Yes, Smiddy, you have read the article right.
What is wrong with these people...?
I think that the biggest thing wrong with "these people" is that they have been bombarded with the WT's erroneous messages for so long that they truly believe that a person can and should survive a blood refusal in all cases.
The WT has spent years extolling the virtues of alternative medicine, including recruiting doctors to their noblood ideology, and issuing press releases every time somebody miraculously pulls through a life threatening situation, attributing their survival to some oblique bloodless practice.
JWs have an unrealistic expectation about how blood transfusions are not necessary and how, if a patient even needs a blood transfusion, it is because of the surgeon lacking skill. The WT has subtly, and not so subtly, maligned conventional medical practice so that the ordinary JW believes that if a person dies after blood refusal, it has to be the doctor's fault.
Those false beliefs about blood stay with a person for a long time, sometimes for their entire life. Always believing that the WT has given them the correct information (the WT wouldn't lie!).
For example, I was speaking to my father a few years back about the blood doctrine. He left the JWs way back in the late 60s but he had attended the Kingdom Ministry School in Toronto in the mid-60s. This is what he said to me (and when he said this, his voice did that weird timbre and cadence change...he slipped into his WT trained 'instructive' voice): "There is no need for a blood transfusion. Doctors have a product that is a saline solution that works just as good as blood." I said, "Dad, who told you that?"And he replied, "Well, that is what we were told in Toronto."
I had to have a little chat with my dad and update him on the uses of Ringer's lactate and the inability of it to perform as good as blood. And I told him about how the US Army used JW patients back in the 60s to test the limits of Ringer's Lactate, resulting in many deaths. Those who died basically drowned from fluid build up in their lungs.
The Coroner's inquest into Eloise's death is still ongoing and the media attention around this case was intense when she died. In addition to Eloise's husband dealing with the pain and grief of losing his wife, I wouldn't be surprised if he has been receiving "spiritual direction" from the WT's spiritual legal/medical team. They will be looking for ways to counteract whatever the coroner finds in his investigation. It isn't just Eloise's husband who has a stake in this. The HLC, their bloodless experts who took over medical treatment advice, and the WT - all have an interest.
It wouldn't surprise me if there is heavy WT involvement in Mr. Dupuis' actions. Of course there is. There always has been. The coroner's investigation has the potential to, once again, put the WT and their bloodless crew in an unfavorable light. And the WT's Blood Team is using Mr. Dupuis' grief to mount a defense for their noblood ideology.
