Desperate British Health System Using Smokers’ Lungs in Transplants
- Posted on November 15, 2010 at 12:48pm by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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What happens in Britain when the list of people needing organs is longer than the list people willing to donate them? The donees get “high risk” organs, like when 28-year-old Lyndsey Scott received the lungs of a 30-a-day smoker and died five months later.
“Desperate transplant patients are being given the lungs of chain smokers because the NHS is so short of organ donations,” London’s Daily Mail reports. “Surgeons are also being forced to use diseased body parts from cancer sufferers, drug addicts and the very elderly.”
The newspaper also reports that doctors are using tissue from those more at risk of carrying HIV and Hepatitis C, “such as gay men and drug users.”
“In an ideal world you would rather have lungs from 20-year-old healthy people who have never smoked, but that isn’t a luxury we have,” Professor James Neuberger, associate medical director of the NHS Blood and Transplant agency, told the Mail. “You have to say do you get a lung with more risk or do you get no lung? That sounds crude and brutal but it is the reality.”
“If I were to put it to you or a member of your family that there was a 50 per cent chance of transmitting a virus or a 100 per cent of dying, it will come down to the balance of risk.”
According to the Mail, the increase in high risk organ use is because growing numbers of donors are either obese or very elderly. Up to a quarter of dead donors are very overweight compared to just a seventh ten years ago, according to figures from the NHS, while the number of donors over 70 has also quadrupled in the last decade.
And while some patients are asked whether they are willing to take a ‘high risk’ or ‘marginal’ organ, the decision often lies with the doctor.
That was the case with Lydnsey Scott. Her family says she was never told her new lungs would be coming from a smoker, and they believe she would never had gone ahead with the operation if she had known.
Read the entire story from the Daily Mail.
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Comments (62)
mikenleeds
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 5:32pmyour looking at the future of Obama-care… you voted that Nazi in office and i hope your happy with your hope and change
Report Post »kschmud
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 4:50pmWow I guess I am cynical. I am not quite sure I believe this. If there is a shortage of healthy organs – in the British system it would just be cheaper to let people die. I am not sure they would justify the expense of the surgery.
Report Post »drbage
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 4:44pmThis is the Fabian Socialists at work. They are a tad smarter/sneakier(you choose) than the American Progressives who have been outed and admit that Death Panels are coming.
Report Post »historypaper
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 2:40pmThe Obama Health system.
Report Post »nephewofdboone
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 2:31pmThis is beyond outrageous. I’ve never heard of this level of stupidity before. England, you should be real proud.
Report Post »BurntHills
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 2:22pmobamacare, coming to an American hospital near us if WE AMERICANS DO NOT STOP IT!!
Report Post »Ronko
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 2:12pmYeah and the Ponies told us that ObamaCare is great and will lower costs yeah if I had a dollar for every time one of the Democrats lied about ObamaCare I’d be a millionare. This is whats going to come to America if the bill isn’t repealed.
Report Post »Karama
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 2:10pmUhh and just think they want to do the same kind of health care here. Like I needed more reasons to rather die than go to the doktor. I already don’t like going to “health care professionals” as it is.
Report Post »moriarty70
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 2:09pmAnother way of reading this is that there is a lack of organs because fewer young people are dying. Isn’t that a sign of a healthy society? Yes it may require reassesing what type of organs to accept, but but it also means people are living better and longer. I don’t see how this can be painted as a negative of their health care system.
Also, organ shortages are pretty common, there’s just seems worse than most.
Report Post »teahugger
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 2:59pmI think it also has something to do with the fact that the birth rate is declining, especially in Europe, so their are fewer young people to be had altogether. Therefore fewer young people die, and fewer healthy organs are available.
Report Post »MommaGrizzly
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 2:07pmIf we don’t stop this now we are going to be in the same position.
Report Post »bowser
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 1:57pmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYrlDlrLDSQ
Reagan in 1961 on socialized medicine…..Funny how you can learn and find correlation to current matters in the past…
Report Post »jedi.kep
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 1:55pmHey! That looks like a healthcare system WE CAN COPY!!!!
Oh wait……
Report Post »teddrunk
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 1:53pmWell it’s one way the left gets around death panels. Transplanting rotten parts.
Report Post »Tri-ox
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 1:41pmThese transplant lungs have a comfortable, lived-in feel and appearance – they are already broken-in, for your convenience and affordably priced at a fraction of the cost of healthy lungs! Thanks Socialism! Cough, cough, cough…
Report Post »New-American-Saviors
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 1:31pmSocialized Healthcare ? Over my Dead Body !
Report Post »trueblueday
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 1:10pmSo Lyndsey Scott was not provided with the information required to determine whether or not the surgery would proceed. Here, we are supposed to be informed about the risks, benefits, and alternatives for a procedure. I assume this is the big difference government-based health care and the system we are currently enjoying (for now). To not know the risks or alternatives beforehand would… “SUCK!”
Report Post »istillbelieveinmyUSA
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 1:05pmIf this is what our government has in store for us, I’ll take my chance without insurance at all….
Report Post »untameable-kate
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 2:08pmI haven’t had insurance in ten years. If we get sick we stay home and eat chicken soup, if we get cut by something I disinfect it and tape it up, if we get hurt bad we go to a doctor and I PAY for it. Novel concept, eh?
Report Post »MommaGrizzly
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 9:28pmI’m with you. my kids have insurance but I don’t bother with it – a waste of $$$$$.
Report Post »Star Spangled
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 1:03pmComing to a hospital near you , thanks to Obamacare .
Report Post »HouseNegro
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 1:01pmThe uneducated masses that voted for Obama should be taken off any transplant list. As we need to contain the spread of stupid……………….
Report Post »sawman
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 12:59pmWhy…..Just Why can these people not see that a socialistic approach to health care simply does not work ? We have already seen that it is doing the exact opposite of what it was supposed to do. Why can’t they see, or is it as some people say…….It’s all part of a plan.
Report Post »Nigel2
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 1:13pmThat is exactly it. Part of the plan. The plan to have absolute power and control over we the people. Just like cap and tax is all about power and wealth.
Report Post »snowleopard3200 {mix art}
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 1:23pmYes and at the center of this great planned spider web is one person – George Soros.
Report Post »drajhil
Posted on November 16, 2010 at 3:06amPlease explain (with concrete examples) how the private healthcare system in the U.S. is better than any of the socialized healthcare systems in Europe. Do you know what percentage of bankruptcies in the U.S. are caused by medical expenses? Fifty percent of them – that’s millions of families. How many healthcare induced bankruptcies occur in Britain or Sweden or Norway? None!
Report Post »Wny does the U.S. spend up to twice as much as any other country on healthcare, while obtaining inferior results – lower average lifespan, higher infant mortality, etc.?
Healthcare in the U.S. is a gigantic ripoff by private insurers and providers, which is why no other country on the planet has such a stupid system!
Do you have even a clue what you’re talking about or do you just parrot right wing slogans.
HKS
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 12:56pmI think some famous person once said, “government cannot solve your problems, government is the problem” or something like that. I agree.
Report Post »snowleopard3200 {mix art}
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 1:04pmYes, President Reagan. And God help us indeed he knew what he was talking about across the board. Period!!!
Report Post »HKS
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 1:34pmUpdate, I think that I heard today that the doctors here are abandoning medicare patients, I got a letter from my doctor last month. He said find a new doctor, I’m out of here. I also see that the chosen ones are getting exemptions from the plan. Who’d a thunk it.
Report Post »untameable-kate
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 12:56pmSo fat lungs are no good?? Seems like they would be better then smokers lungs, shoot, I’d rather skip the operation all together then get nasty, unhealthy body parts.
Report Post »snowleopard3200 {mix art}
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 1:03pmSame here indeed. There is a company in Australia I have seen on Discovery Health and Discovery channels that are able to use the persons own body cells to make a cloned body part; it is shown that the rate of regection is reduced immensly, and has helped save many lives already in that nation. The technology is proven, and has, according to the show, actually been used in a few heart transplants.
Report Post »untameable-kate
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 1:22pmI think one of the reasons they will receive rotten body parts is that they are afraid of what exactly the afterlife holds for them. If the have a lived a decent Godfearing life they don’t have to be so afraid to move on, then they won’t have to suffer for six months of rejection before they die anyway. Doctors probably need as many big operations as possible to make a living there , moral conduct aside. Go Obamacare!!Rotten lungs for everybody!
Report Post »seanpatriot
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 12:55pmhey, its better than nothing right
Report Post »Marcobob69
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 1:24pmWhat! How MUCH better!! You are dead in five months?? WTF! Better rethink your strategy there.
Report Post »lycanknight
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 1:51pmNot only are you dead 5 months later but only after accumulating $5,000,000.00 dollars in medical bills for a risky surgery, team of surgeons and specialists, living in the hospital because you can never leave due to your condition in the first place and treatments/meds for the diseased part they transplanted. Your government insurance is not going to cover that. Plus the anxiety caused by the bad news on top of the bad news from the bad decisions that should not even be considered by rational doctors. Dr. Mangula please report to the O.R. for diseased organ transplant experimentation. People are so afraid of death they endure far worse and put their family through massive trauma and debt just to live one more day in total misery. Count me out.
Report Post »J.C. McGlynn
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 2:49pmNothing is better than being a slave to progressives.
Report Post »mike_trivisonno
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 12:53pmInstitutionalized genocide of their own citizens.
The government cannot take care of you. The government can only take from you.
Learn and Live!
Report Post »snowleopard3200 {mix art}
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 12:51pmWelcome to the future of Obama-care. Nuff said.
http://www.artinphoenix.com/gallery/grimm
Report Post »john seven eighteen
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 1:16pm@SNOW
You MUST promise me that under Obamacare if I am ever in need of a brain transplant you CAN NOT let them do it. I don’t want to ever wake up and start spewing liberal talking points and global warming crap. Please don’t let them near me!!!
Report Post »snowleopard3200 {mix art}
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 1:21pm@John 7:18
Will a company of enraged marines as guards about you do?
Report Post »john seven eighteen
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 1:26pm@Snow
Okay, that’ll do. As long as none of them are on Obamacare’s looooooonggggg waiting list for my no longer viable brain.
Report Post »Beckofile
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 2:06pm“Complete Lives” scenario at work.
Report Post »walkwithme1966
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 2:32pmNope – I don’t believe this is a true story. There is just something wrong about it on so many levels that I refuse to believe it. http://maboulette.wordpress.com
SgtB
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 2:37pm@ Snowleopard,
Report Post »You ALWAYS capitalize Marines. No matter what. It is a proper name, not a pronoun. Just like you always capitalize United States of America, or the Constitution.
GhostOfJefferson
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 3:18pmWait a minute…
So if you were the recipient of one of these lungs, and the person your received it from died from second hand smoking, would that mean then that you would officially be suffering from third hand smoking?
Report Post »Nutthuggers
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 3:29pmSgtb: Get over yourself. good grief, take a chill pill…..”Sir please call me Senator, I deserve that title, I believe I worked hard for that title. Call me Senator“ ”Sir please capatalise marines, with a capital M, Marines, not marines”.
Report Post »Polwatcher
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 3:38pmHey, it makes perfect sense to a *******….better to have a smokers lung than no lung at all, got it. These government people get their training at DMV.
Report Post »independentvoteril
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 8:06pmGet over it NOT all smokers have bad lungs.. their rate of having bad lungs if they are otherwise healthy and exercise is the same as a non smoker..fact is I know several people who are NON smokers and huff and puff while their smoking counterparts do not.. Just like everyone who drinks to much DOES not get liver disease.. while some (like my mother) who DON’T DRINK did.
Report Post »Hobo Boondocks
Posted on November 15, 2010 at 10:06pmA ‘company’ in Houston, TX, paid donors for their blood. There was a reoccurring thought every time I passed by and saw the sellers lined up before the place opened for business: “If people who think little of transfusions (liquid tissue transplants, yes that’s what they are) could see these derelicts!” I wouldn’t ask some of them if they had change for a dollar bill, much less pay them for blood to go into my body- even if I were at deaths’ door. For those who imagine that ALL organ transplants are somehow pristine tissue exchanges for a diseased organ, the London Daily Mail article should straighten out your thinking. In this nation of 350,000,000, do you really believe such transplants that have occurred in the U.K. have never occurred here? For those who choose not to believe it is happening at all anywhere: Rather than simply pick and choose what you want to believe, wouldn’t doing a little research to make sure what you believe is correct make more sense? Maybe that’s asking too much. On second thought, stay blissful in your own world.
Report Post »drajhil
Posted on November 16, 2010 at 2:51amExcuse me, but what does this have to do with the Obama health care plan? Do you suggest that the rapacious private system currently dominating healthcare in the U.S. wiould somehow create more healthy donors than there are in the British system? Do you even know why Britain can’t find enough healthy donors? Do you? It’s because so many more patients can obtain a heart-lung transplant in Britain that they exhaust the supply of healthy donors.. In the U.S. thousands of patients can‘t afford the surgery or their insurers won’t pay for it, so they die. (Our “death panels” are run by the for profit insurance companies, which make their decisions in order to maximize the amount of money they make.) As a result there are plenty of healthy donors available for the relatively small number of patients who can get the surgery. What a great system!
Report Post »Do you bother to think for even a second before posting or do you just rattle off the first dumb thing that pops into your head?