MANAGEMENT OF SEVERE ANEMIA WITHOUT TRANSFUSION IN A PEDIATRIC JEHOVAH-WITNESS PATIENT

The Jehovah's Witness religion was founded in the late 1870s by Charles Russell in Pittsburgh, PA (1). There are over half a million Jehovah's Witnesses in the United States (2). Members of this religious sect do not receive blood transfusions, a religious tenet that continues to pose ethical and clinical challenges to physicians. In a study of adult Jehovah's Witnesses, a majority indicated that they would not consider seeing a physician who intended to force a transfusion (3). We report the case of a 12-yr-old Jehovah's Witness who refused blood transfusion for a severe anemia which he developed after receiving a renal transplant.