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OrganFacts.net

The truth behind
organ donation
& transplants

The truth behind organ donation & transplants


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… The truth behind organ donation & organ transplants

WAS
NOT
DEAD

Carina Melchior

Carina Melchior , a 19 year old student, suffered severe injuries after crashing her car. Doctors said she would soon be “brain dead” and convinced her family to consent to organ donation. But, as doctors gathered around her bed to prep her for organ donation, she suddenly opened her eyes and moved her legs. Now she is making a full recovery. [more]

WAS
NOT
DEAD

Steven Thorpe

Steven Thorpe , 17 year old Warwickshire youth, was declared “brain dead” by four doctors, but his parents did not give up on him, and insisted on another opinion from an independent GP and a neurosurgeon. Steven made an unexpected recovery and left hospital alive seven weeks later. [more]

WAS
NOT
DEAD

Zach Dunlap

Zach Dunlap , a 21 year old Oklahoma man, was “feeling pretty good” four months after he was diagnosed as “brain dead”. Ironically, Zach heard the doctors pronounce him dead, but was unable to do anything about it. A few days later, he revived and spoke to his family. [more]

WAS
NOT
DEAD

Sam Schmid

Sam Schmid , a 21 year old Arizona college student, was critically wounded in a five-car accident. Surgeons thought he had no hope of recovery and broached organ donation with his family. Sam was poised to ‘donate’ his vital organs, when he suddenly emerged from a coma. He has since had rehabilitation and walks with the aid of a walker. [more]

WAS
NOT
DEAD

Val Thomas

Val Thomas , 59 year old West Virginia woman, came back to life, after being clinically “brain dead” for 17 hours. Attempts to revive her after a heart attack had failed, and doctors diagnosed her as “brain dead”. Later “she moved her arm, coughed and asked for her son.” ... she was alive. [more]

WAS
NOT
DEAD

Gloria Cruz

Gloria Cruz , 56 year old Northern Territory woman, was declared “brain dead” and expected to ‘die’ within 48 hours. A doctor, a social worker and a ‘patient advocate’ urged her husband to remove the ventilator and let her ‘die’. But he refused and 3 days later, Gloria revived, awoke from her coma and was getting around hospital in a wheelchair. [more]

WAS
NOT
DEAD

Madeleine Gauron

Madeleine Gauron , a 76 year old Quebec woman, was diagnosed by medical staff as “brain dead”, with no hope of recovery. Doctors asked if the family would agree to organ donation, but the family asked for more medical tests. The next day, astonishingly, she awakened and sat up in bed and ate yogurt. [more]

WAS
NOT
DEAD

Rae Kupferschmidt

Rae Kupferschmidt , 65 year old Minnesota woman, suffered a massive cerebral haemorrhage and doctors diagnosed her as “brain dead”. She was taken home to die and her family began making funeral arrangements. When Rae spontaneously sucked an ice cube offered by her daughter, she was found to be alive. She later walked. [more]

WAS
NOT
DEAD

Suzanne Chin

Suzanne Chin suffered cardiac arrest and collapsed into unconsciousness. Taken to hospital, she remained in a coma and the head of ICU, two neurologists & a cardiologist said she was brain-dead with no hope of recovery. But her husband refused to turn of her life support. 3 days later, Suzanne revived & is now well & very much ALIVE. [more]

Sober, Precise Language

from Dr David W Evans

The paper titled “Role of short latency potentials in the diagnosis of brain death” by Facco E, Munari M, Gallo F, Volpin SM, Behr AU, Baratto F & Giron GP, and published in Clinical Neurophysiology (2002) 113; 1855-66, offers irrefutable, genuinely scientific, evidence in support of the contention that the tests of brain stem function in general use for the diagnosis of “brain stem death” (or that element of “brain death”) lack the power to exclude remaining function in the brain stem.

The authors stress the necessity of certainty in the diagnosis of ‘BD’ (as a basis for the diagnosis and certification of human death) and report that 3 patients diagnosed ‘BD’ on the current Italian criteria - meeting “all EEG and clinical criteria of whole brain death” - still had detectable brain stem activity when more rigorously tested. As they say, “they were not yet dead”.

Since the tests of brain stem function listed as required in satisfaction of the Italian criteria (including the now-admittedly dangerous apnoea test) appear to be the same as those prescribed in the UK Code of Practice for the diagnosis of “brain stem death” (or “death for transplant purposes”), it can no longer be maintained that those simple bedside tests suffice for the certain diagnosis of death of the brain stem. That being so, arguments about the role of the brain stem in the generation of consciousness are seen as irrelevant.

David W. Evans