Dear all,

I am new to this forum, so before joining I read various comments to see the kind of people who were members by considering what they wrote. My wife and I are Jehovah's Witnesses. Our third child was born with Down's Syndrome and a congenital heart defect. This required surgery when she was nine years old, in 1996. At that time there was not a whole lot of mutual understanding between members of the medical profession and Jehovah's Witnesses seeking non-blood medical therapy, let alone an entire wiki devoted to this theme. The provision of Hospital Liaison Committees through the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses was at that time in its infancy, so communication with the hospital was not optimal.

We had arranged with Professor Reichert to have the open heart surgery performed at Großhadern without blood. But somehow this was not communicated to the anaesthesiologists who were to accompany the operation. They were to say, very surprised and displeased to have been placed in this situation, because they themselves had conscientious reservations about a bloodless open heart surgery in our daughter's case.

So we spoke very long with them and despite their misgivings, they agreed to the solution that they would go as far as they reasonably could go without blood. The operation lasted most of one working day. Nonetheless it was successfully performed without blood. Later the leading anaesthesiologist said that there was a point where they thought they would have to give blood, but because we had spoken with them they would "try one more time". Whatever it was they tried, it was successful, no blood was given.

Now 14 years later our daughter is still fine cardiologically, although beset by diabetes and limitations imposed by her Down's syndrome.

Looking back, we will always be thankful for the medical professionals who helped us through that trying time. They didn't agree with us, but they respected us. Neither my wife nor I can remember even the names of those anaesthesiologists who with skill and concern helped our daughter. Perhaps if they, or other professionals like them, read this small expression of appreciation, it may help to mitigate misgivings about respecting the patients' and parents' wishes by "doing what they can" in the frame of the law and informed consent.

The reason I mention our experience is because of one comment a registered nurse made on your site about her own difficulty and reservations in dealing with those whose medical choices are different than those made by a medical professional.

We also learned the importance of speaking with the doctors and other medical professionals, trying to reach a reasonable consensus on medical alternatives. In a spirit of cooperation, many difficult problems can be solved, as was shown in our daughter's case.

Best wishes and deepest regards to all of the medical profession who face difficult choices out regard for the conscience of others.

Yours truly,
Steven Calkins