Alcoholic dies after being refused transplant

[Lace Neil Singer]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...DC611A02BB525D

Um, George Best got one. O.o Guess it's one rule for the rich, yet again.

[kibbles]

That's scary, and if I lived near where that happened I'd be ashamed to say I was from there.

[DesignFox]

Now, that's the problem. If the rich guy can do it, everyone else should be able to.

However, sad as it is that this young man died, I think if it came down to a binge drinker getting a liver, and say, someone who had been in a horrific accident, I pick the accident victim.

I don't think self-destructive people should get treatment for something they did to themselves over someone who had no control over their situation. The waiting lists for organ transplants are not trivial...

13 years old this kid started BINGE drinking??? He had to be doing some major major damage to himself to get as bad as he was. My first thought looking at the photo was "yikes! He's jaundiced!"

I feel horrible about the situation. I really wish the doctors had enough organs or enough resources not to have to choose which patients got that kind of life saving surgery...but if it comes down to it...he killed himself. Sad as that is.

I feel terrible for his poor mother. Even working full time though, I wonder how she didn't know what was going on...

[Greenday]

Well, I agree with the doctors not giving him a new liver. There are people out there who need livers by no choice of their own. Drinking your liver to death should never have priority over a random liver disease.

Though I don't think the rich should get one. Odds are though, after receiving a new liver, rich people tend to make huge donations to hospitals, which is how they can justify such a thing. They get to claim that the donation is big enough that it'll help save a lot more lives.

[Android Kaeli]

Honestly, I much rather pick someone that needs a liver (or other organ) by no fault of their own to someone who needs one by their own hand. If someone made the choice to damage their liver (or other organ) to the extent that they needed a transplant, they shouldn't have to jump the line because of it. There's other people, ones who need the transplant because of no fault of their own, more then someone who did it to themselves.

He'd have to be drunk more often then not to have done something like needing a liver transplant that bad at such a young age. There's people in my family that's been drinking for years and they haven't gotten to the point of needing something major as a transplant of any sort.

[lordlundar]

Okay, to start off with, the George Best reference was a sympathy cheap shot. Particularly because they said the rule was implemented to AVOID the same thing.

but just for people like Gary, who made a mistake and never got a second chance.

In short "I want an exception for my son because he fucked up his own life and everyone should feel sorry about him".

No. There. I said it.

This is not something that just happened. He had 9 years to fix his life and chose to wait too late to do anything. This is the perfect example of needing to meet people half way. Someone reached out, but he has to put some effort himself to survive. He chose not to and paid the price. It's really that simple.

[Flyndaran]

Of course, we all know that drug addictions are so easy to fix, and are wholly the fault of the sufferers.

[crazylegs]

He'd have to be drunk more often then not to have done something like needing a liver transplant that bad at such a young age. There's people in my family that's been drinking for years and they haven't gotten to the point of needing something major as a transplant of any sort.

Anecdotely it has been suggested that liver damage is more pronounced when you imbibe more regularly whilst younger.

In addition (and this is soley from my experience in dealing with young people, it is not backed up by any research, statistics nor independent research, take it at face value) young people tend to drink to get drunk. What they don't realise is that they can get as drunk on less alcohol. What tends to happen is this, they drink and expect the drunk feeling to happen instantly. When this doesn't happen (and it never does of course) they drink more, and more, and more until suddenly they're so drunk they vomit, urinate and lose volume control. In the worse case scenario they end up aspirating their own vomit, then Bad Things Happen.

It's not too hard to see the leap that needs to happen to go from here to addiction, nor is it hard to see why now there is a rule which means you have to be sober for 6 months outside of a hospital environment before you can receive a transplant.

[Nyoibo]

Of course, we all know that drug addictions are so easy to fix, and are wholly the fault of the sufferers.

Well no one made them take the first hit of whatever substance.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Okay, to start off with, the George Best reference was a sympathy cheap shot.

No it wasn't; I was merely making a statement. Please don't attempt to read my mind, you'll only get lost.

In any case, saying the rule was implemented to prevent the same thing happening kind of smacks of parents of children who die in hospital suing the hospital for the same reason; ignoring the fact that taking funds from said hospital is going to make it more likely to happen again.

Cases like this boy shouldn't be lumped together; they should be assessed on a case by case basis. Surely saving life should be a doctor's priority?

[crazylegs]

they should be assessed on a case by case basis. Surely saving life should be a doctor's priority?

That is the priority, however when resources are as scarce as they are (livers in this instance) triage is needed to see which patient has the greater chance of survival, and which patient will most suited to the procedure.

An alcoholic who can't stay dry who has a damaged liver will be lower down the list than a non alcoholic because the risk is (and it's a substantial risk) that the liver will, in effect, be wasted because they'll carry on drinking.

Remember that this patient couldn't stay dry outside a hospital environment for 6 months.

[Boozy]

In a world with a limited supply of donor livers, things like this will happen. While my heart breaks for the young man who died (especially since he was still a child when he started drinking - hardly able to make good decisions about his life), it's not like the liver he didn't receive was tossed into the trash. Someone else got it, and is hopefully alive and well today because of it.

The only thing this story reinforces for me is that more people need to become organ donors.

[BroomJockey]

I'm going to take a harsh stance and say if the kid was drinking at 13, the parents killed him. He didn't kill himself, the hospital didn't let him die, his parents killed him stone cold dead. I don't care if they split up, they could have done something at ANY time between then and now to at least slow him down. They didn't.

[lordlundar]

No it wasn't; I was merely making a statement. Please don't attempt to read my mind, you'll only get lost.

Whoops, sorry. That was directed at the article itself, not you.

[Arcade Man D]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...DC611A02BB525D

Um, George Best got one. O.o Guess it's one rule for the rich, yet again.

George Best got his, I believe, before the rule was put into place. If someone from the UK can state when this regulation was started, Best's transplant was in 2002.