If a Jehovah's Witness' hemoglobin is low what do you do given that they cannot accept boood?

Answer 1

I am one of Jehovah's Witnesses. A few months ago, my blood count (hemoglobin) fell extremely, dangerously low. I wondered why I felt so tired. I thought it was because of my lifestyle - ministry, children, work, friends, family and myself. I had developed severe anemia. My doctor wanted to performadminister a blood transfusion but I refused. That is my sincere conscientious stand and it ought to be respected. Instead, he prescribed iron fortified tablets, ordered me to stay home from work a couple of weeks, eat iron fortified foods rich in iron - did you know bananas are high in iron. :):) As a result, my blood count rose to normal and I was ok. Needless to say, uterine fibroids was the cause of my blood loss. There are other alternatives to blood transfusions that Jehovah's Witnesses can use such as blood fractions. The Bible does not give details, so a Christian must make his own conscientious decision before God. Some would refuse anything derived from blood; that is how they understand God's command to abstain from blood.

As Witnesses we are not allowed transfusions of

Whole blood

Whole Red cells

Whole White cells

Whole Plasma

Whole Platelets

We are allowed transfusions, if we so desire, of all of the component parts of red cells, white cells, plasma and platelets.

As hemoglobin makes up only 97% of the dry content of a red cell it is not considered an actual whole red cell and therefore we are allowed to have a hemoglobin transfusion.