About 8 years ago, we were having a bad time with our 1st daughter and the blood issue. She required surgery for Syringomyelia, a nasty brain and spine condition that results in paralysis. Blood was the only option during surgery, so you can imagine being torn between what the elders wanted us to do and our love for our children.
I was at an assembly in Newcastle, and helping the accounts department collect all the boxes around the hall, when I got talking to a young brother about our situation and the impending surgery. He is a paramedic and knew all about the processes involving blood. I basically wanted to ask him if it was safe to transfuse.
His reaction shocked me. He told me all about how the society was misapplying scripture in that the body had to die before blood was poured onto the ground. A person who gives blood is still alive. That night we went home and stayed up 'till late, scratching around for jw info on blood transfusions. Nothing the literature said tallied with the bible about the animal having to be dead.
That was it for us. No more meetings. No-one called, nobody visited our daughter in hospital, it was as if we had never existed. Which was perfect for us, as we wanted to just drift away, but it still hurt.
We went ahead with the surgeon's recommendations, and she is with us here all fixed up!
Our daughter number 2 went through the same thing a few years later, and success again. Them surgeons are the best.
So for us, it was a fellow believer who had doubts, and the stressful situation that helped us wake up.
