Register of willing consultants is needed

BMJ 1994;309:125 (9 July)

Letters

Register of willing consultants is needed

EDITOR,--We agree with Simon Finfer that every hospital shouldmaintain a list of consultants who are prepared to treat Jehovah'sWitnesses.¹ These data could easily be collated with regionaland national registers. The royal colleges might wish to havea role. Our recent experience of managing a Jehovah's Witnesswho required elective radical surgery is relevant.

In September 1993 a 45 year old Jehovah's Witness was diagnosedas having invasive vulval carcinoma. The gynaecologist underwhose care the vulval biopsy was carried out declined to carryout radical vulvectomy (the preferred mode of management) becausethe patient refused blood transfusion. Instead he offered alternativemanagement of radiotherapy and chemotherapy followed by simplevulvectomy. The patient received two pulses of chemotherapybut declined to continue with the rest of the chemotherapy andradiotherapy. At this stage, three months after diagnosis, hergeneral practitioner referred her to our hospital for considerationfor . . . [Full text of this article]