Woman’s transfusion was like ‘rape’

MEDICAL professionals and Jehovah’s Witnesses have clashed over whether or not the intervention by the High Court to save the life of a seriously ill African woman undermines their long-standing consensus on declining blood transfusions.

The 23-year-old Congolese woman, who suffered a major haemorrhage after giving birth to a healthy baby boy, had refused the treatment on religious grounds because she is a Jehovah’s Witness.

Believed to be the first case of its kind involving an adult in Ireland, the court ruled the Coombe Hospital must put the interests of the child first and save the mother’s life.