A report from HRSA showed that organ demands have surpassed the safety of the donor, especially in regard to “donations after circulatory death.” This occurs when the patient is severely ill or injured but not declared “brain dead.” Once life support is taken away, doctors have to wait a couple hours to harvest the organs after the heart naturally stops.
The investigation found that there were more than 70 operations - just in Kentucky - that had to be stopped and "should have been stopped sooner" because the patients were showing signs of life or even waking up. Fifty-five medical workers is several different states report witnessing at least one instance where the organs were taken out too quickly, and in some cases, they saw transplant doctors administering drugs to the donor to hasten death.
HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy is promising to overhaul the entire organ donation system because of the investigation.
Medical Ethicist David Prentice says the investigation is new, but the problem is not.
“Unfortunately, it's not the first time and the only time that these reports of patients being on the operating table, and they're getting ready to take their organs, and the patient wakes up or shows signs of life,” Prentice explains.
He says sometimes the procedure to take an organ is hurried because the recipient is in dire need.
“This needs to be a situation where, even at the risk that you will not get the organs you want or as many organs, a matter of being respectful to the donors and their families,” Prentice says.
However, Prentice says sometimes the motive is money.
“There's money to be made, whether it's in terms of fees for transporting these organs to the hospital, doctors' fees, other kind of things. There is, unfortunately, a profit angle,” Prentice continues.
