Jehovah’s Witness Sues Over Transfusion

PHOENIX (CN) - A Jehovah's Witness woman says Maryvale Hospital Medical Center battered her by transfusing her with two units of red blood cells in defiance of her "strongly held beliefs against accepting any blood transfusions of whole blood, red cells, white cells, platelets or plasma."

Frances Rodriguez was admitted for a coronary angiography and says she instructed the Phoenix hospital in advance not to give her blood transfusions. Her Superior Court lawsuit claims that before the operation a hospital employee completed a pre-operative checklist and noted that Rodriguez was a Jehovah's Witness, and that her advance directive was included in her medical chart.

Despite this knowledge, Dr. Alan J. Dessen allegedly ordered that she receive the transfusion. Rodriguez filed the case pro se.

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