4 get cancer from donated organs

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Level -> 4 get cancer from donated organs (4/7/2008 4:39:08 PM)
quote: GARDEN CITY, N.Y. - Alex Koehne had a love for life, and always wanted to help people. So when his parents were told that their 15-year-old son was dying of bacterial meningitis, the couple didn't hesitate in donating his organs to desperately ill transplant recipients. "I immediately said, 'Let's do it'," Jim Koehne recalled. "We both thought it was a great idea. This is who Alex was." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24001110

christine1 -> RE: 4 get cancer from donated organs (4/7/2008 4:42:00 PM)
i read about this last week, it's heart breaking. i had always thought donated organs were tested for disease...guess i was wrong. maybe this story will change that.

sirsholly -> RE: 4 get cancer from donated organs (4/7/2008 4:44:38 PM)
How sad. The patients who recieved the organs waited, hoped, dreamed and prayed for an organ...and so did their families. I just hope that cases such as this do not stop others from donating. There are so many transplant success stories that you never hear about.

sirsholly -> RE: 4 get cancer from donated organs (4/7/2008 4:46:06 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: christine1 i read about this last week, it's heart breaking. i had always thought donated organs were tested for disease...guess i was wrong. maybe this story will change that. They are, Christine. Or they are supposed to be.

popeye1250 -> RE: 4 get cancer from donated organs (4/7/2008 4:50:24 PM)
That's why you're always better off with "donated" organs from China. They work those prisoners,...er "donors" to the bone so you know they're healthy and hearty.

ThinkingKitten -> RE: 4 get cancer from donated organs (4/7/2008 5:27:33 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: sirsholly quote: ORIGINAL: christine1 i read about this last week, it's heart breaking. i had always thought donated organs were tested for disease...guess i was wrong. maybe this story will change that. They are, Christine. Or they are supposed to be. Donor's are only tested for transmissible diseases (the infectious kind) and compatability as to blood type and, if time permits, other cellular antigens (HLA's). If you want to look for cancer you'd have to disect the organ, take sections and examine them microscopically, which is utterly time prohibitive and which would also render the organ completely useless... duh. Donor/recipient safety is still a game of roulette in many ways.

sirsholly -> RE: 4 get cancer from donated organs (4/7/2008 5:36:33 PM)
Antigen testing is a must...it is how compatibility is determined. And the amount of testing is determined by the health history of the donor. If extensive testing is required then the organ will become available to the local transplant list as opposed to the national list.

faerytattoodgirl -> RE: 4 get cancer from donated organs (4/7/2008 5:39:22 PM)
just dont get one from the dr in the movie turistas.

sirsholly -> RE: 4 get cancer from donated organs (4/7/2008 5:39:29 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: ThinkingKitten Donor/recipient safety is still a game of roulette in many ways. although improving all the time this is still true...but it is a hell of alot better then the alternative. And donor safety is rarely an issue.

stef -> RE: 4 get cancer from donated organs (4/7/2008 5:48:14 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: christine1 i read about this last week, it's heart breaking. i had always thought donated organs were tested for disease...guess i was wrong. maybe this story will change that. It won't. They can't possibly test for everything and there was nothing to suggest that this donor had any rare form of lymphoma. There is always some risk from transplants and these risks are told to the donor recipients before they're put on any waiting list. It completely sucks for those folks, but sometimes you roll snake eyes. ~stef

DomKen -> RE: 4 get cancer from donated organs (4/7/2008 7:00:38 PM)
64 cases out of 230,000 transplants. That is acceptable risk. Really why make this a news story in the first place? It only serves to scare the public and drive down transplant donations. I note that the really valuable statistics on the safety of the organ supply are buried two thirds of the way into the story which is likely beyond where many people stopped reading.

ThinkingKitten -> RE: 4 get cancer from donated organs (4/7/2008 8:02:24 PM)
But scare mongering works! That's why most Brits can't donate blood in north America - because of the itsy-bitsy teensy-weensy chance that they might have CJD (aka "Mad Cow" disease). Better to deny an entire generation of potentially valuable blood donors than risk a law suit. I mean heck who wouldn't prefer to die from their trauma injuries today from lack of "safe" blood, than risk the itsy-bitsy, teensy-weensy chance of getting something that might kill them 20 years down the road?? [sm=banghead.gif]

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