'COMA' 
Posted on 11/21/2007 9:47:38 AM PST by Tulsa Ramjet
OKLAHOMA CITY -- What may have been a mistake at a Texas hospital is being called a miracle by the parents of a Frederick man who was critically injured in an all-terrain vehicle accident.
For more than six hours on Monday, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol classified Zack Dunlap as the state's 610th motor vehicle fatality of the year.
Troopers removed Dunlap's name from the list the same day after learning he showed signs of life shortly before his organs were to be harvested for transplant.
Dunlap was hurt about 7:30 p.m. on Saturday while riding his four-wheeler on a Tillman County road less than a mile west of Davidson with a friend. His vehicle hit the rear of Colton Gains' four-wheeler, causing Dunlap's ATV to spin 180 degrees and throwing him off, according to the patrol's report.
Dunlap, 21, was flown to United Regional Healthcare System in Wichita Falls, Texas, where he was placed on life support.
Doctors pronounced him dead at 11:10 a.m. Monday, said trooper Betsy Randolph, a patrol spokeswoman.
However, "He's alive," Randolph said after speaking with hospital officials late Monday.
As a worker was removing tubes from Dunlap's body in preparation for medical personnel to remove his organs, Dunlap reached out and touched a nurse's arm, Randolph said.
(Excerpt) Read more at tulsaworld.com ...
'COMA'
Oh, sweet Jesus. This is scary.
Well dang if that doesn't remind me of something.
Dead id Dead, and there needs to be a thorough way of examining someone required by law BEFORE organs are harvested. OIf the surgeon harvesting was the same one doing a liver transplant an our later, chances are this young man would no longer be among the living, killed by a harvester.
Something to rememeber.
I would only sign an organ donation card if they promised to run an EKG and electronic heart monitor scan, enforced by law, and a guarantee that the harvesting physicians were NOT transplant doctors,before they took them from my "freshly dead" body.
~Prayers~
I will not sign a donor card either. I have also begun to rethink the entire organ donation practice. I like it less and less as I get older.
If you sign up as an organ donor on your driver’s license, you’re asking for trouble.
When you go to the emergency room, the doctor there should have as his first priority saving your life. But suppose they just happen to be waiting for an organ to save somebody else’s life, and maybe make a bigger profit on it as well? This introduces a conflict of interest, even if the doctor is completely honest.
Also, note, that organs cannot usually be harvested when a person is actually dead. It’s too late. They are best harvested while the person is still alive—that is, when the cells in his body and in the organs in question are still alive. So, they start talking about “brain dead” or “terminal coma.” But those are both very questionable states to define. You don’t really know if it is terminal unless you wait for the guy to actually die. But then you risk losing the use of his organs.
Not a good situation, because it raises conflicting priorities and undermines what should be the doctor’s primary aim, to save your life if in any way possible.
Um, I’ve read the story twice now and I can’t tell if he’s still alive or dead.
I don’t see why this means that the “organ donation movement takes a hit.” All it means is that the docs (happily) mis-pronounced, and the guy didn’t die after all.
Beware: The last time I was down at DMV for a new license, the DMV chickie put the organ donor dot on my license and laminated it on. I refused the card and demanded another. She did it again and I refused again. I started making a scene and when others started listening about why I wouldnt become a donor she quickly made a third undotted license. The government ghouls can be very persistent.
Beware: The last time I was down at DMV for a new license, the DMV chickie put the organ donor dot on my license and laminated it on. I refused the card and demanded another. She did it again and I refused again. I started making a scene and when others started listening about why I wouldnt become a donor she quickly made a third undotted license. The government ghouls can be very persistent.
From the Article:
"Dunlap remained in critical condition and on life support Tuesday, surrounded by family and friends as he recovers from serious head and internal injuries, said Kim Maddin, director of community relations for the hospital."
There ARE rules prohibiting the physicians who declare the patient dead to have anything to do with the care of the patients receiving the organs. Two indepedent neurologists, not from the same group, must declare brain death. A “brain dead” person WILL have an EKG - electrical heart activity and a beating heart - but his EEG - electrical brain activity will be flat.
All that said, I’ve told my husband, he makes the decision if it ever comes to that. I’m not checking the box on my license.
After reading about many of these “mistakes” I have had the donor designation removed from my license. My family knows my wishes and if I am truly “brain dead” they will make the correct call at that time.
Sweet Caroline...
Thanks, guess I missed that. From the title I kinda got the impression that the family was glad for his ‘mistaken’ death since his organs were going to save other people.
>All that said, I’ve told my husband, he makes the decision
Me too.
"But I'm not yet yet!"
"No, but you soon will be!"
But would you be willing to accept someone else's organ if need be?
A local mortician described a case where the “deceased” raised his arm when the embalming process was initiated. Since heard that some movement is common. It’s known that no one leaves alive.
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