Severe anemia secondary to vaginal bleeding in a 13-year old girl who rejects blood transfusion

Abstract

Introduction. Vaginal bleeding as a cause of severe anemia is not frequent in the pediatric age. However when it appears, it is generally secondary to dysfunction uterine bleeding. The objective of its treatment is to establish and/or maintain the hemodynamic stability of the patient. The current situation in Spain establishes that all action within the health care setting of a patient requires free and voluntary consent of the patient, consent by representation being necessary for several reasons, standing out among them that the patient is a minor and is not intellectually or emotional capable of understanding the scope of the intervention.Informed consent by representation should always be adopted considering the best benefit for the patient’s life or health. Clinical case. We present a case of vaginal bleeding with 5 g/L hemoglobin in a 13-year old girl who rejected blood transfusion due to religious beliefs. In view of them severe anemia and rejection by the patient and her parents to administer the transfusion, it was decided as a first step to administer intravenous fluids and intravenous iron supply and to request court authorization in case of initial treatment failure to be able to make a concentration red blood cell transfusion, a situation which did not occur given her favorable response. Conclusions. The good evolution of the patient allowed us to conclude that when it is not possible to perform a blood transfusion, intravenous iron can be administered with good response.