Medicine: Bionic Blood

It may soon flow here

It is all too familiar to doctors. The patient desperately needs blood for an operation but is a member of Jehovah's Witnesses, a group with religious beliefs that forbid blood transfusions. Often physicians must stand idly by while such a patient dies. But now, in one case at the University of Minnesota Hospital in Minneapolis, doctors have resolved this dilemma. The solution: a transfusion using artificial blood, the first time it has been attempted in the U.S.

In October a 67-year-old Jehovah's Witness had undergone surgery without blood transfusion. Discharged from the hospital, he soon developed severe anemia...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!