Bloodless medicine, alternative to transfusions, gaining popularity on Long Island, New York, USA

[Parale]

From Long Island, New York, USA:

 

Discusses pre-elective surgery treatment for anemic patients.

 

Bloodless medicine, alternative to transfusions, gaining popularity on Long Island

 

Newsday, Friday 27 January 2023

 

Bloodless medicine, treatments that minimize or eliminate the use of blood products in surgical procedures, is gaining a wider audience, including on Long Island, where doctors say transfusions can be overused.

 

The practice has been championed by members of the Jehovah’s Witness community, whose beliefs clash with the concept of blood transfusions. But many doctors and patients outside the community are also embracing the techniques.

 

Dr. Aaron Harrison, associate medical director at South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore, which is ramping up its bloodless medicine program, said while transfusions are safe and common procedures, they can cause complications to the recipients such as allergic reactions and injuries to the lungs.

 

“More patients are taking advantage of this program,” he said. “And sometimes people, emotionally and psychologically, don’t want to get blood.”

 

This is part of a greater shift among some in medicine who believe other options should be used before blood transfusions.

 

“You don’t want to give people blood if they don’t need it for a variety of reasons,” he said. “We would like to reduce the number of transfusions for all patients.”

 

Over the last year, South Shore has expanded one treatment that allows anemic patients planning elective surgeries to boost their red blood cell count and possibly stave off the need for a transfusion on an outpatient basis.

 

https://www.newsday.com/news/health/bloodless-medicine-gaining-kptlfl2m

[Dustparticle]

16 minutes ago, Parale said:

From Long Island, New York, USA:

 

Discusses pre-elective surgery treatment for anemic patients.

 

Bloodless medicine, alternative to transfusions, gaining popularity on Long Island

 

Newsday, Friday 27 January 2023

 

Bloodless medicine, treatments that minimize or eliminate the use of blood products in surgical procedures, is gaining a wider audience, including on Long Island, where doctors say transfusions can be overused.

 

The practice has been championed by members of the Jehovah’s Witness community, whose beliefs clash with the concept of blood transfusions. But many doctors and patients outside the community are also embracing the techniques.

 

Dr. Aaron Harrison, associate medical director at South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore, which is ramping up its bloodless medicine program, said while transfusions are safe and common procedures, they can cause complications to the recipients such as allergic reactions and injuries to the lungs.

 

“More patients are taking advantage of this program,” he said. “And sometimes people, emotionally and psychologically, don’t want to get blood.”

 

This is part of a greater shift among some in medicine who believe other options should be used before blood transfusions.

 

“You don’t want to give people blood if they don’t need it for a variety of reasons,” he said. “We would like to reduce the number of transfusions for all patients.”

 

Over the last year, South Shore has expanded one treatment that allows anemic patients planning elective surgeries to boost their red blood cell count and possibly stave off the need for a transfusion on an outpatient basis.

 

https://www.newsday.com/news/health/bloodless-medicine-gaining-kptlfl2m

Believe me, doctors and others have been embracing the techniques for many years. In one area only 5% were Jehovah's Witnesses were using this technique and the other 95% were not witnesses. They were doctors, probably their relatives and others who using this technique.

[Ross Au]

My wife had a very bad experience in hospital with patient blood management several years ago after surgery. There was a resultant court case encouraged by the Australia branch and the Governing Body at that time. Over a period of 10 years, the brothers faced a mountain of opposition from Government and Clinicians however, Jehovah had His day. A world renowned and highly respected Prof of Haematology provided evidence, free of charge, to and for the brothers, showing how the hospital and the doctor had been negligent. The court found in favour of my wife and she was awarded a sizeable sum of money as compensation.

 

That money was immediately signed over to a project at an Australian University to develop and make available a training package on the legal, moral and clinical management of patients, with specific regard to blood usage.

 

We were so excited to see the finished package and to have had a small part in helping establish a legal precedent for blood management in Australia.

 

The full package is distributed by a Swiss based organisation and has become a compulsory subject in surgeons training. It is not available to the general public however the link below will take you to an extract of it.
 

https://www.blood.gov.au/patient-blood-management-pbm