dr. steinberger, who performed justine's surgery, has become a firm believer in englewood's avoidance of transfusions. for him it's just good medicine. >> the science seemed very real. the literature seemed to support it and once we started doing the operations, the results were great. the risks of giving blood in many cases outweigh the benefits of giving blood. there are risks of infections, there are risks of lowering the immune response of the patient, there are risks of giving the wrong kind of blood, errors can occur and if there's any way to avoid getting a blood transfusion, one is better off in general if they can avoid it. >> reporter: in any sense, do you feel the jehovah's witnesses have done medicine a service? >> definitely. they definitely have done medicine a service. >> reporter: the key to successful bloodless surgery is preparation. sherri ozawa directs the hospital's bloodless surgery program. >> many, many patients, estimates are as many 40 or 50% of patients come to surgery anemic. they don't have enough blood cells. very simply, dealing with that ahead of time, hel