Jehovah's Witness Dies Refusing Transfusion, Children Accuse: 'Wrong Treatment, We Will Sue Doctors'

The three children of the 70-year-old woman Jehovah's Witness, who died at Piedimonte Matese Hospital in the province of Caserta after refusing a blood transfusion, dispute the version given by the head of the General Surgery Department, Dr. Gianfausto Iarrobino, regarding the cause of their mother's death, which they claim was not a result of refusing the transfusion. "As Jehovah's Witnesses," they state, "we love life very much. When our mother became ill, we immediately took her to the hospital for the best possible care. We also respected her decision not to receive blood transfusions, knowing that alternative medical strategies exist that work very well, even in delicate cases." "Unfortunately," the 70-year-old's children continue, "when our mother asked the doctors to treat her with every possible therapy except blood, the doctors did not promptly administer drugs to raise her hemoglobin levels. They did so only two days later at our insistence." According to the woman's children, doctors at Piedimonte Matese Hospital "didn't even perform diagnostic tests to pinpoint the exact location of the bleeding so they could stop it as quickly as possible. They simply insisted on performing a blood transfusion. But what good would that have done if the underlying problem was blood loss?" The children of the deceased 70-year-old have announced possible legal action against the doctors at the Caserta hospital.
"I am angry and frustrated by what happened, and this is because the lady could have been saved. I completely disagree with the Jehovah's Witnesses' position." This is the statement of Gianfausto Iarrobino, Head of General Surgery at Piedimonte Matese Hospital, as he returns to the case of the 70-year-old Jehovah's Witness who died in his ward from internal bleeding after refusing a transfusion for religious reasons. Iarrobino himself denounced the incident on Facebook, "because the Hippocratic Oath requires me to save people's lives, and in this case," he taunted, "it's as if I've committed 'assisted suicide.' I stayed close to the lady until the end, unable to do anything, because the patient's wishes, which were otherwise very clear, were always explicit: she repeatedly refused to undergo the transfusion, and I was unable to do anything." Iarrobino distinguishes between cases in which the patient is suffering from a terminal illness. "These situations," he says, "are different and must be approached with a different sensitivity on the part of the doctor, who cannot ignore the pain experienced; but the woman's case was simple," he continues, "she could have been saved with a normal transfusion. In these cases, the doctor must be able to act. This opinion also applies to DJ Fabo's case," Iarrobino concludes. The president of the Caserta Medical Association, Erminia Bottiglieri, agrees. "What happened to our colleague Gianfausto Iarrobino is absurd. I share his opinion and say that just as patients can refuse treatment by citing religious reasons that appeal to their personal conscience, we doctors must also have the right to object. I hope the legislator takes these things into account."