Sarah Murnaghan - Lung Transplant FAILED

[Katzndogz]

Most parents would rip the lungs out of a healthy ten year old if they thought it would save their child's life. That's why we don't let parents make those kinds of decisions.

 

[earlycuyler]

We still have the right to designate who gets an organ that we donate when there is opportunity to do that. It is just illegal--for excellent reasons--to sell somebody an organ and no reputable medical facility would tolerate such a practice.

Cedars-Sinai Hospital is adament that Dick Cheney got no special treatment whatsoever--if money was a factor he would not have had to wait 20 months. At the time his new heart became available, he was deemed healthy enough to receive it, there were no people ahead of him that were a match. Try not to be too judgmental folks until you are on one of those waiting lists yourself. I recently lost a precious cousin who had been on the kidney transplant list for years, but each time one became available, she had other health issues that made it inadvisable for her to have the surgery. Until you know the facts, don't judge.

I won't presume to play God and say what Sarah and/or her parents should or should not have done. I can believe Sarah wants to live and wanted that chance. If it was my child, would I condemn her to die by refusing a lung when it was available? It is unfortunate that both sets of lungs that were made available to Sarah were damaged or compromised and nobody knows if the second transplant is going to take. She is still on a breathing tube today.

I would never be on one of those lists.

Until I am in the position that a transplant is necessary to save my life, I cannot say what I would decide about that.

I am pretty damn sure I would do whatever I could do to save my child, however. What you would decide re your own life or that of your child is your business. I won't judge you. And I won't accept your judgment as valid for me.

No judgment at all, nor intended. As for my children, if they had spent a good deal of their life in a struggle with some illness to live, the decision would be theirs. For me, I accept that I am human, and I will die. Its a fact, so for me it comes down to how I want to spend my time while I'm here. Taking anti rejection drugs, and all the other bs ain't for me. Death is different for me, I don't fear it. This child's parents need a reality check. As for this girl, its stated that her long term prognoses has not changed. One would think the Dr.'s had it right in this case. This means this girl had two sets of donated organs wasted on her for at best one year of life . No sense in it.

 

[eflatminor]

Still say there should be a free market for organs and body parts. The central planning of the organ market keeps supply well below demand and ensures costs remain high due to a lack of competition...just like every government-imposed monopoly.

But hey, there are plenty of humans, right?

There used to be. Its called China.

A free market...in China.

 

[earlycuyler]

Still say there should be a free market for organs and body parts. The central planning of the organ market keeps supply well below demand and ensures costs remain high due to a lack of competition...just like every government-imposed monopoly.

But hey, there are plenty of humans, right?

There used to be. Its called China.

A free market...in China.

Yep. There was a dude here that no Dr. Would transplant, so he went to China and they sold him a liver from an exicuted convict. Laws were passed on this country since to ban this, but china still sells there convicts organs.

 

[eflatminor]

There used to be. Its called China.

A free market...in China.

Yep. There was a dude here that no Dr. Would transplant, so he went to China and they sold him a liver from an exicuted convict. Laws were passed on this country since to ban this, but china still sells there convicts organs.

Government selling the organs of those they've executed...THAT'S you're example of a free market?

Wow.

Again,

 

[PredFan]

Just going by what was in the article. It stated they cut the bad parts away. In both cases I got the impression both sets of organs were inferior.

Organs are often less than 100% healthy. In a case of a child like this, a partially compromised lung would be better put into a child sice the trimming of the lung could consist of removing the damaged parts.

For another six months to a year of life ? The Dr.'s had it right. They shod have made the kid Comfortable and her parents should have accepted reality. We are Humans. We get sick, and we die.

No. If the transplant takes, then there is no reason the lungs cannot extend her life way beyond that.

If you're an adult and you need new lungs, you also won't last more than a year or two if the lungs don't take or the disease also infects the new lung.

The young are more often the better choices for transplants for obvious reasons.

 

[Sunshine]

Hear that, folks? The lungs she received FAILED and she has had a second transplant.
The first set of lungs lasted barely hours after the surgery, and she was placed on VA ECMO, a bypass machine, which would keep her alive for a week.
A second set of lungs was donated (adult, again) and she has had her second transplant.

See, this could have been predicted. Adult lungs do not belong in the body of a child:

Sarah Murnaghan Gets Second Lung Transplant, First Failed: Family | NBC 10 Philadelphia

The new lungs are infected with pneumonia. Great, giving a set of infected lungs to a kid with infected lungs. That's fucked up.

With all the surgeries I've had to have, I've never had to have my sternum opened. So, I cannot imagine what it must be like. But I can remember being 10, and to have had my sternum opened twice in a matter of weeks at that age would have been horrible. There is no way to even imagine what that child has been through. There comes a time when the fight has to end and the merciful thing to do is to let it go.

I'm thinking the doctors told her parents that she had a 50:50 chance of living through the first surgery. The second set she got had pneumonia when she got them.

Of course, this means that some deserving adult did not get the lungs.

 

[Sunshine]

Sorry folks, but not trying is worse than failure.

Until you have reached the point of diminishing returns where success is not possible. Beyond that, trying = torture. That is what hospice is all about. To help the dying have a comfortable and dignified death, if death can ever be considered dignified.

 

[Sunshine]

And this case is disgusting. Two sets of inferior lungs, thousands of dollars spent, like,y thousands in debt for an 11 year old who isn't even going to live. They are torturing that child.

The money is theirs or whomever they can raise it from. But I agree about the torture part.

If you think about the BEST day of your life, what would you be willing to go through to have that day again? But the problem is that no matter what you go through every day will be worse. There will be medication to prevent the body from rejecting the organ, then you are predisposed to have cancer because of the immune system suppression.

 

[Sunshine]

One thing I will correct is the second set of lungs did not have pneumonia. The person with them had a history of pneumonia but they would not transplant a set of lungs from a person currently suffering from pneumonia.

I only caught one newscast on this and they said the lungs were diseased.

 

[earlycuyler]

Organs are often less than 100% healthy. In a case of a child like this, a partially compromised lung would be better put into a child sice the trimming of the lung could consist of removing the damaged parts.

For another six months to a year of life ? The Dr.'s had it right. They shod have made the kid Comfortable and her parents should have accepted reality. We are Humans. We get sick, and we die.

No. If the transplant takes, then there is no reason the lungs cannot extend her life way beyond that.

If you're an adult and you need new lungs, you also won't last more than a year or two if the lungs don't take or the disease also infects the new lung.

The young are more often the better choices for transplants for obvious reasons.

So far the outlook has not improved for the little girl. At least not according to anything I have read in the media for what that's worth.

 

[PredFan]

For another six months to a year of life ? The Dr.'s had it right. They shod have made the kid Comfortable and her parents should have accepted reality. We are Humans. We get sick, and we die.

No. If the transplant takes, then there is no reason the lungs cannot extend her life way beyond that.

If you're an adult and you need new lungs, you also won't last more than a year or two if the lungs don't take or the disease also infects the new lung.

The young are more often the better choices for transplants for obvious reasons.

So far the outlook has not improved for the little girl. At least not according to anything I have read in the media for what that's worth.

Sometimes these things take time.

 

[earlycuyler]

No. If the transplant takes, then there is no reason the lungs cannot extend her life way beyond that.

If you're an adult and you need new lungs, you also won't last more than a year or two if the lungs don't take or the disease also infects the new lung.

The young are more often the better choices for transplants for obvious reasons.

So far the outlook has not improved for the little girl. At least not according to anything I have read in the media for what that's worth.

Sometimes these things take time.

True dat. And for what its worth, I hope this kid whips this things ass and lives to a ripe old age.

 

[Foxfyre]

So far the outlook has not improved for the little girl. At least not according to anything I have read in the media for what that's worth.

Sometimes these things take time.

True dat. And for what its worth, I hope this kid whips this things ass and lives to a ripe old age.

Yes. The little girl wants to live and be like any other little girl. She was joyful when she learned she would have a chance to live. She is sick of living on constant life support. If she doesn't make it, at least she was given every reasonable chance. And I suspect she wouldn't have had it any other way.

 

[skye]

I hope she makes it .... but if she doesn't, at least her parents know they did all they could.

Sadly, there are things in life that are beyond our hands.

 

[Kooshdakhaa]

if I recall correctly the panel that makes or made the rule ala who gets 'lungs' etc. delineated the boundaries, were Doctors...it didn't just appear out of nowhere, that had been the rules for a while.

sarah got that changed by a judge, becasue her parents found a way to surface and bring attention to their case, Sibelius was exactly right when she said she could not change the rules ( and if she had she would be as wrong as the judge inho).


Look, if the new paradigm is who yells loudest and best able to manage the press etc. as to how care is meted out, we are in deep shit.

This may sound harsh but I cannot think of anyway other way to say it- sarah may be cute and her parents successful at extending her life or giving her the opportunity to live, but, if this second set of lungs fails too, they have taken 2 sets of lungs that would have had provided much better odds as laid out by those doctors, given to the patients who had the best chances of integrating/utilizing them.



I said it then and I included every politician who got involved from each party and every media outlet, Fox, abc et al. Using emotional appeals to drive distribution of care is dishonest. If we are not going to let Doctors make those rules and turn it over to the judiciary, well, its going to be chaos.

This is a highly charged very emotional issue because literally we do not have enough organs to be able to save people.

I pity the "deciders". What a burden to bear.

I'm conflicted on many medical issues politically of course as we all are, but when one steps away from the keyboard and into those doctors shoes......

I couldn't do what they do.

I say fuck the deciders. What right do they have to decide anything ?a

Well, someone has to do it!

 

[Kooshdakhaa]

So what happened to that other kid who was in the same hospital and also got placed on the adult list when Sarah was? What happened to that kid and why don't we hear anything about that?

 

[Foxfyre]

I hope she makes it .... but if she doesn't, at least her parents know they did all they could.

Sadly, there are things in life that are beyond our hands.

Yes. But 10 years old is old enough to make some choices. She knew what would be done to her and that it was going to hurt and I'm pretty sure she also knew she might not make it. Kids are so perceptive; they just know about stuff like that sometimes. But she wanted it. As her mom, or her doctor, or her friend, I could not have told her no, when there was a chance for yes. Most especially when a no was a certain death sentence for Sarah.

The parents accepted damaged lungs for Sarah to give her a chance. Without that chance she had no chance.

 

[skye]

I hope she makes it .... but if she doesn't, at least her parents know they did all they could.

Sadly, there are things in life that are beyond our hands.

Yes. But 10 years old is old enough to make some choices. She knew what would be done to her and that it was going to hurt and I'm pretty sure she also knew she might not make it. Kids are so perceptive; they just know about stuff like that sometimes. But she wanted it. As her mom, or her doctor, or her friend, I could not have told her no, when there was a chance for yes. Most especially when a no was a certain death sentence for Sarah.

The parents accepted damaged lungs for Sarah to give her a chance. Without that chance she had no chance.

Yes....that's what I mean. All that could be done was done.

Now it's in God's hands.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Fox using this as a political football was/is shameless isn't it Katzndogz?

Was it shameful when the parents made it a political football?