Cystic fibrosis patient, 28, died after organ transplant (received lungs of a 30-year smoker)

...no way your lungs are "working perfectly normally"

Uh where did you think that organ came from?

That everyone knows they are not getting a 'brand new' organ. That was some smug ass comment from the 'top transplant official'. He needs to be educated.

I also think most people would believe that a 30-year smoker lungs should not be even used for donation.

Whether that was a factor in this death, who knows, but still.

You cleary know more about transplants than that TOP TRANSPLANT OFFICIAL.

:shrug: Not sure about Britain, but in the US there are nowhere near enough donated parts for all who need them and many die because of the shortage.

I would imagine that if her lungs were in bad enough shape to require a transplant that she would have died without one; if that's the case, I understand why doctors would have transplanted a less than perfect organ.

So its just a guess.

take the risk of less than perfect organs over no organs...but, as you say, we're all guessing. I suspect her parents are reacting more from grief, which is understandable.

They were the lungs of a smoker, after 30 years of poison treatment.

Imagine going to a car lot and having a dealer blue book a burned out car, found at the bottom of a lake, at the condition of "Good".

Hey! Its used. Of course he didn't use the "Excellent" rating!

:rofl:

and did that even have anything to do with her death? It's not like she died of lung cancer.

:rofl:

Yeah, maybe its a coincidence. Hell. Its not like Pneumonia and smoking have any relation.

I mean...fuck it. Its like if a mechanic put an old shitty part in your car. Hell, its gotta be better than what they are replacing, right?!?

Knowing all the info, perhaps thats what she would of chose. There is value to determining your own end-of-life circumstances. She surely felt much pain and suffering prior to this death (though it wasn't certain). I merely think all the information should have been presented to her, in a way way they don't manipulate the condition of the lungs by calling them "less than perfect"

She might have died from the disease before getting an appropriate transplant, but she might not have.

There is absolutely no way that using a smoker's lungs in a transplant situation is ethical. Period.

That's like getting a heart transplant from Dick Cheney. Or a brain transplant from the Chimp.

If your lungs were working at a 10% capacity and you were on the verge of dying, and your only transplant option was a pair of lungs from a smoker that only worked at 50% capacity, would you take the smokers lungs, or would you just die?

The availability of donated organs is limited, so the doctors worked with what they had.

All smokers must be rounded up and placed in airtight detention camps so their second-hand breath from their blackened and satan-licked lungs doesn't poison our precious, precious air!

Smokers are the biggest menace facing our country right now! Damn you, Ralph Nader!

to prevent rejection? Could that have contributed to her death from pneumonia?

Maybe she'd have died in any case, even with perfectly pristine lungs. Organ transplants are NOT risk-free procedures, and some recipients die from complications that have nothing to do with the condition of the donated organs.

The disease isn't cured by a lung transplant.

How odd.

Is that really true? Gay men will not qualify? Would gay women? Is it because there is a higher HIV risk in men? Probably there is the lowest in gay women, I realize... However, I probably have more "high risk" than both groups working for many years in various health care settings, than if I "had the gay"!

This has been in effect for many many years -- despite the fact that AIDS appears in all segments of society. So, if you're a straight man who gets "laps dances" from drug-addicted hookers, you can donate. Gay men, who have been regularly tested for HIV, can't.

I am O-negative -- very much needed blood type. I used to donate as often as I could and was on call in case they needed some in an emergency. I have not been able to donate blood in 27 years.

For my efforts in critical care, I was exposed to Hep C, and only found this out when I last tried TO donate. If their tests hadn't worked, I would not have been screened for this. I'm regular ol A+...

We need to be better educated (said the preacher to the choir)

...since 1977?"

The "even once" part is my favorite.

Never mind that all blood donated to the Red Cross is tested for HIV. Never mind that the questions make no restrictions on unprotected sex from any other demographic (except needle users). Never mind that this policy is based entirely on fear, and is in no way an actual deterrent to contaminated blood entering the blood supply.

Homos got the AIDS, doncha know. All of 'em. People would be better off dead than taking a chance on getting homo blood.

Yay, change I can believe in!

Depending on pack-year history, complete pulmonary function with lung diffusion, and the amount of normal epithelial lung tissue replaced by goblet cells (from smoking or other irritants) and mucous production, this donor wouldn't qualify for ANY such procedure.

There is something missing here.

Sometimes, when we have a transplant who is listed, we will offer them a less than pristine organ. For instance, a HCV positive donor in a person with liver failure from HCV. Or a person who has overdosed from drugs, who, despite having an initial negative HIV test, still carries the possibility. The surgeons, to the best of my knowledge ALWAYS offer the change to make a choice when the organ itself may be at risk, and sometimes a patient is running out of time and accepts. Waiting for a transplant is just as you'd think, you're on a kind of life-timer that's ticking away. You can get to the point where you can no longer be transplanted because you won't survive the surgery. The only exception are kidney transplants, who have the option of dialysis. Dialysis itself is hard on the body and certainly no picnic.
We are working on a type of liver dialysis as well.

This is a very odd story, not so much the fact that the donor was a smoker, but that the recipient apparently didn't know. She should have been told, and allowed to make an informed decision.