Bloodless Medicine: How A Religion Changed Traditional Medical Practice

[The Librarian]

Blood transfusions are common practice whenever a patient suffers blood shortage/loss due to accidents, haemorrhage, anemia, or surgical procedures that results to blood loss. But a single religion prefers bloodless medicine as a medical procedure – Jehovah’s Witnesses.

In obedience to their Christian beliefs based on Acts 15:20 which states:

“but to write them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from what is strangled and from blood.”(New World Translation 2013)

As it states, blood (consumption or transfusion) is accounted to be in line with other grievous sins like immorality and idolatry, so Jehovah’s Witnesses would not consider it even if it accounts to life or death.

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But how were traditional medical practices changed to adapt with their beliefs? An article published by New Yorker relates details regarding this:

Jehovah’s witnesses accepts all medical interventions – except anything that requires blood transfusion. This is a very hard belief to follow especially if the patient experience a health scenario that requires blood transfusion – but they are willing to pass it even at the possibility of death than to accept it and sin.

In fact, the American Medical Association listed blood transfusion as among the most overused therapies in medicine.

So doctors and surgeons made ways on adjusting their traditional practices and found other non-blood methods. One of the well-known institutions who cater non-blood transfusion surgeries since the ‘90s is the Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in New Jersey.

Abe Steinberger, a neurosurgeon had already experienced dealing with Witnesses for more than 20 years. Bloodless medicine requires surgical skills and delicate precautionary measures to avoid large amounts of blood loss during surgery.

They use a method called Cell Salvage. Tubes are connected to her body which will flow out blood and will enter long thin plastic tubes which collects blood to bags on floor. These in turn will be instantly sucked by a machine that will filter the blood and collect as much red blood cells possible, re-infused, and then will enter back the body. This circulation procedure can save amounts of blood for the patient that can be used whenever the blood count becomes low while on surgery.

There are other procedures made, and several added precautionary steps considered to make the surgeries successful. Doctors need to respect the wishes of their patients, and such honorable response to the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ stand gave way to safer and better medical procedures.

Image Source: Wikimedia

http://www.healthaim.com/bloodless-medicine-religion-changed-traditional-medical-practice/42756