Jehovah's Witnesses News

A surgical team performs a minimally invasive mitral valve replacement at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle. Blood lost by the patient during surgery is held in the cell-saver reservoir below. Instead of being discarded, the blood will be cleaned and returned to the patient. This practice of conserving the patient's own blood and minimizing transfusions reduces infection and illness and improves recovery.

Cutting back on blood use could halt infections, illness — and even death

By JoNel Aleccia

SEATTLE — As a doctor and a patient, Dale Reisner knows the value of donated blood. But when the Seattle obstetrician had to have heart surgery four years ago, she did everything possible not to get a single drop.

“I don’t have any religious problems with it. If I was near death, I definitely would have taken blood, no question,” said Reisner, who is fine now at age 62. “But if I could avoid a transfusion by better pre-op preparation, then I was interested.”

Long dominated by Jehovah’s Witnesses — whose faith forbids blood transfusions — bloodless surgeries and blood conservation programs are now attracting mainstream patients worried about what some experts say are clear risks, including more infections, longer recuperation, increased illness and even death. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 4%

Members of AFSCME Local 3145 in Connecticut demonstrate for a fair contract with the Red Cross last October.

by James Parks

The federal government must step up enforcement of rules protecting the nation’s blood supply and force the Red Cross to drastically improve its blood safety practices, several groups said today.

During a press conference in Washington, D.C., this morning, leaders of the AFL-CIO, the Workers Committee for Blood Safety, the National Consumers League, the Committee of Ten Thousand and the Hemophilia Federation of America called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to increase enforcement action with the Red Cross and ensure the safety of the nation’s blood supply. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 10%

Public health officials are battling a host of new infectious threats to the nation’s blood supply.

Blood centers, which have long tested for risks like hepatitis C and AIDS, have added a number of new tests on donated blood in recent years, including checks for West Nile virus and Chagas, a tropical parasitic disease. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 11%

Doctors treating the cancer sufferer at the centre of the extraordinary medical case went to court as they believed it was the only way to save her life.

They wanted permission to sedate the 55 year-old woman in her home with a drug hidden in a glass of Ribena, so they could get around her phobia of hospitals and needles to take her for desperately needed surgery.

Her ordeal, disclosed by the normally secretive Court of Protection, is one of a small number of cases where judges have been asked to decide on the fate of patients. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 10%

NEW YORK (CBS) ― Having surgery is always scary, no matter how low the risk for complications. But for one pair of siblings, the stakes of surgery were even higher because of their faith, and it’s that very faith that pulled them through.

Angie Nieto, 19, and her brother Osbaldo share an incredible bond. It all started two years ago when Angie, who had always been healthy, was given a shocking diagnosis.

“It was kidney failure, and by the next day I was on dialysis,” Angie said.

Angie had a choice: either live for the rest of her life on dialysis, or have a kidney transplant. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 13%