'Dead' patient comes around as organs are about to be removed

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...ed-845140.html

'Dead' patient comes around as organs are about to be removed

By John Lichfield in Paris
Thursday, 12 June 2008

Doctors were about to remove the man's organs for transplant when his
heart began to beat

France may have to reconsider its medical definition of death after a
heart-attack victim came alive in the operating theatre as doctors
were about to remove his organs for transplant.

The patient, whose identity has not been revealed, recovered after a
long period in intensive care and is now able to walk and talk.

The 45-year-old man owes his life to the fact that surgeons authorised
to remove organs for transplant operations were not immediately
available. Under experimental rules adopted in France last year, to
make more organ transplants possible, the man had already reached the
point where he could be officially regarded as dead. Similar rules –
allowing the removal of organs when a patient's heart has stopped and
fails to respond to prolonged massage – already apply in several other
European countries, including Britain.

The case occurred at the Pitié-Salpêtriere hospital in Paris in
January but was not revealed at the time. The organisation that runs
state-owned hospitals in the Paris area – Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux
de Paris (AP-HP) – referred the case to its ethical committee on
transplants. A summary of the committee's debate, which came to no
firm conclusion, has now been published on the AP-HP website. "This
situation [illustrates] the questions that remain in reanimation ...
and what criteria can be used to determine that a reanimation has
failed," says the report.

The ethical questions raised are complex, as the committee
acknowledges that doctors – and the state – have an obligation to the
13,000 people waiting for transplanted organs in France. Last year 231
of these patients died because organs did not become available. It was
for this reason that France introduced experimental rules allowing the
removal of organs in nine hospitals from so-called "stopped heart"
patients.

The 45-year-old at the centre of the controversy collapsed close to
the La Pitié-Salpêtriere hospital. Efforts were made to revive him at
the scene, and more elaborate procedures continued at the hospital for
90 minutes. As surgeons were preparing to remove his vital organs, the
man began to breathe unaided. His pupils moved and he showed signs of
pain. His heart started to beat again. After several weeks during
which he was gravely ill, the man can now walk and talk. He has yet to
be told that doctors were ready to remove his organs.

Otherdoctors have seen similar incidents, according to the ethics
committee report. "During the meeting, other reanimators ... spoke of
situations in which a person whom everyone was sure had died in fact
survived after reanimation efforts that went on much longer than
usual," the report said. "Participants conceded that these were
exceptional cases, but ones that were nevertheless seen in the course
of a career."

Le Monde said doctors had feared the new transplant rules would
confront them with cases of this kind. They believe the existing rules
are imprecise and could undermine public support for the removal of
organs for transplant. They are pushing for the issue to be discussed
as part of a consultation next year on a proposed, new law on medical
ethics.

Professor Alain Tenaillon, the organ transplant specialist at the
French government's agency of bio-medicine, told Le Monde: "All the
specialist literature suggests that anyone whose heart has stopped and
has been massaged correctly for more than 30 minutes, is probably
brain dead. But we have to accept that there are exceptions.... There
are no absolute rules in this area."

Your post was successful wrote:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...ed-845140.html

'Dead' patient comes around as organs are about to be removed

By John Lichfield in Paris
Thursday, 12 June 2008

Doctors were about to remove the man's organs for transplant when his
heart began to beat

France may have to reconsider its medical definition of death after a
heart-attack victim came alive in the operating theatre as doctors
were about to remove his organs for transplant.

The patient, whose identity has not been revealed, recovered after a
long period in intensive care and is now able to walk and talk.

One more reason NOT to volunteer oneself as an organ donor! To me the
practice seems too close to cannibalism - I'll wait until they can clone
transplant organs from the recipient's own cell tissue. (That may not
be possible yet, but given sufficiently strong incentives, it should not
be that far in the future.)

EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque) wrote:

Your post was successful wrote:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...ed-845140.html

'Dead' patient comes around as organs are about to be removed

By John Lichfield in Paris
Thursday, 12 June 2008

Doctors were about to remove the man's organs for transplant when his
heart began to beat

France may have to reconsider its medical definition of death after a
heart-attack victim came alive in the operating theatre as doctors
were about to remove his organs for transplant.

The patient, whose identity has not been revealed, recovered after a
long period in intensive care and is now able to walk and talk.

One more reason NOT to volunteer oneself as an organ donor! To me the
practice seems too close to cannibalism - I'll wait until they can clone
transplant organs from the recipient's own cell tissue. (That may not
be possible yet, but given sufficiently strong incentives, it should not
be that far in the future.)


Well, one certainly hopes that Runge's "brain" is never to be transplanted -
or cloned...!!!

That guy is a *definite* pest of the very worst kind, for sure...!!!


--
Best
Greg

" I find Greg Morrow lowbrow, witless, and obnoxious. For him to claim that
we are some
kind of comedy team turns my stomach."
- "cybercat" to me on rec.food.cooking