Imagine being in an automobile accident, and having an ambulance show up with a 2nd organ donor vehicle lurking closely behind. Or imagine having a family member pass away at home, but having an organ donor representative approach you a mere 10 minutes following the death of your loved one, requesting you donate their kidney.
These aren’t make believe scenarios. They are actual situations that could occur once a new 6 month pilot program in New York City is implemented.
Families normally have days to grapple with the rather tough decision to donate the organs of a loved one, as the patient lies ill in a hospital bed. But now they will only have about 20 minutes to make the choice under the NYC pilot program. Once a cardiac–arrest patient is declared dead, 20 minutes is about the time it would take a team of organ specialists to arrive at the home, check a donor registry, determine medical eligibility, obtain a family member’s consent and get the person into a specialized ambulance.
Here’s how the program will work: First, a police detective will arrive at the scene of a death to make sure nothing warrants a criminal investigation. Then an emergency medical team, including 2 EMTs, an organ donor family services specialist and a Bellevue emergency physician, will need to successfully interact with grieving and shocked family members in the limited time available before it is too late to use a person’s organs.
The program, which launches today, will be the first of its kind in the U.S. Organizers and medical experts believe this collaboration between Bellevue Hospital and New York City’s police and fire departments could eventually lead to thousands more organs donated each year nationwide. The project is “very, very modest but has the potential to prove a concept that could be revolutionary,” said Dr. Lewis Goldfrank, director of emergency services at Bellevue Hospital Center.
Of the roughly 50,000 people who died last year in downstate New York–area hospitals, about 600 were judged eligible to donate their organs. Of those, only 261 became donors, said Elaine Berg, the president and CEO of the New York Organ Donation Network.
I'm not too sure about this. Sounds kinda crazy. On the one hand it helps somebody who needs a kidney. But on the other hand it's insensitve to the deceased families. I don't think I'd want somebody approaching me like that if somebody in my family died.