The daughter of a Jehovah's Witness who bled to death in Newcastle after refusing a blood transfusion says she is angry the faith took so long to adjust its doctrine. Libby Macintyre lost her mother, Heather Winchester, in September 2019 when Mrs Winchester refused a packed red blood cell transfusion after complications from elective surgery.
"I guess time heals to some degree but when things come up again, it does stir up that anger," Ms Macintyre said. "There's nothing I can do about it now, but if we could just make everyone aware so that others don't have to go through what I went through."
Hunter Valley woman Irene Shea, who runs a support group for thousands of women who have left the church, echoed the anger. "I'm actually quite angry about it because I do know people that lost their lives," Ms Shea said. "We have mothers who lost their babies after childbirth or the mothers died themselves."
In the video announcement from New York, Mr Jackson said the change transfers responsibility for blood component decisions from a uniform religious prohibition to individual conscience. "Each Christian must make his own personal decision about the use of these four primary components in all medical and surgical care," he said.
Mr Jackson said whole blood transfusions still go against scripture, but components are not defined in teachings. "Since the scriptures don't comment on the various products that may be derived from blood, we recognise that in harmony with 1 Corinthians 4:6, we're not authorised to go beyond the things that are written."
An inquest into Mrs Winchester's death heard she lost more than a litre of blood after surgery at Maitland Hospital and was urgently transferred to Newcastle's John Hunter Hospital, where she refused a transfusion on religious grounds. Her daughter said at the time Mrs Winchester was following teachings and never wavered.
"She took everything literally as they tend to, I think that the Bible says something about thou shalt not take another man's blood," Ms Macintyre said. "But I mean, that means you don't kill them, isn't it?"