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Faith and medicine at odds in case of critically ill baby
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Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that the Bible forbids them from getting blood or any of its major components, such as plasma and white or red blood cells.
But when the girl was born Dec. 18 at the children’s hospital, doctors knew they couldn’t get around the blood issue.
The child, identified in court documents as Baby Girl Doe, was born with a life-threatening congenital heart condition. Doctors wanted to perform a cardiac catheterization within 48 hours and promised to make their best effort to avoid using blood products.
But to perform the cardiac surgery, the baby had to be put on a cardiac bypass pump primed with blood and blood products, an affidavit signed by Dr. David Parra said. “There are no other alternatives to priming the by-pass pump in order to perform this surgery,” the doctor’s statement said.
Without the surgery, there was an 80% chance the baby would die, Parra said.
Facing the probability that their little girl might die, the parents kept their faith, refusing to allow the operation. Davidson County Chancellor Richard Dinkins ordered doctors to go ahead with surgery.

