fitzpatrick said he "found it difficult to reconcile" what had happened with that account of events. Staff at the hospital were "at pains'' to support the woman during what was a difficult time for everybody concerned, he said. He was giving evidence in the continuing action by the hospital against the woman in which the hospital contends it was entitled to seek an injunction in September 2006 to give the woman a transfusion. The hospital secured the order after it told the court it believed the woman would die without a transfusion as she had lost some 80pc (%) of her blood and that the woman had refused the transfusion in light of her religious beliefs. The woman may be identified only as Ms K. She is 24 years of age and from the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the proceedings before Ms Justice Mary Laffoy, the hospital claims Ms K's constitutional rights to freedom of conscience and the free practice of religion do not extend to enabling her to decline appropriate medical treatment. It further pleads that it would be contrary to public order and morality if Ms K could be permitted to place her life in immediate danger by declining routine medical treatment. It also claims a general duty to protect and safeguard the woman's right to life, and her personal rights generally. Ms K denies the claims. In a counter-claim, she contends the administration of the transfusion was a breach of her rights under the European Convention on Human Rights and that she was entitled to refuse such medical treatment. Ms K also claims that the hospital committed assault and trespass on her person. The case continues. http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/16/128626/9.ashx MORE associated thread
• 

  Gill

  You can just hear Ms K's Watchtower lawyers sitting on her shoulder like a little devil whispering : 'Say it was like rape! That's throw them!'

  Basically rape does not save someone's life when they are dying. Rape does not keep a person's heart beating and is not done to help someone but is done to degrade, humiliate and damage, even kill.

  Does the WTBTS not realise what it is suggesting when it makes such abhorrent and outrageous descriptions that are totally inappropriate!

  Shame on the WTBTS, the real degraders of human life. They are willing to allow people to die, just so that their bank accounts are not emptied by law suits!