mother dies after refusing blood transfusion

World UK

Published

A very sad story from England.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/shropshire/7078455.stm

A young mother has died after giving birth to twins, following claims that she had refused a blood transfusion because of her faith.

Jehovah's Witness Emma Gough, 22, from Telford, Shropshire, gave birth on 25 October.

Informed consent is the basis of medical and nursing practice. If a person understands the risks and benefits of a certain procedure, it is their right to refuse unless it involves a child.

I understand people's frustrations that someone would seemingly choose to die and leave behind 2 babies, however as health care professionals it is our job to ensure someone understands exactly what they are choosing. It is not our job to force or coerce a patient into accepting medical care just because it fits in with our values or ethical stance.

I have worked in haematology and seen a few patients chose not to receive any more chemotherapy or refuse a bone marrow transplant. They died because of that choice but it was their life and their right to decide.

As a nurse we act as a patient advocate despite whether their choices are within our frame of moral/ethical standards.

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Specializes in ICU, SDU, OR, RR, Ortho, Hospice RN.
Informed consent is the basis of medical and nursing practice. If a person understands the risks and benefits of a certain procedure, it is their right to refuse unless it involves a child.

I understand people's frustrations that someone would seemingly choose to die and leave behind 2 babies, however as health care professionals it is our job to ensure someone understands exactly what they are choosing. It is not our job to force or coerce a patient into accepting medical care just because it fits in with our values or ethical stance.

I have worked in haematology and seen a few patients chose not to receive any more chemotherapy or refuse a bone marrow transplant. They died because of that choice but it was their life and their right to decide.

As a nurse we act as a patient advocate despite whether their choices are within our frame of moral/ethical standards.

Well said :)

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Specializes in med/surg.

It's a difficult one this. I think you have to respect the patients wishes but I think it is hard when those beliefs are based on a book written in a different era.

I'm a Christian but I would not interpret those passages like the Jehovas Witnesses do. I don't believe that God would ask you to die needlessly. Dying is not a test of faith in my book - just a needless waste - afterall you could argue that God allowed humans to discover how to do blood transfusions in order to help us prolong life where needed!

There was an interesting comment on the radio the other day (in a discussion about just this) from a Moslem woman - she said that God would not expect you to take more than you could bear. She said that although eating pork is expressly forbidden in her faith preserving life was the ultimate thing. Therefore, if she was starving to death somewhere & the only thing available to eat was pork she would be obligated to eat that pork & preserve her life.

Where I do have a problem is when parents are making these decisions for their children. I don't think that they should be able to stop their children from receiving life saving treatment for their faith because the children are not old enough to decide for themsleves yet if that's the path they want to follow. However, that's a whole other Pandoras box!:D

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Specializes in icu/er.
Informed consent is the basis of medical and nursing practice. If a person understands the risks and benefits of a certain procedure, it is their right to refuse unless it involves a child.

I understand people's frustrations that someone would seemingly choose to die and leave behind 2 babies, however as health care professionals it is our job to ensure someone understands exactly what they are choosing. It is not our job to force or coerce a patient into accepting medical care just because it fits in with our values or ethical stance.

I have worked in haematology and seen a few patients chose not to receive any more chemotherapy or refuse a bone marrow transplant. They died because of that choice but it was their life and their right to decide.

As a nurse we act as a patient advocate despite whether their choices are within our frame of moral/ethical standards.

no one said anything about forceing,tricking or coerceing anyone to do anything, i understand it's whoevers right to do anything, i just said, it makes me sick. ahh enough of it, old news post..
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Specializes in Trauma ICU,ER,ACLS/BLS instructor.
oh no i'd let her die in peace and with all the dignity she could muster. but i believe i'd be alittle more upset than just saying "oh well you know it's her right" thats a hoqwash excuss to make yourself feel good, when you should feel ticked off. but what are you going to do.

Please do not tell us how we should feel. We all have our ways of dealing with less then wonderful outcomes. Maybe there are those of us who are at peace with life and death and the very fine line between the two. We are ok with a human making their own, informed, well thought out decisions. Anger at a pts display of dignity with impending death is "hogwash"

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Specializes in ICU, CCU, Trauma, neuro, Geriatrics.

Yes we can intervene and prolong life. I have heard many stories of life prolonged and then that patient died later of an even more painful death. It is difficult to allow a young patient to refuse treatments that would likely keep them alive but that is the patients right. Respecting that patient as a whole person with ideals and beliefs is important, yes they came to you for medical assistance but not always Everything That You and the Medical Team can offer.

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Specializes in Pediatric Intensive Care, Urgent Care.

yea this all sounds good! let's give her blood so you, the medical staff don't have to feel bad about her dying. Please let us spare you your grief!?!? Get over yourselves....you chose your path when you attended nursing school!:angryfire Our job and mission is caring for the patient and sometimes that is in a dignified death, from their perspective, not yours! No one said it would be easy...Nursing was never presented to you as easy, not before nursing school, not during, and not after!

Mex

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Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Peds, ICU, Tele.
yea this all sounds good! let's give her blood so you, the medical staff don't have to feel bad about her dying. Please let us spare you your grief!?!? Get over yourselves....you chose your path when you attended nursing school!:angryfire Our job and mission is caring for the patient and sometimes that is in a dignified death, from their perspective, not yours! No one said it would be easy...Nursing was never presented to you as easy, not before nursing school, not during, and not after!

Mex

What are you so angry about? I don't understand your harsh post. You sound so bitter...

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Specializes in NICU.
What are you so angry about? I don't understand your harsh post. You sound so bitter...

Yeah that's what I was wondering. I think most of us know what nursing is about and what it encompassed when we signed up to be nurses. Most the posts here show that we all respect her decision.

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Specializes in Cardiac.
. for me, it is incredibly selfish, once you have children, to think about yourself, your beliefs or anything else before your children.

agreed.

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Specializes in Medical.

Depending on your perspective, people believe a lot of strange things. Religion is the key source of many, not just health, decisions for a lot of people - from what to eat or not eat, and when, through to decisions about family, community involvement, where and how to live, and how to die, among others. For people of faith, these are more important than length of life.

My patients are forever make choices that I, or other members of the team, disagree with. However, as long as the individual is competent and clear, we don't get to take away their decision-making regarding their own health, regardless of the outcome.

Given that not accepting blood or blood products is such a central tenant of the faith, it's something that every Jehovah's Witness patient I've cared for has thought about well in advance of a precipitating crisis.

We get to overrule parental decision making when a child's life is at risk, because we cannot be sure that what the parents want is what the children would themselves want, if they were free from constraints. But we assume as a society that rational adults are able to weigh their alternatives an choose for themselves which option most closely meets all their needs - not just their physical ones.

If I believed that receiving blood products would lengthen my earthly life but exclude me from an eternal afterlife in heaven, if one of my concerns for my children was that they embrace the same faith and beliefs as me, and if I believed that God knows better that we do about the natural order of things, then I would also decline a transfusion, even if it meant I died.

I don't believe any of those things, but I respect that other people do, just as I respect the people on this board, many of whom hold views utterly diametrical to my own. I don't get to substitute my own beliefs and judgements for my patients, and I wouldn't want anyone deciding what was in my best interests for me.

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i respect life more then anything. i am a mother, i have two girls, and i think that a mother has to be a mother first and then, after that, can be anything she wants. but, on the first place, and next 9, she has to be a mother and think about her children first. for me, there is no religion, no great cause or anything like that, which i would die for and leave my children without a mother. i would die only for them; everything else is just beyond me. for me, it is incredibly selfish, once you have children, to think about yourself, your beliefs or anything else before your children. to me, that is just primitive. i respect other opinions as i cannot change them, but,:nono: {there is no greater cause except my children, except life itself.
}

in this case this mother gave her life for her greater cause in order to gain the real life. this mother has unsurmountable faith in that she is following the example of her leader almighty god jehovah himself who did not withhold his only begotten son jesus christ so that the rest of us(mankind) may have hope , life , peace, etc. i happen to see this an the ultimate act of unselfishness just the opposite of your view.

that is what makes us all wonderfully unique our abilitiy to formulate and standby our each individual decision.

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