Name:   Talullahhound - Subject:   Live or Die Date:   11/26/2018 10:07:22 PM

My mother was a transplant candidate 20 years ago.  I remember part of her admittance to the transplant list was that you had to have sufficient insurance or personal resources.  The need for organs exceeds the organs available, so it makes sense to give the organs to the people that can pay for the anti-rejection drugs, that they will be on the rest of their lives.  

This made for a very sad story about this woman, but it sounds like she was going through the admittance process.  (you also have to have a complete and I do mean complete, physical, because nothing else can be wrong with you, other than your failing organ).  I'm sure the nurse meant well in suggesting she put up a "go fund me" campaign to amass the money she needs.  Who knows if that is the only reason she was rejected?  No one wants to see anyone die, because they can't afford the treatment. But a single payer insurance provider would not make the drugs cheaper or organs more readily available.  We all have to die at some point and it has only been since the 1970s that they have been doing transplants.  Feel bad for all those that died before there were even the possibilites for transplants, and for those that are on the transplant list, but don't get an organ in time.  There are no guarentees.

This is reality.  Just getting on the list does not mean you will get the organ you need before you die.  My mother was fortunate to be called for lung transplant, but unfortunately, she passed away during the surgery.  All the steroids that she had been on had left her arteries weak.  In case you don't know, there is also an age limit of 65.  There was an experimental program to give people older than that less primo organs, but I do not know that it ever got off the ground.  

We all like a happy ending and in our dreams, everyone would get everything they need to live a long and healthy life.  But that isn't reality.  I would never say anything bad about the transplant program.  Those people are so completed dedicated and do everything in their power to make it an impartial program.  But the anti-rejection drugs are a fact of life and their expense is extraordinary. 

I am an organ donor and when I die, I have given my permission for them to take anything they can harvest to give someone a shot at life or a shot at recovery.  Are you an organ donor?