11 November 2014
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Written by
Daily Graphic
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A husband has told of his grief for his Jehovah’s Witness wife who reportedly died after refusing a blood transfusion.
Adeline Keh, 40, suffered a fatal infection after giving birth by
Caesarean section to her son at Homerton Hospital in east London, her
distraught husband Kwaku said.She was transferred to the Papworth heart and lung hospital in Cambridge, where she is said to have refused a blood transfusion and died a month after the birth.
Distraught:
Kwaku Keh (left) has told of his grief for his wife Adeline (right).
The new mother, a Jehovah’s Witness, reportedly died after refusing a
blood transfusion when she developed an infection
Homerton
chiefs have launched an independent review of the tragic case, which
was one of four new mothers’ deaths at the hospital in nine months.
The
inquest into Mrs Keh’s death found her decision to refuse blood ‘may
have compromised the final medical intervention’, according to a report
in the Evening Standard.
It was also listed as a
cause of death alongside acute respiratory distress syndrome, sepsis
and an infection of the Caesarean wound.
Mr Keh,
a lawyer from Walthamstow, east London, told the Standard he was
devastated that ‘we never got to come home as a family’.
He
added: ‘My wife and I were best friends… I was overjoyed and could not
wait for them to come home. ‘Each time I went to pick her up [from the
Homerton] I was told that she could not come home. Eventually my wife
lost her fight and passed away.’
Jehovah’s
Witnesses refuse to accept blood transfusions because they say blood
represents life, and only God is the giver of life. That belief has led
to scores of controversies, many of which have ended up before judges.
Last
year an Australian cancer patient who was just four months from turning
18 lost a court bid to refuse blood because he was still underage. And
in March an English High Court judge gave permission for a baby heart
disease sufferer to undergo blood transfusions despite the objections of
his parents.
A specialist told Mr Justice
Keehan the cardiac patient, just a few weeks old, had no ‘long-term
prospect of survival’ without the procedure. Yet the religious movement
insists it is ‘totally unfounded’ to say many Witnesses, including
children, die each year after refusing blood.
A
statement added: ‘Surgeons regularly perform such complex procedures as
heart operations, orthopaedic surgery, and organ transplants without the
use of blood transfusions. ‘Patients, including children, who do not
receive transfusions usually fare as well as or better than those who do
accept transfusions. ‘No one can say for certain that a patient will
die because of refusing blood or will live because of accepting it.’
Mrs
Keh’s case has prompted a review at Homerton Hospital because it was
one of four deaths of new mothers in a nine-month period. ‘Mrs Keh’s was
a very sad case and our thoughts are with her family,’ a spokesman told
MailOnline. ‘Each case was different and there were no obvious
similarities, and each was reported to the Coroner’s office for review
as is routine in these circumstances. ‘As well as being reviewed
internally, two of the cases have also been the subject of review by the
Care Quality Commission inspectors during their visit to the hospital
earlier this year and nothing remiss was found.
‘We
are now working with NHS England to seek a further independent review
of the cases to see if any further lessons can be learnt. ‘Over 6,000
babies are now born at Homerton Hospital. We are seeing more high risk
mothers due to a number of factors including: the increase in women
having babies who have other clinical complications or conditions; and
the fact that high risk women are referred to Homerton as it has a
tertiary level neonatal intensive care unit.
‘The
message to mothers is that we offer a top quality service with one of
the biggest throughputs of mothers and babies in the capital.’
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