by loosie 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
please forgive my ignorance but I need to know. When someone gets a bone marrow transplant does that involve a blood tranfusion? My friend (who is still in and doesn't know I am out) has a friend who is getting a bone marrow transplant.
I was wondering how much icky worldy blood she will get from the bone marrow donor?
please forgive my ignorance but I need to know. When someone gets a bone marrow transplant does that involve a blood tranfusion? My friend (who is still in and doesn't know I am out) has a friend who is getting a bone marrow transplant.
Usually
If the patient's own bone marrow is destroyed by radiation or chemo (e.g.They're trying to stamp out leukemia) then numerous transfusions are typically required.
But there are less invasive procedures in special cases.
so she would be accepting whole blood then by accepting the bone marrow transpant?
Thing is, when a patient needs bone marrow transplant is because there is something already wrong with her blood so may need transfussion(s) while the progenitor marrow cells reproduce in correct proportions.
If she is OK now, most likely she won't need transfusion after the transplant. It depends on individual cases and blood cell counts vary within days and even hours.
BMT
Bone marrow is a soft, fatty tissue inside the bones. This is where blood cells (red blood cells, platelets, and white blood cells) are produced, and where they develop. In a disease of the blood cells -- especially cancers such as leukemia -- high doses of chemotherapy may be required to destroy the cancer. However, this also destroys normal blood cells.
In other cases in which hereditary or acquired disorders cause abnormal blood cell production, transplantation of healthy bone marrow may correct these problems. Transplanted bone marrow will restore production of white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets.
Bone marrow transplant patients are usually treated in specialized centers. The patient stays in a special nursing unit -- a bone marrow transplant unit, or BMT -- to limit exposure to infections.
Donated bone marrow must match the patient's tissue type. It can be taken from the patient, a living relative (usually a brother or a sister), or from an unrelated donor (found through the national marrow donor program). Donors are matched through special blood tests called HLA tissue typing. (See HLA antigens.)
Bone marrow is taken from the donor in the operating room while the donor is unconscious and pain-free (under general anesthesia). Some of the donor's bone marrow is removed from the top of the hip bone. The bone marrow is filtered, treated, and transplanted immediately or frozen and stored for later use. Transplant marrow is transfused into the patient through a vein (IV) and is naturally carried into the bone cavities where it grows to replace the old bone marrow.
Alternatively, blood cell precursors, called stem cells, can be made to move from the bone marrow to the blood stream using special medications. These stem cells can then be taken from the bloodstream through a procedure called leukapheresis.
The patient is prepared for transplant by administering high doses of chemotherapy or radiation (conditioning). This serves 2 purposes. First, it destroys the patient's abnormal blood cells or cancer. Second, it slows the patient's immune response against the donor bone marrow (graft rejection).
BONE MARROW TRANSPLANTATION. The bone marrow extraction, or harvest, is the same for autologous and allogeneic transplants. Harvesting is done under general anesthesia (i.e., the donor sleeps through the procedure), and discomfort is usually minimal afterwards. Bone marrow is drawn from the iliac crest (the part of the hip bone to either side of the lower back) with a special needle and a syringe. Several punctures are usually necessary to collect the needed amount of bone marrow, approximately 1–2 quarts. (This amount is only a small percentage of the total bone marrow and is typically replaced within four weeks.) The donor remains at the hospital for 24–48 hours and can resume normal activities within a few days.
http://www.surgeryencyclopedia.com/A-Ce/Bone-Marrow-Transplantation.html
so does this procedure go against a jw's stand against blood?
I really don't know for sure.
But here's a case report for you:
The patient is a Jehovah's Witness and enrolled in the Bloodless Medicine and Surgery Program at University of Massachusetts Memorial Health Care. He is unwilling to accept red blood cells or platelet transfusions because of religious convictions, but accepts erythropoietin, interleukin-11, G-CSF, peripheral blood stem cells, and bone marrow. Informed consent was signed for a bloodless autologous stem cell transplant.
http://www.nature.com/bmt/journal/v26/n2/full/1702483a.html (You can read the full story.)
This article is old but it gives a case study.
When a Jehovah's Witness is diagnosed with AML, it is important that these issues are confronted immediately. Any new forms of therapy, such as the use of autologous stem cell grafts, should be discussed with patients early in the course of the disease. Patients will then frequently seek advice from the Jehovah's Witness liaison committees about the therapies in question. In considering bone marrow transplants and peripheral blood stem cell autografts in this case, the local committee sought further advice from Jehovah's Witnesses in the United States but decided, in the end, that the use of these techniques was up to the conscience of the individual concerned.
My feeling is that if the procedure had been presented as essentially the same as "white blood cell transfusion", WTS would have said "no". In this case, it was presented as the same as "bone marrow transplants", and the WTS said "OK, conscience matter". I think this is a good case to show how arbitrary and how murky is the boundary between permitted and prohibited treatment.
In considering bone marrow transplants and peripheral blood stem cell autografts in this case, the local committee sought further advice from Jehovah's Witnesses in the United States but decided, in the end, that the use of these techniques was up to the conscience of the individual concerned.and my best friend died 25 years ago because she needed a bone marrow transplant and was told she could not accept it???!!!!! This just pisses me off to no end!
