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Showing Original Post only (View all)Cheney Followed the UNOS Rules. Stop the Insanity Please. [View all]
Last edited Mon Mar 26, 2012, 12:07 AM - Edit history (4)
I have been totally flabbergasted at the number of horrible, hateful, reactionary posts here that assert things that simply are not true.
We have good discussions here. DU has been out front on SO many issues and people come here to "check the pulse" of the Democratic Party. Do you REALLY want them seeing threads wishing DEATH upon anyone; wishing the withholding of medical care when we are supposed to be the party wanting Medical Care For ALL? Do you really want them to see the hate bubble over into the kind of insanity that we associate with the Tea Party?
I am not a Cheney fan. I don't like serial killers either. But when either one comes to my ER, or ends up as my patient in an ICU, I am obligated to care for them to the best of my ability. In this one instance, the man followed the rules. Yes, he had a good insurance policy. Most former politicians and rich people do. But he waited his turn. There are a HUGE number of factors that depend on when one gets to the top of the UNOS list. Cheney waited 20 months. During that time, his heart ran on a mechanical pump. He could have died at any time.
He did not leapfrog. He did not buy anything. He did not pull strings. Look at it this way: Maybe he'll live long enough to visit the Hague.
In 2010 he received an implanted device called a left ventricular assist device (LVAD). LVADs were originally intended as a bridge to heart transplant while someone waits for an available heart. However, in recent years the technology has improved to the point that people are living for many years with this device, which helps pump blood through the heart. In a previous interview after receiving his LVAD, Cheney had said that he was not sure if he wanted a heart transplant, but he had apparently been on the heart waiting list for 20 months.
LVADs have helped increase the amount of time people can wait for a heart. About 75% of people live for at least five years after a heart transplant, with 56% surviving at least 10 years, according to the National Institutes of Health.
The question is: how does someone in his 70s fare after such major surgery? Quite well, actually, and the latest research suggests that people over 70 do just as well as younger people after a heart transplant.
Cheney will likely spend one to two weeks in the hospital and then his doctors will watch him very closely over the next three months while his body continues to recover from surgery. If all goes well, Cheney should be able to return to his normal level of activity. In fact, with a brand new heart, the hope would be that hell be even better than before.
At any given time there are about 3,000 people in the U.S. on the waiting list for a heart transplant. But only 2,000 donor hearts are available each year. Do the math. There are many people in the waiting list that never receive a new heart and they die waiting for one. For those who are lucky enough to get a new heart, waiting times vary from days (for emergency situations) to many months, as in the case of Cheney.
One issue is finding a heart that is a match, meaning the genetic profile of the donor is a close enough match to decrease the likelihood that the heart will be rejected. Assuming the need is similar between two patients, the one who has been on the waiting list longer will typically receive a newly available heart.http://blogs.webmd.com/breaking-news/2012/03/dick-cheney-heart-transplant-whats-ahead.html
Here are the OPTN and UNOS Guidelines, which all hospitals follow: http://www.organtransplants.org/understanding/unos/
Patients on the waiting list are in end-stage organ failure and have been evaluated by a transplant physician at hospitals in the U.S. where organ transplants are performed. Policies that dictate organ allocation are created and revised through a consensus-building process that involves UNOS committees and a board of directors, all composed of transplant physicians, government officials, specialists in immunology and experts in organ donation, as well as donor families, transplant recipients and members of the general public. Any proposed changes to the organ allocation rules are openly debated and published for public comment before being implemented.
Specifics of waiting list rules, which can be seen at OPTN website, vary by organ. General principles, such as a patient's medical urgency, blood, tissue and size match with the donor, time on the waiting list and proximity to the donor, guide the distribution of organs. Under certain circumstance, special allowances are made for children. For example, children under age 11 who need kidneys are automatically assigned additional points. Factors such as a patient's income, celebrity status, and race or ethnic background play no role in determining allocation of organs.
Contrary to popular belief, waiting on the list for a transplant is not like taking a number at the deli counter and waiting for your turn to order. In some respects, even the word "list" is misleading; the list is really a giant pool of patients. There is no ranking or patient order until there is a donor, because each donor's blood type, size and genetic characteristics are different. Therefore, when a donor is entered into the national computer system, the patients that match that donor, and therefore the "list," is different each time.
The other major guiding principal in organ allocation is: local patients first. The country is divided into 11 geographic regions, each served by a federally-designated organ procurement organization (OPO), which is responsible for coordinating all organ donations. With the exception of perfectly matched kidneys and the most urgent liver patients, first priority goes to patients at transplant hospitals located in the region served by the OPO. Next in priority are patients in areas served by nearby OPOs; and finally, only if no patients in these communities can use the organ, it is offered to patients elsewhere in the U.S.
Can we educate ourselves and stop the hate.. please?
Let's not be THOSE people. We're better than this.
P.S. To those who think I don't believe Bush and Cheney should be held accountable for War Crimes, please see a very old Journal I posted here called "Let Them Atone": http://journals.democraticunderground.com/K%20Gardner/57
UPDATE: Just posted here in another thread as copied from a RW Blog: "The "debate," such as it is, can be seen in full force over at Democratic Underground. It is truly amazing how those enlightened, peaceful people would settle for little less than seeing Cheney crucified, drawn, quartered and burned at the stake - after a suitable three or four years of torture, that is."
UPDATE: Excellent ABC News Article on Cheney's age and medical condition and eligibility for transplant:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/dick-cheney-heart-transplant/story?id=15998479