FW: [NEMSMA] NY Times: City to Deploy Ambulances to Save Organs

[Guest guest]

WOW! This is an interesting concept....

Les

NREMT-Paramedic, HM-M, CSST, SAPA, RSO, AHA-TCF

Senior Safety Coordinator / Emergency Response Chief

Westlake Chemical

P.O. Box 228

36045 LA 30

Geismar, LA 70734-0228

e-Mail: lpowell@...

Telephone:

Fax:

Cell: 225.439-6552

http://www.texasemsat.org/>

" Next to creating a life, the finest thing a man can do is save one. " -

Abraham Lincoln

________________________________

From: nemsma (AT) google [mailto:nemsma (AT) google] On Behalf

Of Mic Gunderson

Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2010 09:00

To: nemsma (AT) google; EMS_Research

Subject: [NEMSMA] NY Times: City to Deploy Ambulances to Save Organs

-------------------------------------

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/01/nyregion/01organ.html?_r=1&nl=todayshe

adlines&emc=a29

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/01/nyregion/01organ.html?_r=1&nl=todaysh

eadlines&emc=a29>

December 1, 2010

City to Deploy Ambulances to Save Organs

By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/h/anemona_ha

rtocollis/index.html?inline=nyt-per>

Some 911 calls in Manhattan will now bring out two ambulances, one

hurrying to the scene and one lagging slightly behind.

The first one will try to save the patient's life. The second one will

try to save the patient's kidneys, in case the first ambulance fails.

After months of grappling with the ethical and legal implications, New

York City medical officials are beginning to test a system that they

hope will one day greatly increase the number of organs collected for

transplant.

For five months starting Wednesday, the city will deploy a specially

trained team that will monitor 911 calls for people who may be in danger

of dying, like those having a heart attack. If efforts to resuscitate

the patient fail, the team will quickly move in and try to save the

kidneys; normally, patients who die outside hospitals cannot be donors

because if too much time passes after the heart stops beating, the

organs are unusable.

City officials said the project would be the first of its kind in the

United States, though similar operations have been carried out in

Europe. They said that they believed they had solved any ethical

problems by adopting what they called very conservative standards for

who would qualify as a donor.

To overcome fears that patients would be allowed to die for the sake of

their organs, officials said that doctors and paramedics trying to

resuscitate a patient would not be told whether the preservation unit

was waiting in the wings until a supervisor had given the order to stop

rescue efforts. The organ team, which will travel in a bright red and

white ambulance marked " Organ Preservation Unit, " is supposed to remain

out of sight.

The dead person would have to have registered as a donor through a card,

driver's license or online registry, and the family would also have to

give consent.

The trial, which is being financed with a $1.5 million federal grant, is

limited: to most areas of Manhattan, to the hours of 4 p.m. to midnight,

to adults between 18 and 60, and to people who die of cardiac arrest at

home or another residence.

To satisfy concerns that evidence of a crime could be destroyed in the

harvesting process, a police detective sergeant would go to the home to

be sure that there had been no foul play.

Officials said they would not harvest organs from anybody who had been

involved in a crime scene, whether a poisoning or stabbing or shooting.

Dr. Goldfrank, director of emergency services at Bellevue Hospital

Center, a city hospital, said that in a case of foul play, he thought it

" highly unlikely there will be a loved one or authorized person in the

room calling in to 911 and still staying there " when the police and

organ preservation team arrived.

Dr. Goldfrank said that he would like to see the program expanded to

other types of deaths, perhaps even from car crashes or homicides, but

that at this point, government agencies were reluctant to allow that.

" If we prove that you can take the body and successfully do this, that

will be the next step, " he said.

Dr. Goldfrank said that he hoped there would be at least one case during

the December-to-May trial period that would end with a transplant. But

he and other officials said that even if no organs were transplanted,

what they really wanted to test was the protocol, which required a

delicate balance of treatment and consent.

In 2009, about 7,600 people were waiting for an organ transplant in the

greater New York City area, but there were only 285 deceased organ

donors that year, according to the New York Organ Donor Network.

-------------------------------------

--- Mic

Mic Gunderson

President, IPS

PO Box 2128

Lakeland, Fl 33806

mic@... mic@...>

www.onlineips.com/publicsafety http://www.onlineips.com/publicsafety>

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