NoBlood

'Bloodless' surgical program attracts new patients to AGH


The last thing Terri Anderson remembers early one day last November is being loaded into a helicopter bound for Pittsburgh from her home in Lawrence County.

The 71-year-old retired waitress needed emergency surgery for internal bleeding when the medical helicopter touched down around 2 a.m. at Allegheny General Hospital. Son Michael Anderson said he was relieved to be greeted by two representatives of the hospital's center for bloodless medicine and surgery.


The Andersons are members of Jehovah's Witnesses, a religious denomination that doesn't accept blood transfusions. "It was a big comfort having them there," Michael Anderson said.

Terri Anderson underwent surgery the next day, when about a foot of her colon was removed. She did not receive any blood.

Allegheny General targeted the Jehovah's Witnesses when it began its so-called "bloodless" medicine program in 1998, and still has the only such program in the region. Patient volume has risen steadily since then -- to 300 in 2005, up from 200 in 1998. AGH admits about 32,000 overall patients each year.

And interest in the program is up, as well. A seminar Allegheny General conducted in Uniontown earlier this month drew a record 200 people. Hospital administrators see the program as a way to reduce costs while improving care and attracting new surgical patients.

"We used to have two units available before surgery," said Dr. David Medich, director of colorectal surgery at Allegheny General and an advocate of bloodless medicine. "We no longer do that. We don't expect to give blood when we start a case."

'BIG SAVINGS' (continued)

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