Date:09/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/09/stories/2009010952370200.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

A bypass without blood transfusion

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: A Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery without blood transfusion? Strange, but true. Doctors at a city hospital performed a CABG and valve replacement surgery on a 75-year-old male, stopping short of giving him a blood transfusion in deference to his religious beliefs.

The patient, Thirumalachary, is part of an Adventist sect that is principally opposed to blood transfusion – Jehovah’s Witnesses. Members of the sect refuse to undergo blood transfusions even in complex surgeries, believing that it would be a sin.

He was also opposed to auto transfusion, using the patient’s own blood collected and stored pre-surgery, or during and after the surgery. Normally, this would put most cardiac surgeons off the case. But when Mr. Thirumalachary approached S. Thiagarajamurthy, chief cardio-thoracic surgeon, who has had some experience working with the sect during his tenure in England, however decided to give it a go.

With the backing of the team, including cardiologists K. Dhamodaran and U. Ilayaraja, cardiac anaesthetists R. Mahadevan and K. Nedumaran, he performed the surgery without transfusion of blood, and with minimal loss of blood.

The patient was discharged at the end of December and apparently walked to a press meet at the hospital on Wednesday.

“His total blood loss, including the pre-operative phase was only 200 ml. He was discharged a week after surgery and is now free from the breathlessness and chest pain that has been bothering him for a year now,” Dr. Thiagarajamurthy said.