Removing Organs Before Brain Death

category: Dafé’s Café - Daily Dose of Medical News, MyDocHub
by Dafé,

New hospital policy is slowing gaining ground:

More and more hospitals around the country are adopting the policy of removing organs from people with fatal brain injuries after their heart stops, but before they are brain dead. Ohio hospitals are the latest to consider this controversial policy, though with some initial holdouts.

According to Gordon Bowen, executive director of LifeBanc, the organ procurement agency for 20 northeastern Ohio counties, “most organs are removed for donation only after the brain ceases all activity. But that applies to less than 2 percent of all deaths.” This could increase the number of organs available for the roughly 100,000 people nationwide on organ waiting lists. I don’t know about you, but I would prefer to not only have my heart stopped, breathing stopped and can’t be restored, but also brain dead before anyone can harvest my organs.

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