[Skipbidder]

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I say no because some hospitals will allow an organ donor to die so they can be harvested, but in that same situation try to save that same guy if he isn't an organ donor. They make a profit out of all those harvesting and transplanting operations, why should I let them play God with me to make a few bucks?

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I have high suspicions that you are just trolling and don't actually mean this. I'm not willing to go back and read through old posts to find out if this is your norm, however. If I did so, the terrorists would win.

However, there are some people who might actually have suspicions that this might be true. Therefore, I'll spend some time talking about it.

In my hospital, the people most responsible for how well a person does when they are crashing in the intensive care unit are the nurses and the resident physicians. I have no idea how well the nurses get paid. I do know that the residents are on salary (and it blows). If you wanted to be extremely cynical about it--and it appears that you do, you would think that it would be in their best interests to keep the patient alive. Dead patient equals more paperwork, more phone calls, and an empty bed for Hobbes to send another nursing home GOMER up into.

Speaking only for my state:
Almost without exception, the docs taking care of a patient have no flipping idea whether or not they are organ donors. The only time I ever know is when the patient's family themselves bring it up when they are trying to decide whether or not to withdraw ventilatory support (this has only happened a couple of times). The way the process works is that after your patient dies, you call the regional organ bank (recently renamed Gift of Hope here) and give them the lowdown. They'll ask age, comorbidities, sometimes lab values, signs of recent infection, etc. You'll get a conditional yes/no as to whether the patient might be an organ donor or maybe just a tissue donor candidate. If your patient is a potential donor, then the organ bank folks will get the info for contact info from the next of kin (or decision maker). Out of the doc's hand at this point in time. The only time we call the organ bank folks before a death is when there is a plan to withdraw support (extubate, turn off a pacemaker, turn off a balloon pump, etc.). This is only done after the decision has already been made by the family to stop aggressive and artificial measures.