It was this “overwhelming pressure” that prompted Jones to ultimately turn down the transfusion. <\/p>\n
“Would I lose my family? Would I lose my chance of entering the promised paradise?” she had wondered. <\/p>\n
“No one person was pressuring me, but you hear of what happens to other people who get transfusions. It was ingrained,” she said.<\/p>\n
Despite her doctor’s concerns, Jones, who now works in insurance and has left the religion, survived without the transfusion.<\/p>\n
But the experience has stayed with her. <\/p>\n
“Any mention of transfusions brings me back to being that frightened child, sitting alone in my room, trying to make sense of a choice that felt impossible,” she said.<\/p>\n
On the recent policy change, she said: “It’s diabolical. I don’t even have the words. I was so angry when I saw it.<\/p>\n
“I was just, like, ‘How dare you?’ You know, all those people that have suffered and now you’re just suddenly, like, ‘Oh, actually, no, it’s a personal choice and actually we’re going to change.’ But actually, nothing has really changed and it won’t make a difference.”<\/p>\n