{"id":2576,"date":"2015-04-11T21:51:44","date_gmt":"2015-04-11T21:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/news\/2015\/04\/11\/family-defend-pregnant-jehovahs-witness-who-died-with-her-baby-after-refusing-blood-transfusion-read-more-httpwwwdailymailcouknewsarticle-3034491she-baby-time-no-matter-happened-family-defend-pregnant\/"},"modified":"2015-04-11T21:51:44","modified_gmt":"2015-04-11T21:51:44","slug":"family-defend-pregnant-jehovahs-witness-who-died-with-her-baby-after-refusing-blood-transfusion-read-more-httpwwwdailymailcouknewsarticle-3034491she-baby-time-no-matter-happened-family-defend-pregnant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/family-defend-pregnant-jehovahs-witness-who-died-with-her-baby-after-refusing-blood-transfusion-read-more-httpwwwdailymailcouknewsarticle-3034491she-baby-time-no-matter-happened-family-defend-pregnant\/","title":{"rendered":"Family defend pregnant Jehovah&#8217;s Witness who died with her baby after refusing blood transfusion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2015\/04\/06\/16\/2752BB2400000578-3027599-image-a-1_1428334568962.jpg\" border=\"0\" hspace=\"5\" vspace=\"5\" width=\"250\" height=\"375\" align=\"right\" \/><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">&#8216;She put the baby first each and every time&#8217;: Family defend pregnant Jehovah&#8217;s Witness who died with her baby after refusing blood transfusion, chemotherapy and C-section due to religious beliefs<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 1.3em\">Jenny-Lee and unborn baby Aroura died after refusing a blood transfusion<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 1.3em\">The 28-year-old suffered from leukaemia but refused treatment\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 1.3em\">Over 80 per cent of treated pregnant leukaemia sufferers go into remission<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 1.3em\">Her family have spoken out to defend the mother, saying she was told she had six weeks to live and chose to give up her life for her unborn daughter<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 12.1599998474121px; line-height: 1.3em\">Doctors and staff have described the distressing scene after the baby died and the woman suffered a fatal stroke and multi-organ failure<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">The family of a heavily pregnant Jehovah&#8217;s Witness who died along with her baby after she refused a blood transfusion, have defended the woman who they said had put her baby&#8217;s life above her own.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">Jenny-Lee, 28, was diagnosed with leukaemia seven months into her pregnancy, and although doctors at Sydney&#8217;s Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick told her she could give birth via a caesarean section and undergo chemotherapy, she refused both options as they required her to receive a blood transfusion.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">However her mother Heather has told The Daily Telegraph that her daughter believed the cancer treatment would harm her unborn child, named Aroura.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">&#8216;She knew chemo would kill Aroura \u2014 she put the baby first each and every time and no matter what happened, she wanted that baby alive,&#8217; Heather said.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">&#8216;We were told she would have six weeks to live \u2014 she fought to have the baby. That&#8217;s the decision she made \u2014 she gave up her life.&#8217;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">Instead she blamed local doctors for her daughter&#8217;s unnecessary death, claiming they should have tested her for the cancer sooner, but instead only attributed her symptoms to the flu and her pregnancy.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">The Sydney mother&#8217;s baby died in utero three days after she was offered a caesarean. She had a stillbirth and died 13 days after her diagnosis by suffering a stroke and multi-organ failure.\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">Jenny-Lee&#8217;s elder daughter Chelsie, who was only 10 when her mother died in August 2009, also defended her mother.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">However the 28-year-old&#8217;s brother David blamed the religion for how his sister died, calling her a &#8216;fool&#8217;.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">&#8216;It was not my sister who was sad and selfish, it is this religion and any other teaching this sort of nonsense,&#8217; he said.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">Her treating haematologist at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick, Dr Giselle Kidson-Gerber, said the mother understood the risks of her refusal to accept blood.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">&#8216;Her refusal to receive a blood transfusion meant that we were unable to perform a caesarean section and to deliver the foetus,&#8217; Dr Kidson-Gerber told Daily Mail Australia.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">&#8216;Obviously it&#8217;s a very big ethical issue. Legally in Australia the mother has the right to make decisions on her behalf and her foetus&#8217;s behalf.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">&#8216;Most mothers would make decisions in favour of the unborn baby and this was a decision that was not in favour of the unborn baby.&#8217;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">Dr Kidson-Gerber added: &#8216;If we were to give chemotherapy without blood transfusion support she surely would have died.&#8217;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">Hospital staff were &#8216;distressed&#8217; over what were perceived to be two avoidable deaths, as 83 percent of pregnant leukaemia sufferers go into remission with treatment.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">Dr Kidson-Gerber said it was a challenge to respect a patient who refuses life-saving treatment.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">&#8216;It was sad. I think that I did my best to help her. But ultimately I couldn&#8217;t change the course of events,&#8217; she said.\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">In a recent article published in the Internal Medicine Journal about the 2009 case, Dr Kidson-Gerber and her colleague Dr Amber Biscoe wrote: &#8216;Not administering blood products in this case undoubtedly contributed to the death of mother and foetus.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">&#8216;Refusal of a lifesaving intervention by an informed patient is generally well respected, but the rights of a mother to refuse such interventions on behalf of her foetus is more controversial.&#8217;<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">Sascha Callaghan, an expert in ethics and law at the University of Sydney said the current law allows the mother to make decisions that would directly affect her unborn baby, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">She said Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses are often condemned for their beliefs, especially in relation to their stance against blood transfusions.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">&#8216;This woman has a long-held commitment to the Jehovah&#8217;s Witness faith and that&#8217;s how she chose to die,&#8217; she told the Herald.<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">&#8216;When your foetus is in utero, it is inextricably tied to your life.&#8217;\u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses refuse blood transfusions because they believe the Bible commands them to abstain from ingesting blood and that avoiding blood pays respect to God as the giver of life. \u00a0<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: justify\">http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;She put the baby first each and every time&#8217;: Family defend pregnant Jehovah&#8217;s Witness who died with her baby after refusing blood transfusion, chemotherapy and C-section due to religious beliefs Jenny-Lee and unborn baby Aroura&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}