The Key West Citizen

Ill Mother Won't Allow Transfusions

EAST PATCHOGUE, N.Y. (AP)—A 40-year-old mother of four children, whose religious faith bars blood transfusions deemed necessary to save her life, remained in critical condition today.

Mrs. Mary Bohnke and her husband, George, 41, are members of the Jehovah's Witnesses religious sect.

Mrs. Bohnke underwent a hysterectomy—surgical removal of the female organs—on Wednesday at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital. On Thursday she went into post-operative shock and physicians said she needs at least two transfusions.

Before the operation, Bohnke said, his wife made him promise he would not consent to a transfusion—a violation of their sect's religious teachings.

In her few conscious moments yesterday, Mrs. Bohnke backed up her husband, a Long Island Rail Road employee. The couple reside at Medford, N.Y., on Long Island.

The transfusion cannot be given without the consent of Bohnke or his wife. Officials said there is no law to force such a consent.

The family doctor, Dr. Paul Brinley, has been giving Mrs. Bohnke hormones and intravenous feedings of glucose and saline in efforts to bring her around.

Bohnke, who served a jail term as a World War II conscientious objector, spends as much time as possible at the bedside of his wife.

Speaking yesterday of his children—John and Paul, one-year-old twins; Patricia, 11, and George, 7—Bohnke said:

"They understand. I wish other people in the world would. We're putting all our faith in God. Death is only a sleep."