Organ Donations

[Bostaevski]

7 people is about the best possible outcome (Heart, both lungs, both kidneys, Liver, and Pancreas). Occasionally my OPO will recover an intestine for transplant (like once a year). Also the liver can be split in two and be transplanted to two separate people but this is rare. At any rate, 7-Organ Donors are very rare.

There is another way to become a donor aside from brain death and this is what we call Donor after Cardiac Death (DCD). DCD Donors make up 10 to 20% of all donors in our area. Obviously the heart is probably not transplantable in these cases but occasionally they are able to transplant them successfully.

[martijn]

thats a sick question

[dylan's alias]

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A few weeks ago I heard back from the organ bank that one of our patients donated to I think 7 or 8 separate recipients. She was a relatively young woman who had a horrible bleed in her brain. We would have done anything to save her but she was brain dead.

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[censored], I wouldn't even mind getting killed by evil doctors if it saved eight people.

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Cool, wanna come to my ICU? We can arrange something.

[peachy]

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peachy, try reading the thread. what proof do you have that hospitals are less likely to try harder to save you? seems like a pretty big conspiracy. i think we all know some people who work in hospitals. wouldn't they all have to be "in on it"?

also i heard 9/11 was an inside job, confirm/deny?

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1st off i dont have time to read the whole thing...get over it, 2nd i can post my opinion based on the 1st post or the 1st few posts - there is NO requirement i read the WHOLE thing...get off your high horse...


there have been studies (and yes they were scientific)...and no im not gonna go find them for you right now because my life is consumed with other things and i frankly dont care if you believe me or not. Donate ur organs if u want...who cares...

do u think someone u know is going to "openly" admit this fact?? They allowed or didnt prevent someones death?? or didnt do everything they could?? hahaha thats why studies conclude this...because some have been done anonymously. But again...i dont have time to argue this one as im sure u will have a great asinine comeback and more argumentative comments..

[Kimbell175113]

Peachy,

if there were studies, you wouldn't have to find them. We would have heard of them already. They would have been a huge story, all over the news and the internet and Congressional hearings and TV movies.

aghfigh you edited. Oh well, this still stands.

[burningyen]

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there have been studies (and yes they were scientific)...

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I just googled

“study organ donation”
“study organ donor mortality”
“study organ donation care”

and looked at the search results 5 pages deep and came up with nothing. As Kimbell pointed out, that’s pretty weird considering that if such a study existed it would be hugely controversial and be all over the news and on page 1 of the search results. My guess is the studies you heard about actually had to do with the mortality of *living* organ donors (not surprisingly, people who choose to donate organs while alive have a slightly higher chance of dying early), or maybe studies regarding whether it made sense to try to use extraordinary means to treat terminal patients in order to *save* their organs for donation (like this study on the benefits of flying helicopters out to self-inflicted headshot victims in order to save their organs). Don't you agree it's more likely than not that the kind of study you're talking about doesn't exist?

[dylan's alias]

Ditto. I know I've never seen those studies.

By the way Peachy, have you ever spoken to the parents of a teenager who was brain dead? Have you asked them about donating their child's organs? Do you think that is the kind of thing you'd be looking for additional opportunities to do? How about asking a child or grandchild about their parent or grandparent? How twisted do you think a doctor would have to be in order to do what you are suggesting happens on a regular basis? How about the nurses, respiratory therapists and supervisors? Are they all in on the conspiracy to kill viable people in order to get their organs for transplant? All hospitals have chaplains on staff, and most have ethicists too. They are probably pretty easy to keep quiet. Obviously I'd never admit to being part of this, but you seem to be an expert, so please, enlighten us.

[hobbes9324]

LOL - edited twice, now that my blood pressure is down.

As much as I'd like to be part of a grand conspiracy to steal organs from salvagable patients, I'm not that smart. The studies you're quoting (I think) refer to attempts to transplant as quickly as possible to recipients - as far as I know, with the POSSIBLE exception of a case in California where a transplant surgeon has been questioned about pushing meds at a donor to hasten death (and not cause it - as I understand it no one is questioning that the donor was terminal) As you're already played the "I can say whatever I want" card, I assume you don't want to reference the studies for us. I'd like to see them.

Here's what happens when a potential donor shows up. Usually a trauma, often self-inflicted. Young and otherwise healthy. They are treated EXACTLY like any other patient - because we have no idea as to their donor status. I'm way too busy intubating, putting lines in, getting studies done. Registration comes back and gets the patients information either from the patient or family and generates a chart. Nowhere on the chart is there any reference of donor status. To be honest, in the 20 years I've been doing trauma, I've never once been aware of someones status.

Additionally, standard of practice is that the caring MD has no input vis-a-vis organ donation. There is a transplant coordinator who speaks with the family and sorts out their wishes. I'm in favor of as many donors as possible, but even if I weren't, my feelings don't come into play - all this is state mandated.

Lastly, not that you care, I'm DEEPLY insulted by the inference that as an MD, I'm in any way involved with a system that somehow would act against a patients interests. I (and my partners) took an oath to serve our patients. As quaint as it sounds, I've never known a doc (and I do admit there are likely some out there) to act in a manner like you're suggesting.

I hope no one in my family ever needs an organ. I'd be happy to never have to take care of a potential donor again, because the majority of them come from tragic cases. But for someone on dialysis, or a young person with a sick heart due to a viral myocarditis, it's a chance for a near normal life - to see their kids grow up, spend more time with the people they love. I'm very much in favor of that.

MM MD

[dylan's alias]

What happened Hobbes? Cat got your tongue and donated it?

[Bostaevski]

I'll corroborate what Hobbes says since my organization is the one who coordinates donation and talks to families.

Basically the staff in a trauma center or ICU don't have anything to do with donation. All that is required is they call us when death is imminent. Based on the data we get in the initial referral, we will send our staff onsite to do further evaluation. If we think the patient is a candidate for donation, we will approach the family and bring it up. As you can imagine this is a very difficult conversation to have. It doesn't matter if the patient is donor-designated or not, we will be talking to the family either way. If they are not donor-designated (most aren't) then we must get permission from the legal next of kin.
Otherwise we disclose to the family that the patient wished to be an organ donor. We also help them understand everything about the process. Incidentally, being a registered organ donor only applies for brain dead patients.

If you die in a car wreck and don't make it to the hospital, you cannot be a donor.
If you die in a hospital but are not on a ventilator, you cannot be a donor.