How the hell could this happen??

[greenfreak]

The best way to make sure your organs are donated is to have a legal will/living will drawn up. We still have the declaration on the back of our licenses here but I don't think that's a very secure way of doing it. I believe that can be contested by your next of kin with no legal ramifications.

I know I'm on a nationwide registry for bone marrow but that's not going to help anyone if I'm dead.

 

[unclehobart]

I remember when HomeLAN had a knee op back almost a decade ago. They whipped out a large marker and scribbled a big X on the good knee and wrote 'NO' underneath it.

How confidence inspiring.

 

[Q]

We have it on our drivers licenses here too. But in the case of a terrible accident, where time is a big issue, that might not help. My family knows I would like to be an organ donor. I'd even rather have my organs donated for research as opposed to just letting them go to waste.

 

[freako104]

How do you all declare that you wish to donate your organs. Here you used to sign the back of your license or medicare card. I'm not sure if you still do that.

when i was 18 i got my state id card. they asked me if i want tot be and i said yes.after that they didnt ask me they just put it on my permit when i got that. i do remember checking the box too.

 

[HomeLAN]

The 'sign the back of your license' days are pretty much over. They ask you at the time of renewal if you want to or not and it gets encoded into it somehow. ...at least here where I am.

Written in large red letters at the bottom left of the license.

 

[unclehobart]

serves me right for not walking the 15 feet and digging it outta my wallet to check The 'sign it' days are long gone though. Its all done at time of renewal.

 

[Aunty Em]

I find it incredible that on a National waiting list for such a large country as the US there are so few organs available. And then they do this...

 

[Q]

New organs have been donated and they are in the process of transplanting them now. Jessica has a 50% chance of survival.

 

[Dave]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/02/20/transplant.error/index.html

here is the update

 

[greenfreak]

I find it incredible that on a National waiting list for such a large country as the US there are so few organs available. And then they do this...

I don't know that there are so few, I think that if you take away all defective organs, then take away the people who aren't the same blood type, then take away the people who aren't compatible for some other reason (size, like in Jesica's case), then take the list that has thousands of people on it for years at a time, it's going to take a while.

My uncle was an organ donor and died from a fall so presumably, after they took him off life support, they would have gotten all his organs. But he had an enlarged heart and had been a drinker and smoker most of his life so nothing was really healthy enough to be given.

I could be mistaken but isn't organ donation against the Jewish religion? I think it's something that more than one religion is against. And then there are people, for whatever reason, want to be buried whole. The way I look at it, I'm not religious and have no need for my organs after I'm gone. Take 'em all and creamate me.

 

[greenfreak]

Oh and one more thing, many many people come to America for medical procedures because of the lack of medical care in their own countries. So many times, I see children who are siamese twins or who have horrible deformities, and they come to America for their procedures. I wonder how many people on the transplant lists are not originally American citizens? Jesica wasn't either.

 

[Aunty Em]

Oh and one more thing, many many people come to America for medical procedures because of the lack of medical care in their own countries. So many times, I see children who are siamese twins or who have horrible deformities, and they come to America for their procedures. I wonder how many people on the transplant lists are not originally American citizens? Jesica wasn't either.

Or are denied it because they're not considered worthy enough to go on the transplant list... don't get me into this... I don't want to think about it now...

 

[greenfreak]

I'm sorry, it wasn't meant to be something mean. It was just something that I keep seeing on Discovery and TLC, I really don't know the regulations of it.

 

[Aunty Em]

It's nothing you've said. I have very mixed feelings on the subject. I'm really angry that Katie is unlikely to be given the opportunity to have a Heart-Lung transplant here because of her disability. But if I did have the money to pay for it (which at this point in time is unlikely) and came over to the US I'm not sure if I could subject her to all that pain and suffering especially as I don't know for whose benefit it would really be.

Maybe things will have changed by the time it becomes necessary...

 

[Leslie]

hopefully she recovers ok from this second one :/

 

[greenfreak]

Seventeen-year-old Jesica Santillan, who underwent two heart-lung transplants within two weeks, has severe and possibly irreversible brain damage, hospital officials said Friday. The girl’s recovery from the secondary surgery ran into serious complications when doctors discovered swelling in her brain.

“YESTERDAY AFTER the transplant, we were all very hopeful,” said Dr. Karen Frush, Duke University Hospital’s medical director of children’s services. But now, “the swelling in her brain is severe, severe to the point we fear it’s irreversible.”

Frush and Dr. William Fulkerson, the hospital’s chief executive officer, said additional tests were planned for Friday to confirm the diagnosis.

This is a bad fucking day. First the nightclub fire, then I hear about Dan, then this, then there's a huge explosion at an oil refinery closeby to NYC. I just want to go home and pull the blankets over my head and sleep away the rest of the day.

 

[Aunty Em]

Oh shit!

I really hope she pulls through...

 

[madrin]

Oh and one more thing, many many people come to America for medical procedures because of the lack of medical care in their own countries. So many times, I see children who are siamese twins or who have horrible deformities, and they come to America for their procedures. I wonder how many people on the transplant lists are not originally American citizens? Jesica wasn't either.

...actually, I read something about that today. I believe that non-citizens can only make up 15% of the people on the transplant list....

but those 15% are accorded the "most dire case" rules just like anyone else on the list....

...anyway...this is a good media blast, but medical care here in the US is really quite good....

MADrin

 

[unclehobart]

The lungs didn't respond properly and she deoxygenated enough for severe vegetable level brain damage.

 

[Q]