Dailey's Notes on Blood

Rating:
Summary: Excellent introduction to blood
Review: I read the 3rd edition of Dailey's Notes on Blood. The book purports to "offer the layperson and professional a simple way to learn or review the basics of blood physiology, immunology, and related topics." It has done so exceedingly well and the reader is likely to feel that he has gained useful knowledge almost effortlessly. If you are interested to know more about the basics of blood and its components, whether for personal or professional reasons, you are unlikely to find a book that will surpass Dailey's.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent introduction to blood
Review: I read the 3rd edition of Dailey's Notes on Blood. The book purports to "offer the layperson and professional a simple way to learn or review the basics of blood physiology, immunology, and related topics." It has done so exceedingly well and the reader is likely to feel that he has gained useful knowledge almost effortlessly. If you are interested to know more about the basics of blood and its components, whether for personal or professional reasons, you are unlikely to find a book that will surpass Dailey's.

Rating:
Summary: CONCISE, COMPREHENSIVE, COMPREHENDIBLE
Review: If you are a layperson with no medical background this book will make the complexities of blood easy for you to understand. A nice feature is the marginal references which makes it easy to find terms used in the chapter under consideration. Students will appreciate the quizzes (with answers) at the end of each chapter that are a help to remembering what was learned. You may not be a hematologist after reading this book, but you will be able to communicate with them. This book is concise, easy to follow, and thorough.

Rating:
Summary: Useful but Some Disappointment
Review: My reading of Dailey's Notes on Blood - Fourth Edition finds a concise and accurate depiction of the physiology of blood and various applications in modern medicine. I believe the average person taking up this subject will find Dailey's work helpful.

However, I found disappointment in Dailey's treatment of the Jehovah's Witness patient. He assumes a great deal. He makes broad statements of these patients without emphasizing the need for individual verification by treating physicians.

For example, he itemizes seven points that he says "medical personnel should observe... when treating one of Jehovah's Witnesses." Though these items include important reminders to fully inform the patient and to look for advance directives, he also makes categorical statements such as "Do not use allogeneic blood or components." This bit of advice is almost confusing since just prior he advises to inform the patient of the risks and benefits of allogeneic transfusion! At best his following admonition should have read something like "The Jehovah's Witness patient may not accept allogeneic blood or components." Informed readers and researchers know Jehovah's Witness patients sometimes accept allogeneic transfusion of whole blood or its components despite church dogma.(1) Therefore it is misleading for a medical researcher to inform readers that Jehovah's Witness patients do not use allogeneic blood or components.

Perhaps the most egregious example of Dailey's treatment of the Jehovah's Witness patient is his advice that medical personnel should contact local Hospital Liaison Committees for Jehovah's Witnesses when encountering one of these patients. The patient should make any such decision of whom to inform outside his or her immediate family, not medical personnel. A medical researcher treads dangerous ground by stating who personnel should contact outside the medical circle regarding any patient's condition or treatment. It is imperative to medical ethics that medical personnel let the patient's wishes guide his or her treatment rather than a religious body's wishes for the patient.

Dailey's treatment of the Jehovah's Witness patient leaves this reader wondering why he failed to apply the same level of balance on the subject as he did his objective and concise presentation of blood's physiology and medical application.

Marvin Shilmer

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End Note:

1. Official church documents substantiate that some individuals among Jehovah's Witnesses accept allogeneic blood and/or its components despite the religion having labeled either as sinful. (See The Watchtower of September 15, 1987 page 14, published by the controlling body of Jehovah's Witnesses called the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Inc.)
Other sources also substantiate that some individuals among Jehovah's Witnesses accept allogeneic blood and/or its components. For example the findings of Kaaron Benson, MD of the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute as published in the article Management of the Jehovah's Witness Oncology Patient: Perspective of the Transfusion Service. Dr. Benson's finding was that younger Jehovah's Witness patients and Jehovah's Witness parents with children in medical need were more likely to accept religiously forbidden blood therapies. (...)