Community | February 02, 2012 | 34 comments

Jehovah's Witnesses with Leukemia Turn to Atheist Doctor

source: http://www.latimes.com/health/la-me-jehovahs-20120202,0,509268,full.story

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EthicalVegan
Los Angeles Times...

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COLUMN ONE

A meeting of hearts if not minds

Some Jehovah's Witnesses with leukemia turn to an atheist Cedars-Sinai doctor who respects their refusal to accept blood transfusions.

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PHOTO:
Dr. Michael Lill examines Jehovah's Witness leukemia patient Christina Blouvan-Cervantes, 27, while her husband, Andres Cervantes, 21, observes during a weekly checkup at Cedars-Sinai's outpatient cancer center.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times / January 10, 2012)

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By Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times

February 2, 2012

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PART ONE...

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Christina Blouvan-Cervantes had been battling aggressive leukemia when her blood count plummeted and she landed in the emergency room in Fresno. Her doctors told her a blood transfusion was her only hope. But her faith wouldn't allow her to receive one.

So she turned to one of the only doctors who could possibly keep her alive: a committed atheist who views her belief system as wholly irrational.

Dr. Michael Lill, head of the blood and marrow transplant program at Cedars-Sinai's Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, is a last recourse for Jehovah's Witnesses with advanced leukemia.

They arrive at Lill's door out of desperation and a desire to live. Many specialists decline to treat them because of their biblically centered refusal to accept blood transfusions, a mainstay of conventional care for the cancer.

Lill thinks their refusal is risky and illogical but nevertheless has devised a way to treat them that accommodates their religious convictions.

Despite his belief that God doesn't exist, he has become a hero to many devout believers.

"We don't care if he believes in God or not," said David Goldfarb, chairman of the Los Angeles-area Hospital Liaison Committee for the Jehovah's Witnesses. "What we really believe in is, 'Are you a skilled and great doctor … and can you respect our belief system?'"

Lill, a 52-year-old Australian native, said ideological differences between doctor and patient are beside the point.

"Just because someone makes a decision which I would view as the wrong decision … doesn't mean at that point in time I say, 'No, I am not going to look after you anymore,' " he said. "I try and treat people's religious beliefs with respect."

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CONTINUED...

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34 comments // Jehovah's Witnesses with Leukemia Turn to Atheist Doctor

  • MotherForTruth
  • coolplanet
  • Varex_Sythe
    • 0
      Varex_Sythe  

    • Well, it is good to see that the doctor is respecting their religious convictions while treating them. To an extent, all doctors, no matter their religious, or non religious, background should treat their patients with their patients desires in mind.

      But everyone who insists that their doctor follow their desires, be it religious or otherwise, should keep in mind, if your doctor treats you as best as he or she can with such limitations upon them, you have no moral right to seek a lawsuit if you should pass because the treatment used on you, dictated by your own desires and/or beliefs, did not save you.

    • 4 months ago
  • EmperorThan
  • cherry5000
  • EthicalVegan
    • +2
      EthicalVegan  
    • cherry5000:

      Of COURSE! And I don't think, for one single second, that goodness has a single thing to do with religion... or a lack of. Goodness is what we make of ourselves, through conscience and compassion and respect.

    • 4 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • cherry5000:

      Merely being "good" is not the sole qualification for having God's Favor. 7/8 of the population of India can be called good. There's Active Good and there's Passive Good. Many have the latter.

      The question to be asked is which one religion received instructions to not use other human's blood? JW's are a Standalone religion. All the others are a FAIL who were not enlightened by God to know what to do.

      Jehovah God has left the other religions in their dark & puke. The entire 18th chapter of Revelations says that, not me. Read the book of Revelation, and every place you COME ACROSS THE WORD: WHORE that stands for False Religions. They are called a whore for several reasons mostly because they claim to be the chaste, promised-to-be Bride of Christ but they "committed fornication with the governments of Earth".

      False Religions wanted two lovers in her bed & is soon to be DESTROYED.

    • 4 months ago
  • circlesquared
  • Anonmaly
    • -3
      Anonmaly  

    • Wow I didn't know atheists could do decent things for non atheists, thought it was against their religion or something....

      He's a better man than I though, can't stand Jehovah's Witnesses or their cult, reminds me of that other cult, Mormonism.... Then their is Catholicism, wait, no, now all the denominations are striking me as weird cults...

    • 4 months ago
  • cantucwearebrothers
  • EthicalVegan
    • +1
      EthicalVegan  
    • Anonmaly:

      How cold and judgmental can you be? I am a long-time atheist, and I have tried most of my life to do more than only "DECENT things" for any living being.

      And, once again, atheism is not a religion... but you just like to say hurtful things, lately, and it's an embarrassment for you, I reluctantly must add.

    • 4 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • Anonmaly:

      Catholics, Protestants & Jews seek to order you about by working through the voting boxes. So do your fellow atheists. JW's DO NOT VOTE as the other religions do. You can pass abortion laws for or against without interference from the JW.

      A number of hospitals have embraced Bloodless Surgery. Patients heal faster, their bodily systems not wiped out of energy fighting with other people's blood inside their tissues & organs & brain.

      Or someone else's AIDS or hepatitis-C that passed through undetected.

      Jesus spoke about the greatest law we are to obey. He said serve God with your whole soul. Blood is part of a person's body (soul), so if we gave blood to someone else we would no longer be able to serve with our whole soul. And taking someone else's blood would be putting them in a poor position also, so we can neither Give nor Take blood transfusions.

      But if you find yourself in the wrong hospital where Catholics & Protestants run the show, and you're not wanting a transfusion for a child, they'll go running to the Law to force it on ya, as they have done for many decades.

      Using blood transfusions is a crutch for sloppy doctors who like ordering patients to take one. The atheist doctor featured in this thread enjoys showing how much better he is than other doctors who still lean on blood transfusion crutches.

      Working without blood gives him AWESOME BRAGGING RIGHTS.
      Working without blood gives him AWESOME BRAGGING RIGHTS.
      Working without blood gives him AWESOME BRAGGING RIGHTS.
      Working without blood gives him AWESOME BRAGGING RIGHTS.

    • 4 months ago
  • EthicalVegan
  • Gravity_Man
    • -1
      Gravity_Man  
    • EthicalVegan:

      Today, yes, but following World War II was a different story and for many decades afterward. SCIENCE has proven Jehovah's Witnesses' "interpretation" to be scientifically correct for humans.

      God looks after us, and everybody else too if they but listen.

    • 4 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • -1
      Gravity_Man  
    • Gravity_Man:

      Paul was a servant of the Most High God. At Romans 3 verse 4 he penned => "In no way: but let God be true, though every man be found a liar; as it is said in the Writings That your words may be seen to be true, and you may be seen to be right when you are judged."

      God used fisherman and farmers to write his books for a reason => so that later on when "their words" proved to be true (for Man's good) it would reflect upon the real Author of the Bible. I know that is a difficult concept to understand how God can influence men to write down what He wants written but I know for a fact it is true.

      I have experienced such many times myself and I have to say IT IS AWESOME. But people who have not experienced it of course they have to slime it using their derogatory little words and expressions, such as oh, it's just "your interpretation", whatever. Those who choose to stay outside in the rain get rained on.

      Unable to admit the rain comes from a loving heavenly Father.

      Jehovah's Witnesses are judged by others just as Paul said, and in this matter of Blood Transfusions your own scientists now know THE BIBLE WAS CORRECT ALL ALONG, SINCE OVER 2,000 YEARS AGO.

      You still have time remaining to join us in our ark and be protected through Armageddon, about to happen. Do not tarry.

    • 4 months ago
  • cantucwearebrothers
    • +1
      cantucwearebrothers  
    • Gravity_Man:

      Oh Gravity_Man...

      Do some research before you go putting interpretation in quotes. If you do some digging you'll be amazed at how the organization has acted with regards to blood.

      Be advised, however, that you'll have to bypass the CD version of archived publications and go straight to the hard bound as they've been altered.

    • 4 months ago
  • vaxart
  • circlesquared
  • Gravity_Man
    • -1
      Gravity_Man  
    • circlesquared:

      Yep. Cars don't remember their maker; humans do. Plants, flowers, animals => not a single life form on this planet knows it has a Maker but one. Men & Women.

      Jesus, the Maker's son & right hand man, is on the way.

    • 4 months ago
  • Leen61
    • +3
      Leen61  

    • What a refreshing story, EV. There is some sanity left in the world. It shows religion does NOT have to stand in the way of getting help. The will to live and common sense prevail here....for the doctor and patient. Thanks for posting this and showing what is possible. :)

    • 4 months ago
  • EthicalVegan
  • Leen61
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  

    • JW's don't believe in miracles? HAHAHAHAHA

      #1 => We don't believe in Faith Healers.
      #2 => We do believe in God's ability to do miracles.

      Pulleez. We see miracles all the time; not from under a Faith Healer's tent out in the woods. Young people in our faith are sometimes confused, likely from too much Monsanto garbage being sold as their food. The same thing is seen in the general population. America's young people are under nutritional deprivation and being poisoned with poisons added into THEIR DRINKING WATER.

      It's a miracle every day we aren't all dead & buried already!

    • 4 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • Image
    • Gravity_Man:

      The days for needing any cancer doctors is about to end anyway => http://www.newpath4.com/3_WAYS_KILL_CANCERS_STRANGLE_THIRST_BURN_FEVER_HOT_BATHS... I've already cleaned myself of cancers a number of times since 2004 without any atheist doctors in sight NOR ANY OTHER "CANCER" DOCTORS.

      There's a 4th way to stop cancers on my newpath4.com website, using "nutrition flooding" to stuff hungry cancer cells with too much nutrition. Using Ibuprofens to relax cancer cell's outer membranes allows excess nutrients into the cancer cells and they sop it up until they poison themselves ta death with an internal acid burn.

      Cancer doctoring is a dying profession.

    • 4 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • Gravity_Man:

      The human body knows how to heal itself. The body also knows how to PRODUCE EXTRA STEM CELLS, no need to obtain them from relatives or others.

      For instance, it is a Well-known Fact that abdominal fat contains Stem Cells that heal people following their heart attack. A company made a system years ago for harvesting stem cells from tummy fat. They invented a way to do it in an hour or so instead of the previous week. Emergency vehicles in America are supposed to have their stem cell harvesting system already, so that when they are called to a heart attack victim they can extract the stem cells and inject them into the heart in under 2 hours, which prevents further heart damage to occur.

      I had a heart attack start once and stopped it in its tracks by a special "balloon-blow" breathing technique pressing exhaled air into the tongue & inner cheeks, which pushed extra oxygen into the heart muscle ULTRA FAST. Most people don't know this can be done. Exhaled air contains alot of O2, so pressing it into the mouth TURNS THE MOUTH INTO AN AUXILIARY LUNG that gets oxygen pumped into the heart muscle fast via the bloodstream.

      Why you people think so many hospitals in America have been closing their doors hmm? You're looking at the person who caused it. I've been blessed to pull their big Money Rugs out from under the American medical Community's scam feet.

      And it's a good thing too because the hospital's have become stuffed with MRSA GERMS, and they kill people dead real fast. Except MRSA was unable to kill me. I had MRSA hit me twice 9 years ago. I killed MRSA with the breathing technique above, extra oxygen.

      Oxygen is a sterilizer btw. Remember hydrogen peroxide? Peroxide when it fizzes breaks down into oxygen, that's how peroxide kills germs. You can super-oxygenate your own blood with the breathing technique I called the "balloon blow". Works better than doctors, faster.

    • 4 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
  • Incredulous
  • EthicalVegan
  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  
    • Image

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      Blood draw

      ( Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times )

      Wanda Smith, a leukemia patient from Texas, has her blood drawn by medical lab assistant Paul Enriquez during a checkup at Cedars-Sinai's outpatient cancer center. Smith, a Jehovah's Witness, is a patient of Lill.

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    • 4 months ago
  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  
    • Image

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      Laughter

      ( Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times )

      Lill enjoys a light moment with Andres and Christina during the weekly checkup to see how she is doing.

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    • 4 months ago
  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  
    • Image

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      Emotion

      ( Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times )

      As they wait for her weekly appointment with Lill at Cedars-Sinai, Andres Cervantes and his wife, leukemia patient Christina Blouvan-Cervantes, become emotional reflecting on her near-death while fighting the disease.

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    • 4 months ago
  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  
    • Image

    • .

      CONTINUED...

      PART FOUR...

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      PHOTO:
      Scriptures
      ( Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times )
      Eric reads from a book of Scripture while Kyle lies in his hospital bed. Eric said that as Jehovah's Witnesses they don't believe in miracles, so they pray for God to guide Lill.

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      Blouvan-Cervantes, 27, was diagnosed with severe leukemia in 2009 after back pain landed her in the hospital near her home in Fresno.

      "I was so terrified of dying," she said. "As long as it is not going to go against what I believe, I'll do anything."

      She heard about Lill through her church, and soon she was undergoing chemotherapy at Cedars-Sinai. After returning home, she ended up in the emergency room with a high fever. As she moaned and struggled to breathe, doctors and nurses pleaded with her to accept a blood transfusion. Barely able to speak, she scribbled a note: "Please don't give me blood."

      She survived the night and returned to Cedars-Sinai. She said she feels safe there. No one questions her faith or her decision to decline transfusions.

      In October, Blouvan-Cervantes received a stem cell transplant. Beforehand, she noted that the bag of stem cells looked like blood. Lill assured her it contained nothing deemed improper by her religion.

      Blouvan-Cervantes won't be considered cured until her cancer has been in remission for five years. A number of Lill's patients have reached that milestone.

      At a recent appointment, she and Lill discussed whether she might be able to go home in a few more weeks. But she was still nauseated and tired and had body aches. A blood test showed her white blood cell count was low, making it harder to fight infection.

      Blouvan-Cervantes dabbed her eyes with a tissue. She said she just wanted to feel normal again.

      Patricia Van Strien, a transplant coordinator who has worked with Lill for 14 years, tried to console her, praising her bravery in sticking to her religious convictions.

      "You had a diagnosis and Dr. Lill had an approach that we could try and fix this," she said. "Many doctors say there is nothing we can do."

      Blouvan-Cervantes is grateful Lill is not one of them. "He is my lifesaver," she said.

      ..
      ..

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    • 4 months ago
  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  
    • Image

    • .

      CONTINUED...

      PART THREE...

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      PHOTO:
      CT scan
      ( Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times )
      Lill waves as Kyle heads to a CT scan. In the background, an emotional Eric Hester, 34, Kyle's brother, wipes a tear from his eye. Eric has been sharing the hospital room with his brother.

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      Wanda Smith, a Jehovah's Witness from Texas, sat on an examination table in Cedars-Sinai's outpatient cancer center. Her husband, Will, clasped a blue bag filled with medications.

      Lill greeted the couple and launched into routine questions about her recovery from her stem cell transplant: Any coughing or shortness of breath? Nausea or vomiting? How is your appetite?

      Smith, 65, announced in a Southern accent that she had gained six pounds in a week. Lill teased her about a Jehovah's Witness tenet: "And you aren't supposed to be celebrating Christmas or anything else."

      "No, I didn't," she laughed. "I just got my appetite back."

      Smith's journey to Cedars-Sinai started a year ago with an excruciating pain in her knee. When she was diagnosed with acute leukemia, she thought: "Is this a death sentence?"

      When she told a Dallas doctor she wouldn't accept blood transfusions, he advised her to get her affairs in order. She tried a different doctor, then heard about Lill. When she arrived at Cedars in July, Lill was compassionate but direct: He promised to follow her wishes but not that she would live.

      Smith's belief in resurrection bolstered her for the fight ahead. "We are like everybody else. We want the best medical service we can get," she said. "But of course, we have our limits."

      After chemotherapy at Cedars-Sinai, Smith received a transplant of stem cells from her brother.

      This was a weekly follow-up visit. Her blood counts and her liver and kidney function looked good. "I think you are doing great," Lill said. "In another three weeks or so, I will let you go back home to Texas."

      She smiled and clasped Lill's hand. "You know you can do no wrong, right?"

      ::

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      CONTINUED...

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    • 4 months ago
  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  
    • Image

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      CONTINUED...

      PART TWO...

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      PHOTO:
      Dr. Michael Lill
      ( Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times )
      Dr. Michael Lill helps patient Kyle Hester, 21, a Jehovah's Witness from Fresno, sit up before examining him in his hospital bed. Hester is awaiting a stem cell transplant.

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      Leukemia, a disease of the blood and bone marrow, produces cancerous blood cells. Treatment involves chemotherapy to destroy the cancerous cells, sometimes followed by transplants of stem cells that develop into healthy blood cells.

      Blood transfusions are usually required, because both the cancer and the treatment suppresses the body's production of blood cells. Without transfusions, the risk of death from anemia or bleeding is significantly higher.

      Jehovah's Witnesses draw their beliefs about blood from a literal interpretation of the Bible, which repeatedly warns against its consumption. Among the passages often cited by adherents: "You must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water."

      It is a violation of God's command for a Jehovah's Witness to accept whole blood, red or white blood cells, platelets or plasma, Goldfarb said. It is left to patients to decide individually whether they are comfortable accepting stem cells.

      Lill, who received his medical training in Australia, came to the United States in 1989 to work in the bone marrow transplant program at UCLA Medical Center. He accepted a position at Cedars-Sinai in 1997. He and his wife, a stem cell researcher, have two children.

      He stumbled into the niche of treating Jehovah's Witnesses with leukemia after getting his first referral about 15 years ago. He saw both a professional challenge and an unmet need. Since then, about 50 Witnesses from around the world have come to his team for help, including 35 who have received stem cell transplants.

      "People have the right to make their own decisions," he said. Before treating the patients, Lill has a candid discussion about religion and medicine, freely using words like "death" and "dying."

      About four years ago, Lill himself was treated for cancer of the appendix. The experience, he said, helped him better understand his patients' fears.

      To avoid transfusions, Lill first builds up patients' blood counts with medications. Then he limits blood loss during a regimen of chemotherapy and stem cell transplants.

      When he draws blood from patients to check their cell counts and organ function during treatment, he uses tiny pediatric tubes. He gives women a drug to suppress their periods and prescribes a hormone to boost red blood cells.

      He has trained his staff in how to treat Jehovah's Witnesses, and "No Blood" signs are posted in their hospital rooms.

      Other hematologists and oncologists consider Lill's bloodless treatment experimental and risky.

      "There is a certain nobility in trying to help these patients," said Dr. Stephen Forman, chairman of hematology and cell transplantation at City of Hope cancer center in Duarte. "But it is of questionable good safety.... You might get yourself in a situation where your patient could die."

      One of Lill's Jehovah's Witness leukemia patients died recently after suffering a brain hemorrhage. Lill said the death might have been prevented if the patient had received a transfusion.

      During Lill's rounds one recent morning at Cedars-Sinai, he washed his hands and went into the room of Kyle Hester, a 21-year-old Jehovah's Witness from Fresno who was waiting for a stem cell transplant. Hester lay in his bed, hooked to an IV and an oxygen tube. His face was pale and his arms swollen. A book of Scripture lay open beside him.

      Lill had bad news. Hester's stem cell transplant would have to be postponed. His hemoglobin levels were too low, and he had pneumonia and a possible infection.

      "I don't know if we are going to have enough time to get everything about you perfect again before we move on to the next step," Lill told him.

      Hester bit his lip and nodded. His brother, Eric Hester, said they don't believe in miracles. But they do believe in prayer. They pray for God to guide Lill.

      ::

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      CONTINUED...

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    • 4 months ago
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