![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
![]() |
You are in: Health | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
![]() |
Monday, 30 July, 2001, 12:07 GMT 13:07 UK
Church donates blood machine
![]() Cats re-circulates a patient's own blood
Jehovah's Witnesses are donating a blood-cell salvage machine to a hospital that takes away the need for transfusion in surgery.
Members of the religion traditionally refuse blood transfusions because they conflict with their beliefs. The Fresenius Continuous Autologus Transfusion System (Cats), which is being donated to St Mary's Hospital in Newport on the Isle of Wight, re-circulates a patient's own blood during operations. John Carruthers, a spokesman for the Jehovah's Witnesses, said he hoped the machine, which is being delivered on Monday, would also be an advantage to other people.
"This machine will mean that when they require surgery there is no need for blood transfusions to be used." The fundraising for the £19,000 Fresenius Kabi machine was set up on the island because of the high proportion of Jehovah's Witnesses who live there. Cost savings Mr Carruthers added: "But we hope it will also be useful for the wider community, since as more people become aware of the potential health risks of blood transfusions they will be able to use it as well." Dr Michael Hof, senior consultant at St Mary's, welcomed the fact the reduction in health risks of transfusions could potentially save the NHS millions of pounds. He said: "Unfortunately, the rest of the world is ahead of the United Kingdom as far as the use of cell salvage is concerned.
Dr Hof's colleague, consultant haematologist Dr Rajeev Joshi, said he had been pushing for the treatment to be available in the UK for "a long time". He said: "In simple terms, patients are receiving their own fresh blood without the risk of infection." Cats also speeds up the transfusion process, as there is no need to carry out compatibility tests on the patient. The machine also improves the quality of the blood because it does not need storing, which reduces its capacity for storing oxygen. The Isle of Wight is home to 600 Jehovah's Witnesses in seven congregations. Proportionally that is one for every 250 people, compared to one for every 450 people across the rest of the UK.
|
![]() |
See also:
![]() Internet links:
![]() The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Top Health stories now:
![]() ![]() Links to more Health stories are at the foot of the page.
![]() |
![]() |
Links to more Health stories
|
![]() |
![]() |
^^ Back to top News Front Page | World | UK | UK Politics | Business | Sci/Tech | Health | Education | Entertainment | Talking Point | In Depth | AudioVideo ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To BBC Sport>> | To BBC Weather>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © MMIII | News Sources | Privacy |