Since my interview with Dr. Joy Fridey of the Red Cross, it was revealed to me that there is no medical definition for the term "bloodless," "bloodless medicine," or "bloodless surgery." Basically, every doctor and every patient has their own idea of what constitutes "bloodless." But according to Dr. Fridey, there is no definition of bloodless medically speaking.
One thng for sure, for those doctors who actually use this term or for the Watchtower Society who has probably introduced this expression into the consciousness of society and the medical profession, bloodless DOES NOT EVER mean... bloodless.
(See ajwrb.org article in the official ajwrb blog.)
Since the heart transplant by Dr. Gallantowicz that made headline news that was touted as the first bloodless heart transplant, I have said, "...Hmmmmmm... I wonder....."
I wonder how is it that a human heart was purged of all the blood contained in it. I wondered about cell saver procedures and wondered whether cell saver technology is really just an autologous blood transfusion.
So I asked Dr. Fridey, "Is a cell saver procedure a blood transfusion?" The answer was, "Yes." She then worried that if JWs thought of cell saver operations as transfusions, if maybe they would shy away from taking them. I reassured her that the opposite is true. JWs are willing to JUMP right into any new procedure that the Society approves of, even if it is really the same as an autologous blood transfusaion. The truth about cell saver procedures will free JWs top take other procedures that in the past have been shunned because they are called a blood transfusion.
Another example of how this works can be found in the new article by Marlen Mercado posted on the front page of ajwrb.org under the link "SAVE a Jehovah's Witness Baby!" demonstrates how when she was working as a nurse in a hospital, she would get patients whose chart said, "No Blood Products" but they received albumin. So one time she wrote on the chart of a JW the words "Except Albumin."
JWs need to know that they already take blood transfusions of various sorts. When they really, really know this, it will open the way for them to accept more blood transfusions, and more blood transfusions until they accepot all the life saving blood products that they can get. So it's more than just a matter of it being absolutely TRUE that JWs accept blood already. It is a matter of activism to pump out all the positive propaganda we can to ease the JW people into more life-saving blood transfusions. spread the word that JWs are taking blood and that they need your donations, BLOOD donations that is, and you will save the life of a JW.