Cardiac patient changed his mind, and lived

by Marvin Shilmer 15 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Marvin Shilmer

  Cardiac patient changed his mind, and lived

  Today I added a new article to my blog sharing the incident of one of Jehovah’s Witnesses who changed his mind about accepting blood transfusion. He had already had the benefit of “bloodless surgery” techniques and products, but ended up accepting transfusion of blood after devastating hemorrhage. It saved his life.

  My article is titled Cardiac patient changed his mind, and lived and is available at: http://marvinshilmer.blogspot.com/2012/02/cardiac-patient-changed-his-mind-and.html

  Marvin Shilmer

  http://marvinshilmer.blogspot.com
• 

  Giordano

  Thanks Marvin, as always your information is appreciated. Is there any estimate on the number of deaths attributed to the Blood Issue for the USA? The death toll in the late 1940's to 1670's had to be horrific before surgery and treatments were improved.

  What bothers me most is that these often unnecessary deaths fly below the radar with little or no publicity. A Jonestown with just under a 1,000 deaths was well reported and documented. I suspect the JW's lose easily that amount every year.

  The Christian Science religion for instance has a child diabetes death rate twice this country's average as an example of the cost of interfering in a patients (minor 's) right to be protected even from the beliefs of their parents.
• 

  Marvin Shilmer

  Giordano,

  In answer to your question, see the article Death Statistic available at: http://marvinshilmer.blogspot.com/2010/04/death-statistic.html

  Overall mortality is hard to determine with certainty. But the article above demonstrates that each year at least 132 Jehovah's Witnesses die from just one patient population (maternity), and there are many, many patient presentations beyond this one.

  Marvin Shilmer

  http://marvinshilmer.blogspot.com
• 

  james_woods

  Marvin, it would be very interesting if you can follow up on this individual and see what sanctions his congregation judicial committee put on him for accepting the blood transfusion.

  Congratulations to this person for rational thinking. As one ex-JW told me - if all the lemmings jumped off the cliff, there wouldn't be any more lemmings.
• 

  Marvin Shilmer

  James,

  Curiosity would have us seek more information about this particular patient, but experience tells us not to pry, and I’m sure you agree.

  I have contacted the author of this article regarding a particular statement he makes of treatment accepted by his JW patients. But I’d never consider asking for the sort of information I’d need in order to learn whether or what this JW patient experienced congregationally for his choice.

  Marvin Shilmer

  http://marvinshilmer.blogspot.com
• 

  james_woods

  Right - I was thinking that perhaps the author of the article might know; maybe that he might even publish it.
• 

  Marvin Shilmer

  James,

  Okay. I understand what you inquire of and agree. If the author responds to my initial request then I’ll make further inquiry to see if he has knowledge of whether his patient was confronted with local Witnesses about his choice. My best guess is, though, that the man did not share his choice with local Witnesses. That is the typical approach for Witnesses faced with death by bleeding out or death by social ostracism.

  Marvin Shilmer

  http://marvinshilmer.blogspot.com
• 

  james_woods

  Yup - if he had half a brain he would certainly have kept quiet about it with his elders.
• 

  Anony Mous

  I have been wondering the last few months if the JW org was literally bleeding to death. I have researched at least some notable incidents and it seems you can find very frequently articles in some paper about JW's dying because of the blood issue. It must be to the tune of at least a couple of 100 yearly. I wonder if the sheer volume would change policy simply because the number of staunch JW's they lose over it.
• 

  Justitia Themis

  This quote from the article is interesting: "Two gave consent to an autologous transfusion of one unit each that had been taken preoperatively."

  These two determined beforehand, under non-emergent circumstances, to go against the society's ban on recieving one's own previously stored blood.