I recently read an article about a young man, I believe in Florida, who fell into a coma. He was declared brain dead and, since he had signed up for organ donation, they prepared to remove his organs. The family requested that they be allowed to sit with him an hour after he was removed from life support. Within that hour he woke up. I have heard of at least two other published stories where the patient declared brain dead woke up before they could take his organs. A number of years ago, Doctor Paul Byrne, a neonatologist, gave a presentation in Oneonta on organ donation. He explained that the diagnosis, brain death, was concocted back in 1968 to make it easier to get hearts for transplantation. True death occurs when the circulation and respiration have stopped. Within 4 to 5 minutes after true death the heart and liver are so corrupted that they are unsuitable for transplantation. For kidneys this time is about 30 minutes. After true death, tissues such as skin, bones, cornea, veins, heart valves and connective tissues can be transplanted. These are tissues not organs. Organ transplants cannot take place without a beating heart.
There is often a rush to get organs, especially those of young people who become critically ill. Part of the declaration of “brain death” is the apnea test, where the patient is removed from the ventilator for up to 10 minutes. This is done at a time when the patient is in critical need of oxygen. Not surprisingly the patient’s body does not respond well, and the poor response is used to justify the declaration of brain death or as the heart rate drops, cardiac death.
They sometimes administer sedatives during organ transplants, so the bodies don’t thrash around, but they don’t administer pain killers. Organ donation has become a huge money making business and, as with many billion-dollar industries, greed can override scrupulous behavior. People need to be aware of what they are agreeing to.
Please make sure your kids are made aware of this issue, so they don’t mistakenly sign up for organ donation when they get their driver’s license. And please deny any request for an apnea test when someone is on life support.
Paul Wenner
Stamford
