Patient awoke to doctors preparing to remove her organs

[JEDIYoda]

Why was this not reported sooner....or in the main stream media sooner???
This took place in 2009 but is just now being reported.....
I wonder how big of a problem this is??

It would alarm me to even knoe that something like this was a possibility....

WoW-- talk about fright factor...this makes all the SAW movies seem like disney movies...lol

Then it turns out the patient committed suicide in 2011.....
But the patients mother said this incident had nothing to do with her suicide???



http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sidesho...ly-preparing-remove-her-organs-141547610.html

Not everyone looks forward to a visit to the doctor. And some people even have an irrational fear of hospitals.

But sometimes things do, in fact, go horribly wrong, as in the case of a Syracuse, New York, resident who awoke during a trip to the emergency room to find that doctors were mistakenly preparing to remove her organs.

The Post-Standard reports that in October 2009, Colleen S. Burns was taken to the emergency room at St. Joseph’s Hospital Center, suffering from a drug overdose. Although a nurse told doctors that Burns was recovering from her overdose, those same doctors pronounced her dead.

A call was placed to her family informing them that Burns had passed away, and the family subsequently agreed to have her removed from life support and gave the hospital clearance to harvest her organs.

But Burns was not dead. In fact, a number of signs clearly pointed to her being alive. When a nurse performed a mandatory reflex test on Burns, her toes curled downward. She appeared to be breathing independently of a hospital respirator, and her lips and tongue were said to have moved moments before doctors prepared to remove her organs.

Nonetheless, the nurse then followed instructions to give Burns a powerful sedative, a seemingly unnecessary move if the patient were actually dead.
read on...
Not everyone looks forward to a visit to the doctor. And some people even have an irrational fear of hospitals.

But sometimes things do, in fact, go horribly wrong, as in the case of a Syracuse, New York, resident who awoke during a trip to the emergency room to find that doctors were mistakenly preparing to remove her organs.

The Post-Standard reports that in October 2009, Colleen S. Burns was taken to the emergency room at St. Joseph’s Hospital Center, suffering from a drug overdose. Although a nurse told doctors that Burns was recovering from her overdose, those same doctors pronounced her dead.

A call was placed to her family informing them that Burns had passed away, and the family subsequently agreed to have her removed from life support and gave the hospital clearance to harvest her organs.

But Burns was not dead. In fact, a number of signs clearly pointed to her being alive. When a nurse performed a mandatory reflex test on Burns, her toes curled downward. She appeared to be breathing independently of a hospital respirator, and her lips and tongue were said to have moved moments before doctors prepared to remove her organs.

Nonetheless, the nurse then followed instructions to give Burns a powerful sedative, a seemingly unnecessary move if the patient were actually dead.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

In retrospect they probably should have harvested them sooner.

 

[CrackRabbit]

Something wrong with your copypasta.
But that is a bit horrifying to think of.

 

[nehalem256]

I am thinking the suicide might be more connected to the drug usage.

I am also a bit surprised that they can harvest organs from drug addicts.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

I am thinking the suicide might be more connected to the drug usage.

I am also a bit surprised that they can harvest organs from drug addicts.

If we aren't talking HIV and ruined alcoholic livers then it's not a problem. Standards of practice would would to wait until the patient shuffles off this mortal coil.

 

[monovillage]

I'm not surprised at all, a study in JAMA found that hospital mistakes killed 90,000+ patients a year.

 

[slightlyhuman]

oh well. this bitch killed herself in 2011.

no rip for her.

 

[JEDIYoda]

oh well. this bitch killed herself in 2011.

no rip for her.

If she was still living would she still be a bitch??

 

[Oldgamer]

Quote: It’s unlikely that Burns’ case was entirely isolated. A report from the American Association for Justice claims that preventable medical errors are the sixth largest cause of death in the U.S.

PREVENTABLE MEDICAL ERRORS – THE SIXTH BIGGEST KILLER IN AMERICA

Quote: And as if all of that is not unsettling enough, one consumer advocate told The Post-Standard that there’s currently no way of accounting for how often these cases happen, because there is no centralized system for collecting information on hospital errors

Thats because hospitals don't want to keep track of the errors, it would leave them open to losing money, reprimands, fines... ect. Hospitals are about making money.

 

[lord_emperor]

That's not surprising, medical professionals are human too.

I fuck up at my job all the time, usually I notice and fix it before anyone else notices. If a doctor fucks up there may be no second chance.

 

[nextJin]

Doesn't Obamacare prevent medical malpractice drastically lowering insurance costs?

 

[snarfbot]

discovering that your cadaver is not in fact dead and then administering a sedative apparently to allow the organ harvest to continue is not an error.

even given the poorest of poor communication, no documentation whatsoever for example. this appears to be the case considering the mix up. errors all around for sure. that said, sedating the patient whose organs were to be harvested, upon discovering life signs. thats not an error, thats something else lol.

 

[KlokWyze]

sedative to a corpse?

 

[SirStev0]

Haven't read the article. Don't plan to (typical medical witchhunt), but:

We don't take organs from dead people. We harvest organs from brain dead people. You have to still be "alive" to have viable organs.

Brain dead donors have pulses and blood pressures and everything. They usually don't have a respiratory drive, so they don't breath on their own, but they sometimes do...

 

[SirStev0]

But Burns was not dead. In fact, a number of signs clearly pointed to her being alive. When a nurse performed a mandatory reflex test on Burns, her toes curled downward. She appeared to be breathing independently of a hospital respirator, and her lips and tongue were said to have moved moments before doctors prepared to remove her organs.

Fuck I read.. And I was right.

"moments before doctor prepared to remove her organs" is a bullshit statement.


Each state has mandatory "brain death criteria" and all of them revolve around mandatory reflex testing and hypoxia tests.

When brain death is suspected (in this case it sound like hypoxia secondary to resp failure from overdose), the patients family or legal represent is informed (like said in the article) they are then put through tests where reflex, resp drive, and labs are checked. Often times imaging is done. If they fail, they are declared brain dead. Once that is the case organ donation is considered, and if that is chosen surgeon's are called to harvest.

They don't just check reflexes seconds before they operate. I have done transplant surgery. Surgeons aren't just standing around with a knife waiting.

"Moments" in this case probably really means, when the on-call surgeon rolls out of bed, is flown to the hospital, checks in, preps, drapes, and then picks up a scalpel.



Also... her having reflexes isn't waking up moments before... it is her brain regaining primitive movements as oxygenation is restored and swelling from the hypoxia is relieved. She probably was intubated and in intensive care unresponsive for a number of days after she "woke up".

 

[Soundmanred]

I don't knoe what to think.

 

[Strk]

Organs are donated from people who are brain dead, not dead.

 

[Braznor]

Organs are donated from people who are brain dead, not dead.

This means AT's members are the perfect specimens for organ donations.

 

[OverVolt]

This is why I am not an organ donor FWIW.

 

[BallaTheFeared]

Imma laugh at all these foos without organs in the afterlife.

 

[OverVolt]

discovering that your cadaver is not in fact dead and then administering a sedative apparently to allow the organ harvest to continue is not an error.

even given the poorest of poor communication, no documentation whatsoever for example. this appears to be the case considering the mix up. errors all around for sure. that said, sedating the patient whose organs were to be harvested, upon discovering life signs. thats not an error, thats something else lol.

Yup, the reason I am not an organ donor. This isn't the first time I have heard of something like this. First time I ever heard of organ donor mistakes was on discovery channel.

 

[mikeymikec]

nvm

 

[HomerJS]

Family didn't seem to care much. Wouldn't you leave her on life support until getting there in person? "Go ahead and remove organs" over the phone??

 

[bignateyk]

Why the rush to harvest her organs 10 minutes after they declare her brain dead? They can't give her a few days on life support to confirm their diagnosis?

 

[monovillage]

Why the rush to harvest her organs 10 minutes after they declare her brain dead? They can't give her a few days on life support to confirm their diagnosis?

The hospital and doctors make millions on the organs they harvest. They don't actually "sell" them, but the procedures they perform to use them make them wealthy.