The dedicated drunk

It was a very cold and silent evening, the only sounds were those of patients moaning in pain and some doctors talking. There wasn't really anything to do at the SME (surgical & medical emergency) and as I was talking with some colleagues about how that weekend wasn't eventful, an elderly man was suddenly rushed in...."Move! Move!! he's in shock" was all we heard.

My colleagues and I on duty rushed to meet them, he was cold, unconscious and there was blood all over his mouth and shirt, so we set up IV lines and started pushing in IV fluids (drip) in order to resuscitate him. We took blood samples for grouping and cross matching, and was putting him on the third bag of IV fluid when the blood requested from the blood bank arrived. Before starting the transfusion, he responded and we were all happy that he was stable, just for him to respond with a faint voice that "doctor! doctor!! I don't take blood, I'm a Jehovah witness and it's against my belief".

We all opened our mouths out of amusement and disbelief, "Ewurade!! this man paa (in Ghanaian intonation), he no make serious oo" as my colleague said. We couldn't believe that this man will turn down blood transfusion which will save his life. He came in with an upper GI bleeding (bleeding from the upper part of the gastrointestinal tract i.e. from the throat to the first part of the intestine). His condition could either be portal hypertension secondary to alcoholic liver cirrhosis, acute haemorrhagic pancreatitis, gastritis or Mallory Weiss syndrome. All differentials were supported by a strong history of binging and alcoholism.

My colleague asked him, "sir, is alcoholism part of your belief?", he was silent and thanked us for helping out but declined the blood transfusion or any other plasma expander, which will help increase his chances of survival. He was discharged after two days though with a low haemoglobin level which is dangerous and can transfer him to the other side....if you know what I mean.

I cannot but continue to wonder how someone can endanger his life by doing things outside his belief, yet, he can't agree to something outside "his belief" but will save his life from his own suicidal habit. "Na wa ooh" as we say in Nigeria, homo sapiens can pass for hypocrites.....lol. "Na we do religion pass".