Treatment of life-threatening post-haemorrhagic anaemia with cell-free haemoglobin solution in an adolescent Jehovah's Witness.
Severe blood loss carries an increased risk of a fatal outcome in patients who do not consent to the use of blood products. For patients who base this decision on a religious belief system, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses, important distinctions may exist between the appropriateness of various blood products. We describe the first successful use of purified human cell-free haemoglobin solution in a paediatric patient, in this case in the management of life-threatening anaemia in a 14-year-old female Jehovah's Witness with immune thrombocytopenia.
Department of Critical Care Medicine, The Hospital for Sick Children, and the Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care Medicine, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Natalie
N
Anton
Johann K
JK
Hitzler
Brian P
BP
Kavanagh
D000293:Adolescent; D000740:Anemia / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D002474:Cell-Free System; D003422:Critical Care; D005260:Female; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006470:Hemorrhage / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D033221:Jehovah's Witnesses; D008595:Menorrhagia / Q000628:therapy; D016553:Purpura, Thrombocytopenic, Idiopathic / Q000628:therapy*
D006454:Hemoglobins