Crumpet yep it's the rank and file raising the money by the sounds of it.
They're in quite a lot of UK hospitals now. Here's a story from a local paper of mine.
Blood saving machine will benefit patients
From the archive, first published Thursday 2nd Oct 2003. Falmouth Packet Newspaper
A new blood saving machine at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro is set to benefit patients who do not want to receive a transfusion of someone else's blood - thanks to the generosity of Jehovah's Witnesses and their friends in Cornwall. The new blood salvage machine, which will replace an older model already at the hospital, works by recovering, cleaning and re-using a patient's blood during an operation. Lars Jakt, consultant anaesthetist at the Royal Cornwall Hospital, said "The machine works by collecting blood from the operation site and then washes out tissue debris leaving clean red blood cells which are passed back to the patient. When there is a substantial loss of blood during an operation, this machine can process the salvaged blood and re-transfuse some or most of it back to the patient. This reduces the dependence on blood from the Blood Bank, much to the patient's advantage by avoiding the inherent risks from using alien and stored blood. This technique for blood conservation is not suitable, or available, for all kinds of surgery, but its use is being expanded." Assistant theatre manager, Steve Renfree added: "Reusing a patient's own blood also helps to reduce the pressure on precious blood stocks and can be particularly useful for patients with the rarer blood groups. An added bonus is that the cost of disposable supplies needed each time the machine is used are less than the cost of a single unit of donated blood." As this technology recycles the patient's own blood, rather than blood from a donor, it can be used to carry out surgery for patients who are Jehovah's Witnesses. Robert Canning, a Jehovah's Witness elder in the St Austell Bay Congregation and the Cornwall trustee of the South West Hospital Equipment Fund, the Charity that has donated the blood saving machine, commended staff at the Royal Cornwall Hospital for using the equipment. He said: "This machine promotes bloodless management in surgery and will help us to keep to what we believe to be the Bible's principles. But of course, it is not only Jehovah's Witnesses who will benefit, but more and more of the general public. Indeed, our Hospital Information Service at our London headquarters is getting more enquiries regarding bloodless surgery from non-Witnesses than they do from our own members." Similar machines have been donated by the charity to Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton and to the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital. The charity is hoping that extra fund raising efforts will enable them to purchase a second Cell-Saver for the Royal Cornwall Hospital.
