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And turning to a hospital further north. It has been 15 years since Englewood Hospital
pioneered Bloodless Medicine and Surgery, a technique proven to reduce infections and save lives.
Now the Department of Defence wants its military doctors to learn it, so the DoD has turned
to Englewood for training. NJN News Health & Medical Correspondent Sara Lee Kessler has that story
"Say Money!" ... "Money!"
Englewood Hospital and Medical Centre is celebrating a major achievement.
It has been awarded a nearly $4.7 million Defence Department grant,
to teach military doctors about what it knows about bloodless medicine and surgery.
The hospital is an internationally recognised leader in the field.
Todate, it has treated more the 50,000 Patients. Congressman, Steven Rothman, who is a big supporter of the hospital,
he was born here, says he lobbied for the grant after learning about the programme.
"A light bulb went off in my head and I said Wow! this is something our military could use
to save the lives of our men and women on the battle field."
"We will use cell-saver now..."
Englewood developed its bloodless approach 15 years ago, to serve a Jehovah's Witness community
that would not accept blood. It has been used from everything from gastric procedures to cardiac bypass surgery
Proponents say, going bloodless promotes healing, reduces infection and saves lives!
"It reduces exposure of patients to banked blood which is associated with negative outcomes."
How do you think this will help on the battlefield?
"Tremendously! because there are always complications associated with transfusion, we are going to save lives!"
Military experts also believe the blood management programme will be a tremendous asset
when natural disasters strike, like the one in Haiti,
because that is the time when medical supplies, including blood, are hard to come by.
"We should only use transfusion as a last resort."
Doctor Aryeh Shander is the founder and executive medical director of Englewood's bloodless medicine programme.
He says, with military doctors he will focus on the importance of the cell-saver,
which collects and recycles a patients own blood
"Here is an opportunity with the cell-saver to collect the patients own blood that is shed from surgery,
wash it, and then return it as fresh autologous, meaning your own blood, back to your circulation."
The hope is that bloodless medicine will improve survival rates for wounded soldiers.
Sara Lee Kessler, NJN News, Englewood.
Innovation often comes where we least expect it.
"We said, why are they doing OK without blood?"
Fourteen years ago, a group of Jehovah's Witnesses asked Englewood hospital to develop a system
where they could have surgery without blood transfusions, which is forbidden in their religion.
"We saw a year after practicing this way, that the Witness patients
were getting complex surgery and medical care without using blood."
The hospital created the: "Institute for Patient Blood Management"
after research began showing that performing surgeries without blood transfusion,
known as bloodless surgery, eliminated many complications,
instead patients just have to have a strong blood count.
Bloodless medicine utilises technology, such as oxygen therapy and blood recycling,
that can minimize blood loss and also enhance the blood supply.
...(Applause)...
On Friday the hospital institute got a boost, $4.69 million in federal funding
to train military and civilian physicians in bloodless medicine and surgery
The lower cost of performing surgery without transfusions,
made it a particularly appealing government programme.
"When one can reduce complications, reduce infections, reduce durations in the hospital,
reduce mortality as a result of surgeries and save money at the same time, that is a grand slam!"
The programme will be run through the US Army and aims to help army doctors
to become less dependant on blood supplies in war zones and trauma situations.
"The complication list is very long, so we only want to use blood transfusion as a last resort."
As the institute uses bloodless medicine for more varied surgeries,
the hope is that it will soon become the standard method.
"Bloodless medicine and surgery can be applied across the board, to transplantation, to trauma, to anything else."
Now, with a larger platform to spread the new method across the globe.
At Englewood, Ali Rosen, for your "NewJersey News Now", on New York 1.