Jehovah’s Witnesses are members of a religious movement known for their view of rejecting blood transfusions, even in life or death situations. Cardiac surgery in Jehovah’s Witnesses may be challenging during the operation and postoperative period given their refusal of blood products.
A 39-year-old, 60-kg male patient of the Jehovah’s Witness faith, with no other co-morbidities was admitted with NSTEMI(Type of Heart Attack). His Cardiac catheterization which was done outside revealed severe multivessel coronary artery disease and was advised CABG (Surgery). His operation was refused in some centres because of refusal of blood transfusion by the patient and in some centres patient was not confident in getting it done. When he came to Sri Ramakrishna Hospital, the doctors offered him Off-pump CABG and the patient was willing to getting it done in the centre with confidence.
Dr Isaac Christian Moses Medical Director of Sri Ramakrishna Hospital confirms that this case is unique in two aspects. Firstly the patient underwent a coronary bypass surgery successfully without undergoing any blood transfusion. Second, he underwent total arterial revascularization without use of leg veins. This procedure is not offered in many centres.
Total arterial revascularization is done using both internal mammary arteries, the use of this ensures that the bypass surgery grafts work for more than 20 years. This patient was below 50 yrs of age hence this was done. Surgical team was headed by Dr.Thiagarajamurthy along with Dr Sujith and Dr Renus Demel. Anesthesia was managed by Dr Ashok Hariharan and Dr.Narendra Menon. Sri Ramakrishna Hospital has all facilities for adult and pediatric cardiac surgery and can undertake any complex heart surgeries. Post the surgery, the patient is hale and hearty.