Perioperative care of a Jehovah's Witness with a leaking abdominal aortic aneurysm

We describe a Jehovah's Witness patient who survived emergency repair of a leaking abdominal aortic aneurysm. In accordance with his beliefs, the patient expressed a wish not to be given blood and this was respected. At completion of surgery, his haemoglobin was 2.8 g dl-1 and his albumin was 8 g l-1. He was kept heavily sedated in the intensive care unit and treated with i.v. iron, folinic acid and s.c. epoetin alfa. He was discharged to the high dependency unit 18 days after surgery with a haemoglobin of 6.4 g dl-1 and an albumin of 27 g l-1. After rehabilitation, he was discharged home approximately 14 weeks after surgery.