Atlanta hospital treats badly injured teen with 'bloodless' medicine

[Guest Nicole]

ATLANTA - Shawntrel Dyess remembers the phone call that changed everything.

"It was December 3rd, I will never forget that call, ever." Dyess says.  "I was here in Georgia."

Her 19-year old son Cameron, 2,400 miles away in Fremont, California, had been badly injured in a wreck. His cousin, the driver, was dead, Cameron barely hanging on in a trauma center.

 

 

 

"They couldn't tell us anything, except that he was in critical," Dyess says.

Dyess' had broken legs, a shattered pelvis, and internal injuries. To save him, surgeons uses blood transfusions.

"They said he was literally about to die, he was bleeding out at that time," Dyess says.
Dyess was grateful to the doctors, but deeply torn about the transfusions.

She is a Jehovah's Witness, and believes the Bible forbids Christians from receiving blood, even in an emergency.

About 2 percent of Georgia adults are Jehovah's Witness, and just under 1 percent of all Americans, according to the Pew Research Center. Members are known for going door-to-door, sharing their faith.  
They're also known for abstaining from blood.

"Because it's Bible-based, it's something we, as Jehovah's Witnesses, have to obey," Dyess says.
Cameron Dyess is not Jehovah's Witness.  

But, when doctors wanted to transfuse him again, down the road, when his hemoglobin levels dropped, his mother asked him to  make the call.

Read more: http://www.fox5atlanta.com/health/fox-medical-team/atlanta-hospital-treats-badly-injured-teen-with-bloodless-medicine