Posted on 09/26/2012 8:38:50 AM PDT by longtermmemmory
The New York Organ Donor Network pressured hospital staffers to declare patients brain dead so their body parts could be harvested — and even hired “coaches” to train staffers how to be more persuasive, a bombshell lawsuit charged yesterday.
The federally funded nonprofit used a “quota” system, and leaned heavily on the next of kin to sign consent forms when patients were not registered as organ donors, the suit charged.
“They’re playing God,” said plaintiff Patrick McMahon, 50, an Air Force combat veteran and nurse practitioner who claims he was fired as a transplant coordinator after just four months for protesting the practice.
The suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, cited four examples of improper organ harvesting.
In September 2011, a 19-year-old man injured in a car wreck was admitted to Nassau University Medical Center. He was still trying to breathe and showed signs of brain activity, the suit charged.
But doctors declared him brain dead under pressure from donor-network officials, including Director Michael Goldstein, who allegedly said during a conference call: “This kid is dead, you got that?” the suit charged.
The patient’s family consented to have the organs harvested.
“I have been in Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan in combat. I worked on massive brain injuries, trauma, gunshot wounds, IEDs. I have seen worse cases than this and the victims recover,” McMahon told The Post.
That same month, a woman was admitted to St. Barnabas Hospital in The Bronx still showing signs of life, the suit said.
---snip---
In November 2011, a woman admitted to Staten Island University Hospital after a drug overdose was declared brain dead and her organs were about to be harvested when McMahon noticed that she was being given “a paralyzing anesthetic” because her body was still jerking.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
If the heart actually stops beating, it can’t be used... Therefore, they have to make up some other ridiculous tests to declare the person “dead”.
My Mother was the recipient of a kidney transplant (from a young woman who died in a motorcycle accident on Christmas Eve). I am very grateful to have had an extra 10 years with my Mom. However, whenever I hear stories like this I have to wonder whether the young woman really was dead, or not??? Would she have had a chance to grow up, finish college, get married, to be a Mom herself if it weren’t for the fact that she ended up at a hospital that was one of the first in the nation to do multiple transplants (IIRC the program my Mom was a part of was still a “study”-type program, and was directly tied to that hospital/university). It’s true that this young woman’s organs ended up in 8 different people, and she “saved” many lives through her death, but it’s extremely disconcerting when one wonders what really went on that night. I’d like to think what we were told was true - massive head trauma due to not wearing a helmet when they crashed, no possibility of survival, but who really knows...
This “nurse” witnessed murders and did nothing? Told no one? She’s an accessory after the fact and a conspirator. She and the people she is protecting belong in prison at the very least, and they should all be barred from practicing medicine of any kind for life, if they’re not executed.
Report to who? These people were legally “dead”, otherwise they wouldn’t be taking their organs. Under the law, they are dead no matter what else happens.
Being dead is different from legally dead. She did tell her supervisor, and was told to either do it or leave. She left.
This happens at most major hospitals. They want fresh, alive, organs, not ones from dead corpses. Where do you think hearts for heart transplants come from?
These predatory, soulless murdering organ harvesters will continue their killing and profiting from the murders until people speak up and stop them. People who "just go away" are part of the problem.
This happens at most major hospitals. They want fresh, alive, organs, not ones from dead corpses. Where do you think hearts for heart transplants come from?
Please don't tell me that you approve of murdering someone so as to have fresh organs from his corpse. That is shudderingly repulsive.
maybe its my age but I have in writing NO CODE...as a nurse I have seen vegetables brought back to so called life...Not one nurse I worked with ever wanted to be coded, we see too many that don’t turn out good, but that is an individuals decision to make...have also told my doctor... I have said prior on FR, my heart is not good-—unstable angina....lungs no good-—COPD, Kidneys act up once in a while, so they are a no no, skin is old wrinkled and have psoriasis, liver OK but I am working hard on fixing that with bourbon, brain....damn near useless.
No I don’t. I was skeptical of the organ donor thing before and my short conversation with confirmed it.
I understand.
bump
This pressure comes on ER and CCU doctors from the hospital administration--doctors are not so on board with this as you might imagine. The CCU and ER doctors do not profit from this--the hospital does. The hospital is now the *boss* of most doctors.
“Hope Obamacare hasn’t made your neurologist retire...”
Luckily, I don’t have a neurologist yet, but I’m glad I have some less serious specialists that I see, because sometimes, some physicians will at least keep their current patients, if the insurance is not good, but not take any new patients.
And if lawyers could be brought under control, knock another expected $25+ dollars per visit off, because there wouldn't be so many tests ordered.
Sigh. And you probably wouldn't hate doctors so much, and hate lawyers as much as they deserve, since they wouldn't be in charge of the Litigation Lotto.
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