Posted on 01/03/2014 6:34:06 PM PST by Marie
At least one in five patients declared brain dead and approved as organ donors by one organ donation organization, are in fact still alive and are being killed by the removal of vital organs, a lawsuit filed last week in Manhattan alleges. The suit outlines the ghoulish worst-case scenario, one that was widely dismissed as scaremongering in the early days of the development of organ transplant technology, but which is getting a second hearing amidst growing concerns that coercion and abuse are becoming increasingly common in the highly lucrative transplant business.
Patrick McMahon, a nurse practitioner and Air Force combat veteran, launched the suit in New York alleging that a major organ donation group is using a quota system for obtaining viable organs. He says it is applying pressure on families and doctors to declare patients dead who are, in fact, still alive and could recover.
The New York Organ Donor Network, McMahon says, even hires “coaches” to help obtain consent notes.These coaches, the suit contends, are nothing more than sales and marketing experts who teach transplant coordinators to use high-pressure psychological tactics to play on the emotions of vulnerable family members. The suit alleges that employees who failed to make their quotas were fired.
“You’re not there for grief counseling,” he told the Daily Mail, “you’re there to get organs. It’s all about sales—and that’s pretty much a direct quote from the organization. Counselors are required to get a 30 per cent consent rate from families." The top counselors get a Christmas bonus, he added.
McMahon’s suit cites one case in which a 19-year-old car crash victim was struggling to breathe and showing signs of brain activity, but doctors signed off on the donation.
(Excerpt) Read more at lifesitenews.com ...
When I was born, I had massive oxygen deprivation. I was completely unresponsive to all stimulation and pain. Completely devoid of reflexes. My heart did beat and I was breathing on my own. It took a few days, but I did eventually swallow with stimulation. (At first, I couldn't even choke.) A nurse stuck a needle deep into my heel and I didn't even flinch. There was nothing.
The doctors all said that I was a 'vegetable' and that I'd never be able to come close to functioning on a normal level. they patted my mother's arm and reassured her that she 'could always have other children.'
My mother insisted that they give me to her. They resisted even letting her see me at first and insisted that I needed to be in an institution. When she insisted on taking me home, they balked. They said that I wouldn't survive without special care in an institutional setting.
Well, my mom won. For three months I was 'a limp rag'. She would drip milk into my mouth and stroke my throat to stimulate the swallow reflex.
All day long, all she did was massage me, work my limbs, and talk to me. Constant stimulation.
At three months old, I began to respond. After that, I caught up fast. By one year old, I was making all the milestones just as any other child.
I am angry at the attitude here on FR toward Jahi McMath's situation.
Some people here seem to believe that doctors are infallible gods who could never make a mistake. Others believe that 'brain death' means that the girl's brain is rotting in her skull.
Brain death means that there's bad damage to either the higher brain functions or the brain stem (depending on that state's legal perimeters). It does not mean that the brain is actually dead and rotting. It's also for people to understand that there is NO standard medical consensus for the definition and it can vary from location to location.
Do I think that Jahi will recover?
I don't have any idea. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd think that she'd have terrible deficit if she were to recover at all. At this point, the hospital has starved her and denied her medical care for three straight weeks that may have made a positive impact. So who the hell knows.
Jahi's lawyer says that he has a video of her responding to her mother. That's good enough for me. If she's responding at all, she's doing better than I was.
But when was the right removed from parents and family to make the ultimate life or death decisions in these situations? When did these decisions go to hospital administrators?
Just ten years ago, a person had to have a DNR to have life support removed. If there was no DNR, the family could decide on their behalf if they had authority. If a person didn't have one, it was assumed that they wanted heroic measures and these were taken.
Now the power is taken from husbands, wives, parents, and adult children.
Where there is a heartbeat, there *is* hope. We try. It isn't always going to work out and we all have to die, but it is out duty to fight for life.
The people making these decisions do NOT always have the patient's best interests at heart. Many are pessimists.
I have the ultimate respect for physicians and I believe that most of them are good people who are there for the right reasons. But I also know enough doctors to know that most get pretty beaten down and jaded over time.
It is the family's job to play the part of the optimist and to do their best to push forward.
Please stand with life. There was no hope for me and I'm happily married with two adult children. My first grandchild is due any minute.
No. I wasn't declared 'brain dead' (there was no such diagnosis back then). But I was declared vegetative. I made a 100% recovery.
Never stop fighting for life. Win or lose, the fight is worthy.
Wow. That’s quite a story.
Thanks for that.
in Jahi's case the doctors and hospital are doing nothing more than attempting to drastically reduce their financial liability.
Thank you for your support. It was painful to write.
You and I appear to be one of the few left on FR. Check out this thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3108097/posts
Thanks for sharing your remarkable story.
My mother is 100 years old and living in an assisted lilving facility. We hired a private nurse to advise us throug the rehab facility whe was in when she broke her leg, but now this nurse keeps pushing us to sign a POLST and to put her in hospice. I don’t think she needs hospice. She’s just old. I won’t sign.
God bless you Marie. I could not so elequently state my case recently.
This is one case, as rare as it is, that I vehemently disagree with the majority of my compadres here on FR.
i welcome the expected deluge of posts in disagreement but I stand firm on this one.
PS I imagine your mother was an amazing woman.
I do not think doctors are God or anything like it. But I also know that a body on a ventilator is NOT the same as a comatose patient breathing on their own.
Remove the ventilator and see how her body responds… if death overtakes her then maybe her parents will finally accept it
My mother was a fantastic mom when I was young. Until she was disabled, she worked with the handicapped. She found that, intensive physical therapy in children could do miracles.
She was a fighter.
You don’t want to get me started on organ harvesting because I usually suggest doctor harvesting as an alternative (convicted murders withstanding).
Wow! Amazing! Thanks for sharing your story! And congratulations!
Christopher Reeve was on a vent. Stephen Hawkings is now on a vent and writing a book.
A *lot* of people go onto a vent while they heal.
Why is it so unreasonable to try to help this girl? For three weeks, she’s received no medical attention (other than the vent and dealing with her other - perfectly healthy - bodily functions) and NO food or nutrition.
What would the harm have been? If the doctors were right, then she’d be dying anyway and the parents could at least know that everything had been done.
Isn’t that how we’re supposed to treat children??
I just don’t understand why people are so opposed to helping this girl.
One comfort people have always had in grief is that, “We did everything possible.”
That’s how parents are supposed to act! Yet, so many *here* believe that the parents are being unreasonable.
If the doctors are right, then she’ll die anyway. What’s the harm in trying to save a child?
Wasn’t it reported that this girl suffered a cardiac arrest? If so, 90% do not survive cardiac arrest and of those who do, only about 2 % do not have medical issues afterwards in terms of memory and other organ issues. Does anyone have any info on the cardiac arrest report?
Ocare!
I am sure that it was painful to write. Congratulations on getting it out there for us to read. It is a bright spot in my day to know that there are courageous human beings who won’t give up when the odds and other people are all against them. Very encouraging.
Thank God you’re here. Thank you for sharing your amazing story.
So, her heart is beating. That means she had a shot of being in the 10%. (That’s been reduced thanks to lack of treatment.)
That leaves her with an 8% chance of having some issues later.
SO WHAT?
Nobody’s perfect. You can raise a perfectly healthy child and have ‘em wrap their brains around a pole while riding a bike. Just because you’re broken doesn’t mean life’s not worth living. (Otherwise the disabled would have the highest suicide rate. They do not.)
She had a 1-in-10 shot. That’s what her parents were trying to give her. That’s what parents should do.
everything was done. The parents are a heart break . Their daughter is gone and they have no way to deal with it except denial. If you have read about the case you know that this is not one doc or even two docs but a total of five docs three of whom were approved or picked by the family. All of the medical evaluation is the same.
Your examples are not pertinent in this situation since neither Reeve nor Hawking had been declared brain dead.
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