A religious complication

Virginia Nixon and her husband, Johnny, are devout Jehovah’s Witnesses, which created complications in her treatment for necrotizing fasciitis.

Dr. Neri Blanco, who treated Nixon, said one of the biggest challenges was that the faith does not allow blood transfusions because the Bible is seen as prohibiting the ingestion of blood. That would have made an amputation, a measure that the medical team feared early on might be necessary to save her life, problematic, she said.

Johnny Nixon remembers Blanco asking him if he’d be OK with an amputation of his wife’s leg if it would save her life.

“I told her I would let her but it would be hard,” he said. “I just wanted her alive. She’d still be here with one leg.”

Blanco said that even after she concluded an amputation was unnecessary, the taboo on transfusions was a consideration during Nixon’s recovery.

“This was a difficult case because the decision not to amputate could have led to worsening infection and death,” Blanco said. “She also developed severe anemia from a gastrointestinal bleed but refused transfusions … before slowly recovering.”