20-year-old Jehovah's Witness suffers permanent vision loss after refusing blood transfusion after heavy period

[Jack Ryan]

20-year-old woman suffers optic neuropathy after heavy period

Optometry Today / Association of Optometrists (UK), Monday, July 2, 2018

BMJ Case Report authors have described the permanent vision loss of a patient after she refused a blood transplant because of her religious beliefs

A woman who presented at hospital on the third day of a heavy period in hypovolaemic shock suffered persistent visual field loss after developing optic atrophy in her right eye.

Writing in BMJ Case Reports, Malaysian clinicians described how the 20-year-old patient refused a blood transplant because of her religious beliefs.

The patient opted for conservative management of the condition due to her Jehovah’s witness faith.

She later developed optic atrophy in her right eye despite improved haemoglobin levels.

Vision following treatment in her right eye remained at 6/60 in the superior field and 6/6 in the inferior field.

READ FULL ARTICLE:
https://www.aop.org.uk/ot/science-and-vision/research/2018/07/02/20-year-old-woman-suffers-optic-neuropathy-after-heavy-period

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Non-arteritic anterior ischaemic optic neuropathy secondary to menorrhagia in a young healthy woman

The British Medical Journal, Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Summary Non-arteritic anterior ischaemic optic neuropathy (NAION) may develop due to severe anaemia and hypotension which is seen in acute blood loss. The devastating visual loss is often irreversible. We report a case of NAION in a 20-year-old healthy woman, who presented on the third day of a heavy menstrual cycle with hypovolaemic shock. On day 2 of admission, she had sudden right eye blurring of vision at the superior field on awakening from sleep. Funduscopy revealed a pale and swollen right optic disc. There was a dense right superior altitudinal visual field defect. Her haemoglobin level was low (3.6g/dL), but she refused blood transfusion due to her religious belief (Jehovah’s Witness) and opted for conservative management. She later developed right optic atrophy with persistent visual field defect despite an improved haemoglobin level of 10.5g/dL.

http://casereports.bmj.com/content/2018/bcr-2018-225113.abstract