Posted on 11/16/2012 2:06:14 PM PST by NYer
AARHUS, Denmark — Carina Melchior is a 20-year-old Danish woman who was plunged in the middle of controversy by two close encounters with death — the first in car crash last year that put her in a coma; the second in a hospital, where doctors persuaded her parents to donate her organs and shut off her life support.
But Carina recovered, and she now is at the center of a storm of questions about the criteria for brain death, over-aggressive transplant agencies and the commodification of the human body.
What might have been played out quietly in an obscure Danish civil-law courtroom became a national cause celebre with the airing early in October of a TV documentary called Pigen Der Ikke Ville Do (The Girl Who Refused to Die) that was viewed by 1.7 million people.
The documentary follows the Melchior family as they learn of the seriousness of Carina’s injuries, are told she cannot recover because her brain is dead, and are asked to donate her organs to people who need them.
Carina’s father, Kim Melchior, asks if there is any chance of “a small miracle anywhere.” None, the medical staff at Aarhus University Hospital reply.
But a few days after being taken off her respirator, while hospital attendants are waiting for her body to shut down, Carina began to move her legs and open her eyes.
The documentary shows her awake and expressing confidence in her ability to recover, get her own apartment, begin work and resume her pastime of horse jumping.
snip
The hospital administration reacted with a mixture of embarrassment at their mistake and pleasure at the girl’s recovery.
“We are overjoyed that the young woman has survived and that she is moving on after the accident,” said chief medical officer Claus Thomsen.
(Excerpt) Read more at ncregister.com ...
Father Pacholczyk is wrong. The Catholic Church does NOT support harvesting organs in the case of “brain death.” Because anyone who really looks at it must admit that someone in that condition is not really dead.
The problem is that you can’t really harvest the organs very well after someone is really dead. They start to decay and go bad pretty quickly. So, they needed some sort of plausible sounding excuse for harvesting them while the victim is still living.
Being an organ donor sounds very generous on its surface, but it’s extremely dubious. And if you register as an organ donor, then you are subjecting yourself to a possible early death, because the doctors are more interested in your organs than your recovery.
It’s not just a religious matter, it’s also a scientific matter. Brain death is NOT real death. Maybe the patient will recover, maybe not. But he is not yet dead. Its just another piece of liberal duckspeak, twisting words for convenience, so you can do what you want to do and to hell with the facts or the moral rules.
Doctor wanted to let my relative pass. He communicates and recognizes people now. This since the summer months. He is 30.
Why do I think of
HAL: I know I've made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I've still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission.The above quote from the article makes it sound like there was some question as to whether or not she should be allowed to recover.
"I feel much better now. I am sure I'll be back to normal soon."
"Well, I don't know ..."
"No, realli. Look, I can jump horses."
"I'm not sure that is really a sufficent reason we ..."
"But I'll get my own apartment. I'll work hard. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease, let me live."
OK, we'll try it for a few weeks and see if you will be allowed to go on." [muttering: but we were really counting on having your liver]
Back in the Middle Ages, this would happen and people would be buried alive. Later it was discovered that the inside of the casket would be damaged due to the person trying to escape and a string was put in the caskets linked to a bell on the top of the grave... hence the term “dead ringer”....
/johnny
We went through something similar this last weekend with a friend of the family (3 yrs old). Went in for an arm x ray, and got admitted for a large abdominal mass.
They put a tube in to drain the swelling, but he went downhill quickly and was unable to communicate. His white blood cell count shot up (infection) and his remaining kidney shut down.
They pushed pretty hard for hospice, saying that the mass was almost certainly highly fatal advanced pancreatic cancer, and dialysis, if started, would be continuous for the rest of his life, and unlikely to work long, if at all.
The family opted for dialysis, and the nephrologist was visibly pissed off. Well, it turns out that the big problem was an infection induced when they put the initial tube in. Once antibiotics cleared that up, the kidney restarted.
A certain Monty Python skit comes to mind.
The 'definition' is only relevant to those who argue that the right to life is other than God given, absolute, and inalienable.
Every single one of the other four fifths whose organs are harvested -- some of those internal thingees are necessary for recovery.
Wow. Thanks for posting this.
“I’m still using it!”
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VULTURES! At least real vultures wait until the carrion is actually dead. This is why I am 100% against ever donating any organs. My DL says NO!!!
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VULTURES! At least real vultures wait until the carrion is actually dead. This is why I am 100% against ever donating any organs. My DL says NO!!!
Thank God. That’s why I opt out of donor programs, I don’t want them to take my organs and croak me.
“We are overjoyed that the young woman has survived and that she is moving on after the accident,” said chief medical officer Claus Thomsen.
And just what else were they going to say after nearly about cannibalizing her? *Too bad she survived. We lost so much money on her.*?
The medical community needs to get over its God complex.
They are not the final word on anything.
That would not surprise me in the least.
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