[CityKat]

Think being the next president would be a brutal job? Imagine being a transplant surgeon. You can't tell the parents of a dying kid when to pull the plug, but you have to be there, ready, the minute he expires. You have to wait until he's dead, but not so long that his organs become useless. You can give him drugs to keep his organs healthy, but you mustn't technically revive him. And you can't remove and restart his heart until it's been declared kaput.

Full article here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...100301974.html

[Peri]

Originally Posted by StudentNurseBean

Think being the next president would be a brutal job? Imagine being a transplant surgeon. You can't tell the parents of a dying kid when to pull the plug, but you have to be there, ready, the minute he expires. You have to wait until he's dead, but not so long that his organs become useless. You can give him drugs to keep his organs healthy, but you mustn't technically revive him. And you can't remove and restart his heart until it's been declared kaput.

Full article here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...100301974.html

Tough one, huh?

[ktwlpn]

Originally Posted by StudentNurseBean

Think being the next president would be a brutal job? Imagine being a transplant surgeon. You can't tell the parents of a dying kid when to pull the plug, but you have to be there, ready, the minute he expires. You have to wait until he's dead, but not so long that his organs become useless. You can give him drugs to keep his organs healthy, but you mustn't technically revive him. And you can't remove and restart his heart until it's been declared kaput.

Full article here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...100301974.html

I thought that the actual surgeon actually has limited contact with the donor's family-I imagine it must be very difficult to be at the bedsie through the entire process (the organ procurement people,nursing staff ,neurologist,etc)

[sharkdiver]

Originally Posted by ktwlpn

I thought that the actual surgeon actually has limited contact with the donor's family-I imagine it must be very difficult to be at the bedsie through the entire process (the organ procurement people,nursing staff ,neurologist,etc)

Actually the organ procurement team is not supposed to even be in the same room as the patient until after they are declared dead, or have any direct contact with the patient care team that in any way could affect their care.

There is also a question with respect to donation after cardiac death as to whether a heart can ethically be used due the irreversible cessation of function criteria.

I ran across the following url on an ethics blog that points to an article that makes some interesting points.........

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/359/7/672