About a year ago, our church held a meeting re will/trusts and other serious matters.
One of the attendees brought up a serious and interesting point.
Her brother in his 50’s was in an accident and after a few days in the hospital, he was declared brain dead.
His trust and driver’s license showed that he wanted to donate whatever organs were needed at that time.
So the hospital kept his body alive until all of his donated organs were harvested. That took a couple of days.
Very quickly, his widow got a big financial surprise, the hospital had close to $40,000’s of EOL hospital services for the time his body was kept alive for the harvest of his whatevers.
His insurance company refused to pay for those charges because he was legally dead. The hospital aggressively went after the estate and the widow for the charges.
Since then, no one really wants to discuss this hot potato subject. So my wife and I changed our EOL orders, and we are not donators of any organs, tissues or whatever.
What is the reality here re who picks up the cost of keep a body alive after the donor is dead? Is it the recipients or the donor’s family/estate?
Thanks
It seems to me that the hospital should charge recipients at least enough money to cover the expenses of keeping a dead and, therefore, no longer insured person, functioning so as to keep the organs in good shape for transplant.
As to whether more should be charged, I certainly think so. But, a lot of people think only the doctors and lawyers should be paid money, that mere average people would be corrupted. I should think that covering up to the average funeral expense and/or forgiveness of the hospital charge immediately prior to death, might be a workable compromise. No cash to the donor’s family. Would help with the expenses of the deceased be too corrupting?
I would also want to explore whether harvesting organs of persons subject to execution for capital offenses could be arranged. The potential for corruption of the jury might be much more than a few dollars. I actually think capital punishment is too tricky to bring this into the picture. But, I am sure that people from states that don’t have the death penalty would complain if they didn’t get their fair share of any organs.
“Very quickly, his widow got a big financial surprise, the hospital had close to $40,000’s of EOL hospital services for the time his body was kept alive for the harvest of his whatevers.”
Thanks for the information...I never even dreamed this could happen, but I sure won’t let it happen to me.
Monday I’ll contact the DMV to remove the organ donor notification from my licence.