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‘Brain dead’ Quebec woman wakes up after family refuses organ donation
LifeSiteNews ^ | 7/7/11 | Rebecca Millette

Posted on 07/07/2011 3:55:43 PM PDT by wagglebee

DROMMONDVILLE, Quebec, July 5, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Last week, Madeleine Gauron, a Quebec woman identified as viable for organ donation after doctors diagnosed her as “brain dead,” surprised her family and physicians when she recovered from a coma, opened her eyes, and began eating.

The 76-year-old woman was hospitalized at the Hospital Sainte Croix de Drummondville for an inflammation of the gums, which required a brief operation.  During her recovery, hospital staff gave the elderly woman solid food, which she had been unable to consume in her family home for some time, and left her unattended.  Choking on the food, she fell into a coma, after unsuccessful resuscitation.

Medical staff contacted her family, explaining to them that their mother was “brain dead,” with no hope of recovery.  Citing Gauron’s eyes as particularly viable, the doctors asked if the family would agree to organ donation.

While supporting the possibility of donation, her shocked family first demanded further medical tests to prove Gauron was really dead. 

The next day, the family was astonished to learn that Gauron had awakened.  Shortly afterwards, she sat up in bed and ate yogurt.

“If we had decided to donate her organs, they would have killed her,” said her son.

“It makes no sense to treat people like that. Although she is 76 years old and is ill, she did not have to suffer all this,” insisted her daughter.

Madeleine Gauron is now able to eat, walk and talk, and immediately recognized her family. Her children have decided to take legal action against the hospital.

As anecdotes similar to Gauron’s continue to pile up, “brain death” as a legitimate diagnosis of actual death is increasingly being questioned by concerned family members and medical professionals, some of whom have charged that the “brain death” criteria was created simply to ensure that harvested organs are fresh.

Currently, more than half of Swedish intensive care nurses who care for purportedly brain dead patients have doubts about methods for establishing brain death, according to a recent survey released by Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg.

While regulations require Swedish physicians to ascertain brain death through particular clinical tests, further analysis in conjunction with brain x-rays are only done for select patients.

The author of the thesis, Anne Flodén, a registered nurse and researcher at the Institute of Health and Care Sciences, said the outcome of the study was problematic, indicating the need for clear guidelines surrounding the process of diagnosis and organ donation.

“This problem was raised by many of the ICU nurses in several of the studies,” said Flodén. “They were disappointed in the lack of structure and guidelines and are therefore calling for more support from management on these issues.”

Related Stories

‘Brain dead’ woman recovers after husband refuses to withdraw life support

No ‘moral certainty’ that brain death is really death: prominent Catholic ethics professor Brugger

“Brain Death” is Life, Not Death: Neurologists, Philosophers, Neonatologists, Jurists, and Bioethici

“Brain Death” Test Causes Brain Necrosis and Kills Patients: Neurologist to Rome Conference

“Brain Death” as Criteria for Organ Donation is a “Deception”: Bereaved Mother


TOPICS: Canada; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: moralabsolutes; organharvesting; prolife
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"Brain death" is a term made-up to butcher the living for their "parts."
1 posted on 07/07/2011 3:55:53 PM PDT by wagglebee
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To: cgk; Coleus; cpforlife.org; narses; Salvation; 8mmMauser
Pro-Life Ping
2 posted on 07/07/2011 3:57:10 PM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: BykrBayb; floriduh voter; Lesforlife; Sun; EternalVigilance
Ping
3 posted on 07/07/2011 3:58:00 PM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: 185JHP; 230FMJ; AKA Elena; Albion Wilde; Aleighanne; Alexander Rubin; Amos the Prophet; ...
Moral Absolutes Ping!

Freepmail wagglebee to subscribe or unsubscribe from the moral absolutes ping list.

FreeRepublic moral absolutes keyword search
[ Add keyword moral absolutes to flag FR articles to this ping list ]


4 posted on 07/07/2011 3:58:53 PM PDT by wagglebee ("A political party cannot be all things to all people." -- Ronald Reagan, 3/1/75)
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To: wagglebee
“If we had decided to donate her organs, they would have killed her,” said her son.

No kidding.

5 posted on 07/07/2011 4:04:40 PM PDT by Former Proud Canadian (We .. have a purpose .. no longer to please every dictator with a vote at the UN. PM Harper)
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To: wagglebee

They were going to butcher the woman for her eyes. Her eyes for crying out loud. Then do what to cover their crime. Let her wake up and find empty eye sockets. They were going to kill her. I would take my jail term and explain to the doctor how wrong it was.


6 posted on 07/07/2011 4:06:09 PM PDT by healy61
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To: wagglebee

Praise be to God!


7 posted on 07/07/2011 4:06:37 PM PDT by blueyon (The U. S. Constitution - read it and weep)
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To: wagglebee

Wow. She could easily live another 20 years! God bless her and her family!


8 posted on 07/07/2011 4:07:22 PM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: wagglebee

I needed neither a scientist, not an “ethicist” to tell me that a person is either alive, or dead. And until they are dead, they are alive.

That is the reason that I have refused all the generous offers of the DMV to become an organ donor.


9 posted on 07/07/2011 4:10:14 PM PDT by chesley (Eat what you want, and die like a man.)
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To: trisham
Obamacare coming to a hospital near you!
10 posted on 07/07/2011 4:10:21 PM PDT by srmorton (Deut. 30 19: "..I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing;therefore choose life..")
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To: wagglebee

WOW!!!

Thank GOD the woman woke up!

I’ve come to absolutely loathe organ donation entirely.


11 posted on 07/07/2011 4:16:08 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
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To: srmorton

Yep! IIFC, Canada has a form of obammycare...........


12 posted on 07/07/2011 4:16:26 PM PDT by basil (It's time to rid the country of "gun free zones" aka "Killing Fields")
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To: wagglebee
I'm not a doctor, but what are the risks of receiving a 76-year-old kidney, or liver, or heart?

What's the lifespan of an organ from someone who is 76 years old?

-PJ

13 posted on 07/07/2011 4:19:19 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too (Everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's Day, Mexican on Cinco de Mayo, and American on Election Day.)
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To: wagglebee

I never check the ‘organ donor’ portion on my drivers license. I never underestimate the greed potential of many people. For this very reason. No slicing and dicing of myself for profit.


14 posted on 07/07/2011 4:21:12 PM PDT by He Rides A White Horse ((unite))
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To: wagglebee; MotleyGirl70; Cagey; Mr. Brightside; earlJam; Rb ver. 2.0; lesser_satan; Taffini; jdm; ..

KRAMER: I didn’t know it was possible to come out of a coma.

JERRY: I didn’t know it was possible not to know that.


15 posted on 07/07/2011 4:29:57 PM PDT by Gamecock (It's not eat drink and be merry because tommow we die, but rather because yesterday we were dead.)
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To: wagglebee
I saw this same thing happen with a 17 year old boy in the 70's. Because of that, I will not sign the organ donor thing on the back of drivers license.

He was irreversibly brain dead and transferred to our nursing home when the family refused to go along with the organ donation. 6 months later he walked out of our facility to resume his life.

16 posted on 07/07/2011 4:36:23 PM PDT by w1andsodidwe (Barrak has now won the contest. He is even worse than Jimmah.)
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To: wagglebee

This is the reason that I refuse to sign any organ donor card and have specifically and in writing refused to participate in any such scheme when I have had to go to the hospital. Having an organ donor card is a powerful incentive for doctors to be premature in their diagnoses of brain death etc. Organs are ever so much more apt to be useful if taken from a still living body than from one that has already died. It is surely the Humanist thing to do. The attitude of a doctor might too well be, “well he’s probably going to die pretty soon, anyway.”


17 posted on 07/07/2011 4:45:13 PM PDT by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's "Economics In One Lesson.")
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To: little jeremiah

I have always been completely against it because it was obvious that the pissibility of obtaining “organs” would turn doctors into ruthless predators.


18 posted on 07/07/2011 4:46:24 PM PDT by kabumpo (Kabumpo)
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To: srmorton

I hear you. It’s frightening.


19 posted on 07/07/2011 4:48:45 PM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: wagglebee

And who would want the organs from a 76 year old person?

Something does not add up here.


20 posted on 07/07/2011 4:53:57 PM PDT by Presbyterian Reporter
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