Doctors Learned From My Near Death
IN MID May 1991, we learned that we were expecting our fourth child. Our youngest, Mikael, was nine, and our twin daughters, Maria and Sara, were 13. Although the addition was unplanned, we soon got used to the idea of having another baby.
One evening in the third month of pregnancy, I felt a sudden pain in my lung. The following day I could hardly walk. The doctor said that I had pneumonia, and she gave me penicillin. I began to feel better after a couple of days, but I was quite weak. Then I suddenly experienced pains in my other lung, and the same procedure was repeated.
During the days that followed, I could not lie down because of difficulty in breathing. A little over a week after the first attack of pain, one of my legs became blue and swollen. This time I was admitted to the hospital. The doctor informed me that the pain in my lungs had not been due to pneumonia but to blood clots. She also said that I had a blood clot in my groin. I learned that blood clots are one of the most common causes of death among pregnant women in Sweden. A few days later, I was moved to the Karolinska Sjukhuset Hospital in Stockholm, which has a special maternity clinic for complicated pregnancies.
The doctors decided to put me on the blood-thinning medication heparin. They assured me that the danger from hemorrhaging due to taking heparin was small compared with the risk of suffering another clot in the lungs. After a couple of weeks, I was well enough to return home. I felt a warm, ardent happiness at being alive with the lively little child growing inside me.
Time for Delivery
It was decided to induce the delivery, but before steps could be taken to start the procedure, I felt severe pain in my lower abdomen. So I was rushed to the hospital. The doctors, however, could not find anything wrong.
The following evening my abdomen was very swollen, and the pain had not diminished. In the middle of the night, a doctor examined me and found that I was in labor. The next morning my abdomen was swollen even more, and the pain was insufferable. The doctor looked worried and asked when I had last noticed the child’s movements. I suddenly realized that it had not been for a long time.
I was immediately rushed to a delivery room. From a distance I could hear the staff talking. “She refuses to have a blood transfusion,” someone said. Then a nurse bent over me and said in a loud voice: “You know your child is dead, don’t you?” I felt as if someone had stabbed a dagger into my heart.—Proverbs 12:18.
Firm Refusal to Accept Blood
Suddenly my doctor appeared and told me that my condition was extremely serious. He asked if I still wanted to stick to my decision not to accept a blood transfusion. I emphatically stated that I did, but I don’t remember much after that. However, I had made very clear to my doctor that Christians are commanded to abstain from blood and that I wanted to be obedient to God’s law.—Acts 15:28, 29; 21:25.
In the meantime they called for another doctor, Barbro Larson, a skilled surgeon. She quickly arrived and operated immediately. When they opened my abdomen, they found I had lost three liters [6 pt] of blood through internal bleeding. But Dr. Larson respected my decision concerning blood transfusion.
Afterward, another doctor said that it was only a matter of minutes before I would die. “I don’t know if she is alive right now,” he reportedly claimed. Later it was learned that the doctors could not find the source of the bleeding, so they put a compress in my abdomen. The doctors and nurses offered no hope whatsoever for my survival.
When my children arrived at the hospital and learned of my condition, one of them said that Armageddon will soon be here and that afterward they would have me back in the resurrection. What a wonderful and just arrangement the resurrection is!—John 5:28, 29; 11:17-44; Acts 24:15; Revelation 21:3, 4.
Life in the Balance
My hemoglobin had fallen to 4 grams per deciliter, but the bleeding seemed to have ceased. Earlier I had put a copy of the Awake! magazine of November 22, 1991, in my case record. Dr. Larson found it and noticed the heading, “Preventing and Controlling Hemorrhage Without Blood Transfusion.” She eagerly scrutinized it to see if there was something she could use to help me survive. Her eyes fell on the word “erythropoietin,” which is a medication that stimulates the body to produce red blood cells. She now administered it. But the medication takes time to produce results. So the question was, Would the erythropoietin work in time?
The following day my hemoglobin level had decreased to 2.9. When I woke up and found all my family at my bedside, I wondered what had happened. I could not speak because of the respirator. I felt almost hysterical with grief, but I could not even cry. Everybody told me I had to save my strength in order to survive.
The next day I had a fever due to the inflammation caused by the compress left in my abdomen. My hemoglobin had dropped to 2.7. Although it is very dangerous to anesthetize a person in that condition, Dr. Larson explained that despite the risk, they were forced to operate again to remove the compress.
Before the surgery the children were allowed to come in and see me. Everyone thought it was a farewell. Several members of the medical staff were crying. They didn’t believe I was going to make it. Our children were very brave, and this made me calm and confident.
Because the anesthetic given was minimal, sometimes I could hear what the staff were saying to one another. Some were talking about me as if I were already dead. Later, when I recounted what I had heard during the operation, a nurse said she was sorry. But she said that she was convinced I was going to die and still didn’t understand how I survived.
The following day I felt a little better. My hemoglobin was 2.9, and my hematocrit was 9. My Christian brothers and sisters visited, bringing food and coffee for my family. We were grateful for their love and affection. By evening my condition was still critical but stable, and I was moved to another ward.
The Doctors Learn
Many members of the medical staff were curious about me, and most of them were very kind. One nurse said: “Your God must have saved you.” A doctor from another ward came by and commented: “I just want to see what a person with such a low hemoglobin level looks like. I cannot understand how you can be so alert.”
The next day, although it was her day off, my doctor came to see me. She told me that she felt a humbleness because of what had happened. If I fully recovered, she said, they were going to initiate new research into alternatives to blood transfusion therapy in treating patients.
My recovery was dramatic. Two and a half weeks after my tragic delivery, my hemoglobin level had increased to a little more than 8. So I was discharged from the hospital. Three days later we had our annual circuit assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses, and I was there. How encouraging it was to see again our Christian brothers and sisters who had been so supportive during our ordeal!—Proverbs 17:17.
As Dr. Larson promised, a report about my case, called “Erythropoietin Replaces Blood Transfusion,” was later published in the Swedish medical journal Läkartidningen. It said: “A 35-year-old woman, one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, suffered an acute massive obstetric bleeding. She refused blood transfusion but accepted erythropoietin therapy. After nine days of postoperative treatment with high doses of erythropoietin, the hemoglobin increased from 2.9 to 8.2 grams per deciliter without any side effects.”
The article concluded: “Initially the patient was very weak, but she recovered surprisingly fast. Moreover, the postoperative course was totally without complications. The patient could be discharged from the hospital after two weeks.”
Even though this experience was a hard blow for us, we are pleased that as a result, some doctors may have learned more about alternatives to blood transfusion. Hopefully, they will be prepared to try the methods of treatment that have proved successful.—As told by Ann Yipsiotis.
[Picture on page 26]
With my helpful surgeon