Transplant surgeon kills donor?

The possibility of this happening was why my mom never let me register as an organ doner on my driver's license. I had to wait until I renewed it when I was an adult. Now this clown makes me think she wasn't too far off the mark. At the time, I thought she was crazy.

Sorry don't believe this. Ativan 80mg and Morphine 200mg would have depressed his respirations and killed him - he only weighed 80#. Then....this mother is c/o that she didn't get to say goodbye - her son had been in a coma for awhile - surely she had time to say goodbye. However, her next sentence, "Someone's got to pay for this" says it all...

I noticed that also. While I am empathetic towards the mother - it is so hard to lose a child - he was obviously ill for a long time. While not downplaying her grief, their should be a criminal investigation (especially the amt of drugs as stated), but I can't believe how people want to make money off of their grief.

How do you even draw up 80 mg of Ativan? That would be 40 vials of the 2 mg/vial stuff. It probably comes in bigger vials, but I haven't seen much bigger. The stuff is like drawing up glue. Morphine doesn't usually come in the 100 mg vial size either. This really sounds strange.

I agree - when he went to the OR for harvesting, she didn't say good-bye before he went? She thought he would come back out and could say it then? Smells funnier by the minute...

I wont pass judgement because I was not there and do not know the facts. A couple of questions I have"

Why was he given Morphine and Ativan if he was declared brain dead?

That much morphine and ativan together in a 30 minute period could easily be argued the intent was killing the patient, not easing the pain.

With giving that much Ativan that quickly I would also be concerned about the propylene glycol he received.

I'm glad they are prosecuting this. I am one of those people who is suspicious about some of the things going on in the transplant business that are crossing the line of my ethical perspective. Examples of this would be selling of kidneys by the poor, pressuring families, harvesting organs from living people before they are brain dead. I am not an organ donar because I don't trust the system. I'm sorry if that upsets anyone, but this article confirms my misgivings about the whole thing.

I think that our medical system is messed up. We can spend millions on one organ transplant for a former alcoholic who wrecked his liver (Yes I know not all organ recipients are to blame for their condition), but we don't have universal coverage, and we complain about treating the indigent in our ERs.

You're right about the mother, she might be opportunistic about this and think she hit the medical malpractise lottery, but that doesn't mean it's right to start ODing people to harvest their organs.

just for the fact he was taken off a vent and survived...
then given all that morphine/ativan, still lingered.
double trauma to his system.
what is wrong with this picture?

leslie

What disturbs me, beyond the obvious, is there are so many potential donors who will now refuse to consider it because of this.