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OrganFacts.net

The truth behind
organ donation
& transplants

The truth behind organ donation & transplants


      OrganFacts.net  … Wait for the Lord; take courage and He will give strength to your heart; yes, wait for the Lord. (Psalm 27:14)



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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]

“Brain death” survivor!

Taylor Hale

Taylor Hale in a medically-induced coma in 2011Iowa teen spontaneously revives after doctors declared her “brain-dead”.

Doctors claimed that an Iowa teen’s brain had turned to “mush” and that they were 95 to 99 percent certain that she would never wake up again. They advised the family to make funeral arrangements.

Taylor Hale and another girl were fooling around with some friends after a football game on September 11, 2011, when they hopped onto the hood of a car for a joke. Suddenly the car reversed and the girls fell off the hood. The other girl was okay, but Taylor’s head hid the pavement and she suffered a fractured skull and traumatic brain injury.

She had brain swelling, so doctors at Des Moines Blank Childrens Hospital put her into a medically-induced coma to aid healing. For days, machines monitored her condition and sympathetic visitors came and went. A week later she suffered a brain haemorrhage and her brain partially slid down into the spinal canal, which alarmed doctors. They considered this “irreversible brain damage” and declared Taylor Hale “brain dead”. They told the family “There is nothing more we can do for her. You should probably say goodbye.” They asked the family to consider donating her organs and to make plans for a funeral.

Doctors were 95 to 99 percent certain that she would never wake up againA Christian friend called by and prayed with the teen. Later that day the doctors took her off medications and life support. But she was not truly dead, and started to struggle to breath on her own. She slowly began to revive and for several hours her brain activity improved and she awoke and tried to talk. NBC News reports: “Taylor opened her eyes and moved her fingers and toes.”

Apparently the doctors were still skeptical of her recovery and expressed their doubts that she would ever walk again or be able to live without a feeding tube. But doctors don’t know everything, and Taylor continued to improve and recover from her traumatic brain injury. The Daily Mail reports that “Taylor spent the next several months re-learning how to do everything, from eating on her own to walking and talking.”

She found it very painful and stressful, but told local radio KCCI: “I pushed through it because you just got to do what you got to do.” Taylor eventually returned to school and worked hard to pass tests and catch up on lost time, so that she could graduate her course with all her other classmates. Today she is a healthy high school graduate and has even learned to drive a car. This courageous young woman is another survivor of so-called “brain death”… a living testimony of the ability of brain injury patients to recover.


(from “Taylor Hale, Teen Whose 'Brain Had Turned to Mush,' Set to Graduate High School” by Elizabeth Chuck, NBC News.com, 15 May 2015. Viewed 16 May 2015 at: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/teen-whose-brain-had-turned-mush-set-graduate-high-school-n359506 )

(see also “Iowa teen declared brain dead miraculously recovers, fights her way to graduate high school on time: 'I kept pushing through it.'” by Melissa Chan, NYDailyNews, , 15 May 2015. Viewed 16 May 2015 at: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/iowa-teen-declared-brain-dead-recovers-fights-graduate-article-1.2222417 )

& (see also “'It was the hand of God': 'Brain-dead' girl who was pulled off life support AWAKES from coma after chiropractor's prayer session and makes a full recovery” by Snejana Farberov, Daily Mail Online, 15 May 2015. Viewed 16 May 2015 at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3081882/It-hand-God-work-Meet-brave-teenage-girl-suffered-irreversible-brain-injury-pulled-life-support-awoke-coma-recovery.html )