The Superiority Of Bloodless Medicine To Blood Transfusions

By Okechukwu Okugo

Jehovah's Witnesses, age-long, have been known to champion the cause of bloodless surgeries, though they are not a scientific or medical group, rather because of their religious belief; today, it seems that scientists and doctors have come to agree with their conviction.

Recently, Madison Mason (pictured up; photo credit: CBS News.) who was born with down syndrome and a heart condition to parents who are Jehovah's Witnesses, and had sought the "best care" with the best positive outcome, for their daughter, which would require that the risks associated with blood transfusions be eliminated completely, in performing the open heart surgery needed to solve her medical case.

Their efforts and that of the medical team of Englewood Hospital led to a ground-breaking achievement for the hospital.

In the history of the hospital, they have never carried out a highly successful heart surgery to a child her age, without any form of blood transfusion. Madison's case was the first, and it turned out so successful that she achieved full recovery in just four days.

CBS News reported that what seemed as a very simple procedure can be used to achieve a high success rate in heart surgeries, which would at the same time, eliminate the complications of blood transfusion.

Doctor Elizabeth Carlin, Chief of Pediatrics, Englewood Hospital, told CBS News, by using natural hormones and iron infusion, the red blood cells can be boosted to make the blood count go up, so that one can be strong enough to sustain some blood loss during surgery, and not need a transfusion.

Thus, this was the procedure used to solve Madison's case.

Dr. Sherri Ozawa of Englewood Hospital, confirmed, surgeries are healthier and better without blood transfusions; highlighting that there are many things, doctors can do to reduce the amount of blood lost during surgery, in order to eliminate transfusions, and achieve a safer surgery. Showing that patients without it actually did better.

Apart from transfusion reactions, some which happen as soon as the transfusion is started, while others may take several days or weeks to develop, numerous other risks/infections involved with blood transfusions according to www.cancer.org are:

1. Allergic reactions
2. Febrile reactions
3. Transfusion-related acute lung injury (TRALI)
4. Acute immune hemolytic reaction
5. Delayed hemolytic reaction
6. Graft-versus-host disease
7. Hepatitis B & C
8. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
9. HTLV-I and HTLV-II (viruses linked to human T-cell leukemia/lymphoma)
10. West Nile Virus
11. Chagas disease (common in South and Central America.)
12. Babesiosis
13. Malaria
14. Lyme disease
15. Zika virus etc.

The University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bloodless Medicine and Surgery, published a research result that showed:

1. Jehovah's Witnesses who underwent bloodless surgeries spent less time in the intensive care unit and less time in the hospital when compared to patients who had transfusions.

2. They have a higher survival rate at 95 percent, compared to the 89 percent of the other group that accept  blood transfusions.

3. Blood management programs help hospitals reduce unnecessary blood draws and the costs associated with acquiring and storing blood.

Experts at Englewood Hospital according to CBS News, had put out a call for bloodless surgery to be considered for all types of operations that had been traditionally associated with transfusions, including hysterectomies, breast surgeries, joint replacements, spinal surgery, brain surgery and heart surgery.

It seems to me, rather, any religious conviction, that promotes sound health practices, is scientific.