My neck looked like a bullfrog pumping.
If you've ever seen like a bullfrog with, and
it's throat pumps like that, that's what my neck looked like.
All that blood was regurgitating up there.
These flowers are coming out pretty, aren't they?
My name is Tammy.
I live in Christiansburg, Virginia.
All my families, for the most part, have been really healthy.
I didn't know I had blood pressure problems.
>> Tammy presented to us with a large aortic aneurysm
that you could see pulsating in the base of her neck,
right above her breastbone, and
that's a ballooning of the artery in the chest.
Her blood pressure, when she presented, was 240 over 40.
She had a leak in her aortic valve in her heart.
So, the one way valve was allowing two-way blood flow.
>> And I was like, this blood pressure's like really?
How are you still alive?
People couldn't believe you're still alive with this
blood pressure like that.
We searched for a place to go for six months.
We found that Andrew Pippa was the coordinator for
the bloodless surgery program there at Johns Hopkins.
>> Tammy called us because she couldn't find a doctor or
a hospital that would operate on her without resorting to a blood
transfusion.
>> I did not want to do a blood transfusion period.
That's one reason that bothered me cuz they said it was such
a bloody surgery.
But with my religion being a Jehovah's Witness,
I wasn't gonna take any blood.
That's when they went down on the operating table either.
>> The fact that she took her stand for no blood transfusion
and the courage that she showed was an inspiration to me.
>> Our bloodless program is designed to care for patients
who wish to get therapy for their illnesses or to undergo
a surgery without receiving transfused blood products.
And so our role as a bloodless program is to care for
these patients to get them ready for surgery when they need
surgery to keep their blood at a healthy level.
>> Every time we avoid a transfusion,
we avoid potential complications like hepatitis.
There is an HIV, TACO and TRALI, which are complications from
blood transfusion that can be fatal.
Okay, so this is a fresh blood sample.
So by avoiding unnecessary transfusions,
we're actually saving lives.
And I haven't met a patient yet
that wouldn't rather have their own blood back, as opposed to
someone else's blood coming from the blood bank.
>> Nobody plans to go to the hospital.
It's really a scary place to be.
The fact that I can make a patient feel
more at ease is key to their having a good outcome.
>> We had to be very careful with Tammy because we wanted to
be sure that her level of blood, the strength of her blood,
was at a safe level for her to get through the surgery.
>> We did several things special in the operating room.
First, we did something called ANH where we bank the patient's
own blood right before the surgery begins.
Then we use a medication called Amicar that reduces bleeding
during surgery.
And third, we use a device called a cell saver,
which collects the blood the patients lose during surgery,
cleans it, processes it.
Then we can give them back their own blood before the end of
the procedure.
In Tammy's case, without the cell saver, I'm not sure we
could have brought her through the surgery successfully.
>> As our bloodless program has grown over the years,
we've gained a lot of experience and expertise in caring for
these patients.
>> By providing care to Jehovah's Witness patients,
for example, we're perfecting methods of blood conservation
that will benefit all patients.
>> The compassionate nature of this team, everybody on it,
makes the patients feel special.
>> I'm very grateful for Johns Hopkins, for
the bloodless surgery team.
I made it.
And did it without their blood.