I'm sorry....BUT another Terri thread? I have a question

An interesting point was posed to me today. I would like some input from any medical professions we have on board. Terri has been in a vegetative state for 15 years. Are her organs still good for transplant? Will they be after 7 plus days of starvation? As tragic as this is some good could come from it if several people could receive her organs.

Toxins will form in her body from the dehydration. Her kidneys will shut down as will the rest of the organs in her body. They will be too damaged.

parts).

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

will that help keep her alive?? Or will 7 days of no fluids already caused damage?

Even under better conditions -- say, right after her collapse into a coma -- most, if not all, of her organs would not be suitable for transplant. She suffered an anxoic crisis (physiological suffocation) at the same time she had radically altered blood electrolytes. In fact, the electrolyte problem probably brought on the anoxia. In such a situation, there can be extensive permanent tissue damage.

It would really take a transplant team to make a full assessment, but Terri Schiavo's whole body suffered a lot of damage, not simply her brain. In general, such patients/victims are poor choices for organ donation.

--p!

Would a medical school benefit from an anatomical study of her brain and other organs?

the actual condition of her cranium, which would aid future diagnoses of this type of "persistent vegetative state" when using brain scanning equipment, I also think that the two families need to move forward. They will not as long as this obsessive interest in Terri continues.

I can understand Michael's desire to cremate. Don't make a focal point for ongoing agitation over a "martyr." By the same token, I recognize that the Schindlers will find this very hard to bear, as though Terri had never lived.

I don't truly understand our culture of death, cemetaries, monuments, etc.; although, I do understand that it's part of most people's expectations and traditions.

As for some who have said that since Terri is Catholic and cremation should not be used, there has been a change in Catholic belief over cremation and it has been allowed since 1963. There is a preference that the funeral be conducted with the body and then cremation to take place. (http://catholicism.about.com/od/deathdyingafterlife/f/crematedf04.htm">see)

Even in death, this tug-of-war will continue.