Potential organ donor was wrongly declared brain-dead

LA Times ^ | 12 April 2007 | Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber

[Cyber Liberty]

I don’t understand why his organs were not usable by the time he died. This tells me they were only usable while he was alive...

Sounds to me like his condition was deliberately allowed to deteriorate, so they could harvest the guy.

[GovernmentShrinker]

I don’t see the relevance of post #22. However, I’d rather see stricter measures to reduce the potential for abuse, than to let lots of people die for lack of transplantable organs whose original owners would have wanted to donate them while they were still useable. That’s abuse too — abuse of the dying person’s right to give the gift of years of additional life to others.

I do agree that there needs to be better prioritization of recipients. There’s unfortunately a situation comparable with the recipients, with waiting until things have reached a point that a good outcome is no longer possible. People don’t get to the top of the recipient list until they’re sicker than anybody else who needs a transplant, resulting in scarce organs going to people who will derive only a very short term benefit from them. If the same people had gotten a transplant a year or two earlier, they’d likely have lived a normal or near-normal lifespan.

IMO the first people to be bumped off the list shouldn’t be the healthiest ones, but rather those with self-inflicted conditions (and of course violent criminals — I remember the story of a heart going to a convicted murderer on death row). Beyond that, I think priority generally ought to patients who have the longest prognosis for survival with the transplant, which in practice would generally mean younger patients and those who have been in transplant-needing condition for the shortest length of time. It’s not “unfair” to arrange the system so as to yield the maximum number of years of life per organ.

[doorgunner69]

In a twisted way, this reminds me of a Monty Python skit.

Vultures, I like that description. Not unusual, as those that go into medicine these days are often as ruthless as lawyers in the pursuit of riches.

[outofstyle]

I’d rather see stricter measures to reduce the potential for abuse, than to let lots of people die for lack of transplantable organs whose original owners would have wanted to donate them while they were still useable.

I understand your point of view. However, based on my personal experience with the "transplant industry" I have become extremely skeptical. Boundaries are pushed beyond belief. Families are pressured into donating for loved ones. Living patients are pushed back on OR schedules (sometimes causing them harm) in order to make room in an OR for a "harvest." Harvested organs are transplanted into drug addicts who quickly destroy their "gift." All the while, money is changing hands.

Certainly a great deal of good can come of transplantation. However, using brain death as a criteria for donors is a clear line in the sand. It would go a long way in preventing abuse.

[Ouderkirk]

There are some who want to see everyone’s organs ‘in the pool’ and see to it that you would have to opt out of the program.

I never check the organ donor on my drivers license. They are my organs, and I will decide when I am done with them.

[Centurion2000]

In my opinion, if the death of a person is certain, hastening that death by a few days to protect the viability of needed organs that will add many years to the quality of life for multiple people is a rational thing to contemplate, assuming the person making the donation has agreed upon the terms in advance of his/her demise.

bullshit .... when you are laying on that slab and look at how you might be 'harvested' a few days early you WILL think differently.

If these organs are so valuable, then why doesn't the family get paid for them???

[JoyjoyfromNJ]

Sorry I can’t give an exact source as I just recycled a huge (several months’)backlog of newspapers and Sunday supplements—but a supplement (Parade??) had an article about “thinking outside the box” to solve problems. The first example they used was this issue of the low number of organ donors. The solution, which the article said was currently in practice in Spain, was to assume EVERYONE was a donor unless they clearly opted out. So be careful when traveling in Spain!![I can’t remember if the ‘opt out’ process was described in the article.]

Second recent article, again can’t remember source, dealt with issue of increasing the number of donors using “cardiac death” as the criteria instead of “brain dead”. My memory of the article described an extremely short period between declaration of cardiac death and the removal of organs—in some cases only 5 minutes or so. No, these were NOT deaths by traumatic head injuries but deaths via “heart stops beating.” Although the article was in favor of using cardiac, not brain death, as the criteria, the author did quote the concern of some medical folks of feeling like vultures. [This last is not a direct quote but my interpretation of their comments.]

[outofstyle]

Second recent article, again can’t remember source, dealt with issue of increasing the number of donors using “cardiac death” as the criteria instead of “brain dead”. My memory of the article described an extremely short period between declaration of cardiac death and the removal of organs—in some cases only 5 minutes or so.

This is accomplished by bringing the living patient to the OR, removing him from the ventilator and waiting for cardiac death to occur and immediately proceeding to harvest the organs. This happens now, frequently. However, almost all of these patients are head injured or stroke patients. Patients who have suffered a massive heart attack, for example, will have gone a long time with inadequate blood flow to the organs for them to be harvested in this manner.

[secretagent]

I saw this same thing happen with a 17 year old boy. The family was told he was brain dead and asked for the organs. The family refused. He later walked out of the care facility where I worked.

Wow! Would you expand this story, please?

[Muzzle_em]

There was an article in People Magazine a few weeks ago about a website which matches living donors who are willing to donate and those who need organs, i.e. a kidney. (I think you can actually donate part of your liver). Anyway, a lot of people have given kidney’s to total strangers! Needless to say, the medical community has a problem with this website. I wonder why?!!!! /sarchasm

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

The left is a culture of death, and wants to get rid of people who they deem useless. The left is very happy with this sort of thing, and they work relentlessly to get laws that allow them to unload “useless” people.

[redgolum]

But I thought this never happened?!!!/sarcasm.

[Cold Heat]

If these organs are so valuable, then why doesn't the family get paid for them???

Because they are not sold. They do recover the costs of the service, the removal and care if they can, in the form of fees to the recipient but the organ is free and not specifically sold. That is illegal in this country.

Maybe you did not know that.......

[Cold Heat]

Your comment is what is useless....

[AFPhys]

The apparent close call is the second in recent months to raise questions about whether, amid a national organ shortage, doctors might be compromising the care of prospective donors.
-—<>-—<>-—<>-—<>-—<>-—

Of course they are. Human vultures: The result of the cheapening of human life...

[sarasmom]

Prior to the forcible dehydration and starvation of Terri Schiavo via a court ordered removal of her feeding tube, exactly what medical condition or disease do you “believe” she was actively “dying” from?

I am no longer listed as an organ donor, and never will be again.
It is never wise to put oneself in the position of being deemed more valuable dead, than alive.

[DannyTN]

I hate it when they harvest my organs and I’m not brain dead.

[BuffaloJack]

I was advised several years ago by a buddy who it an EMS to not sign any donor cards. The time they try to resusitate someone who signed is half that on a non-donor.