EXTRACTS FROM OPINION, DATED JANUARY 23, 2024:
… over almost 30 years, I have operated upon many Jehovah’s Witness patients. I have committed to bloodless surgery for this group and have respected their wishes in every case. Many Witness patients are well versed in the technologies related to blood conservation and in most cases, we can successfully get them through with excellent outcomes. …
… When I started my practice, surgeons were very liberal with blood … It was the experiences with the Jehovah’s Witnesses that taught us that we could drop our target quite significantly with no jeopardy to patient health. In fact, there is data to suggest that our liberal strategy of the provision of blood may have likely hurt patients by impacting their immune system. It was the sacrifices of the Jehovah’s Witness patients that taught us the value of the wide use of blood conservation strategies including cell salvage, judicious use of volume replacement, technologies such as retrograde autologous priming, and others. If we had not had the opportunity to develop and refine these strategies in Witness patients, we would never have been able to apply these simple and beneficial technologies to the non-Witness population. I strongly believe that millions of patients worldwide have benefited from the contribution that Witness patients have made to medical knowledge, which has led to a dramatic drop in the average blood usage in patients undergoing cardiac surgery.
One of the most important aspects of the active practice of treating patients of the Jehovah’s Witness faith is in resident training. Residents have the opportunity to see unique blood conservation strategies in action. They witness skillful techniques with attention to detail to minimize blood loss that they would not otherwise have experienced. It is obvious that these skills will translate to improved quality of care to the rest of the population in Canada.”
“It is my opinion that our health care system has been improved significantly by embracing the treatment of the patients of Jehovah’s Witness faith. Our trainees have benefited, and they are better surgeons as a result of this experience. …”
(Original in English.)