Dear NoBlood Colleagues
I have an immensely large problem in convincing people here not to give blood, though we work in a very large tertiary hospital in the Middle-East.
Last week, I got a patient 10 year old for renal transplant with preoperative haemoglobin as 77gm/L. I discussed that with his physician regarding optimizing his preoperative EPO dose but he was telling me ,this level was the best they can do, and he was going to give him blood anyway intraoperative.
Can you indicate if it were wrong asking for higher haemoglobin preoperative in case of renal transplant .Also any help regarding trying to persuade the entire institution against blood transfusion.
I am grateful for your help
Dr Ahmed Amin Nasr FFARCSI
Consultant Anaesthetist

You have an uphill climb, however, the better the education, it is more likely the better the cooperation will be. If your hospital will host and sponsor (seminars on bloodless surgury) some of the well known surgeons practicing surgery without blood would probably be willing to come to the hospital. Jehovah's Witnesses are always willing to educate in this area, but here again is a problem. Many Muslim countries will not tolerate Jehovah's Witnesses. So it will most likely be better to approach this problem by educating the administration of the hospital about the fast growing international programs for bloodless surgury. On this site you will find many bloodless medical programs and there coordinators. Go for it!

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Jim Laws