Posted by Bloodless [StudentOfTheBible] on March 30, 1999 at 15:43:12 {.Oe37V.qjQm8MaT46NngJC5PTLdHyA}:
This is a letter that was sent to Dr Laura, (radio host renowned around North America, her program can be heard in all of North America) after she got a call from someone complaining that his father was a JW and that he refused to take blood. Dr Laura actually read the whole letter on the air and said that she was posting it on her website the same day for everyone to read(www.drlaura.com). Notice the interesting comments made by this professional.
Subject:
Non-Blood Transfusions
Date: 1999-03-04
RE: Your Caller Concerned About Father's Refusal of Blood Transfusion
I'm a long-time listener, fan, supporter and defender of all that you teach, preach (& nag). Today a man called you and voiced concern over his father, a JW who is facing surgery and will refuse a blood transfusion. After some personal chat with the man, you said you understood his feelings: he'd lost his wife and now stood to lose his father.
The assumption his father was as good as dead without blood transfusion is a common one, but there's almost no truth to that anymore. At our hospitals, we have a Transfusion-Free Medicine & Surgery Program and the results are phenomenal. Outcomes are better and the hospital stays are shorter. We've eliminated the risks associated with blood transfusions (and there are many, ranging from the best known, AIDS, to Hepatitis C and other infections and complications).
Our Palm Springs-area hospitals, part of the Tenet Healthcare Corp., are part of a network of Southern California facilities with this program. Included among them are our prestigious USC University Hospital and the USC/Norris Cancer Hospital. Hospitals and doctors all over the country are climbing aboard this bandwagon; I could introduce you to surgeons who haven't transfused blood in years.
We're doing open heart, cancer, neuro, ortho (including total hip and knee replacement) neonatal and pediatric, gynecological and urological, transplant, and vascular surgeries successfully without blood transfusions. Much of this is due to advances in equipment and technology, and credit also goes to the JW population for their stand on blood which brought about these changes. Today, about 25% of tranfusion-free procedures are on people who are not Jehovah's Witnesses, but who choose the option for health or personal reasons.
This is emerging medicine. Your caller would have benefited from this knowledge (his father probably already knows about it). The day may come when blood transfusions are a thing of the past.
So, let's put this canard to rest.
Tom Wixon
Manager, Marketing & Public Relations
Desert Regional Medical Center
John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital
Phone: (760) 323-6690
Fax: (760) 323-6580
Or Call:
Bradford Ray
Transfusion Free Medical & Surgery Coordinator
Desert Regional Medical Center
John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital
Phone: (760) 323-6311