Man refused liver because of Marijuana

[thosevacanteyes]

Timothy Garon's face and arms are hauntingly skeletal, but the fluid building up in his abdomen makes the 56-year-old musician look 8 months pregnant.His liver, ravaged by hepatitis C, is failing. Without a new one, his doctors tell him, he will be dead in days.
But Garon isn't getting a new liver. He's been refused a spot on the transplant list, largely because he has used marijuana, even though it was legally approved for medical reasons.
"He said I'm going to die with such conviction," said Garon, lying in his hospital bed a few minutes after a doctor told him the hospital transplant committee's decision Thursday. "I'm not angry. I'm not mad. I'm just confused."
Because of the scarcity of donated organs, transplant committees like the one at the University of Washington Medical Center have tough standards for deciding who should get them. Does a candidate have other serious health problems? Will he religiously take anti-rejection medicines? Is there good family support? Is the candidate likely to drink or do drugs?
Garon believes he got hepatitis by sharing needles with "speed freaks" as a teenager. In recent years, he says, pot has been the only drug he's used. In December, he was arrested for growing marijuana.
His case poses a new ethical consideration for those allocating organs, one that could become more common as a dozen states now have medical marijuana laws: When dying patients need a transplant, should it be held against them if they've used dope with a doctor's blessing?
"Most transplant centers struggle with issues of how to deal with people who are known to use marijuana, whether or not it's with a doctor's prescription," said Dr. Robert Sade, director of the Institute of Human Values in Health Care at the Medical University of South Carolina. "Marijuana, unlike alcohol, has no direct effect on the liver. It is, however, a concern ... in that it's a potential indicator of an addictive personality."
The Virginia-based United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees the nation's transplant system, leaves it to individual hospitals to develop criteria for transplant candidates. At some, people who use "illicit substances" – including medical marijuana, even in states that allow it – are automatically rejected. At others, such as the UCLA Medical Center, patients are given a chance to re-apply if they stay clean for six months. Marijuana is illegal under federal law.
Garon, who has been hospitalized or in hospice care for two months straight, said he turned to the university hospital after Seattle's Harborview Medical Center told him he needed six months of abstinence. The university also denied him but said it would reconsider if he enrolled in a 60-day drug-treatment program.
This week, at the urging of Garon's lawyer, Douglas Hiatt, the university's transplant team reconsidered anyway, but it stuck to its decision.
Dr. Brad Roter, the Seattle physician who authorized Garon's pot use for nausea, abdominal pain and to stimulate his appetite, said he did not know it would be such a hurdle if Garon were to need a transplant. That's typically the case, according to Peggy Stewart, a clinical social worker on the liver transplant team at UCLA who has researched the issue.



It really is sad. They are saying he has only days left to live.



/Discuss



-C

[BubbleFunker]

It is a horrid travesty. I have met a few patients going through the same ordeal. I completely think (transplant people) they are off base by denying these patients liver transplants. As they said, cannabis does not harm the liver.
In fact, it nourishes it and alleviates symptoms of Hepatitis.
If the patient does everything they require but stop cannabis, then they should be allowed on the list.
Hepatitis is a terrible way to die, you're drowning in your own fluids. Horrid.

[cherryjubilee]

So here is the hospital system graciously denying someone life. Isn't that kinda, you know, the fucking opposite of what they were set up to do? God damn noone has sense in this country.

[thosevacanteyes]

It isn't so much the hospital that denied him. It is members of the board at the hospital, meaning your Chiefs of Medicine, hefty donators, etc. They all get the final say so in who gets what organs.

All because he smoked marijuana (legally I might add), he was looked over, and for that reason only.

"Addictive Personality" was the excuse.

-C

[codybridges69]

That pisses me off soo badly. "No we are going to make you sit here and suffer and die, because you took medicine that we prescribed for you, while we just sit here and watch". Wtf man. That is bs. Fuck the government.

[flyhalf87]

i can totally understand the frustration from that, but at the same time you have to look at both sides of it. im sure the medical board is aware that medical marijuana is a useful medication, but they are also aware of the potential for harm. it would be like a cigarette smoker being denied the spot on the transplant list, they just want to make sure the liver or whatever goes to the person who will get the best quality of life out of it.

when this guys case went to the medical board think of all the other stacks of requests for a donor, and compared side by side, two identical cases except one patient is a weed smoker and one doesnt smoke, it makes sense what happened

my heart goes out to that guy and people in his position

[dr dro]

Can you give a source for this? Just want a link to whereever this was originally posted, thanks.

[theshrizzz]

yeah here i posted it the other day

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...yndication=rss

i actually read this on wii news. i was at that main screen and saw the words "medical marijuana" come across the screen and was like whoaa
and read it

[F0ur2zer0]

thats total bullshit and just wrong... theya re pretty much killing this man because he smoked pot.. and that is a reason to say he "might" have an addictive personality.. its their jobs to save lifes yet their denying this mans opportunity to live longer.... i am very discusted and disapointed in our government as a whole...

now a sad stoner =[

[thosevacanteyes]

It was MJ that was prescribed to him by a doctor, he wasn't even using illegally(state not fed)

-C

[Spade420]

I understand everyone's frustration with this, and I totally agree, it sucks that he's gonna die.

However, consider this...Livers are not a dime a dozen. It can take YEARS for someone on the list to get one, it's not something that they just happen to have in stock in the back room.

Consider this scenario we use to teach EMS classes:

You are the head honcho at a metropolitan hospital. You have 10 people waiting for a heart, but only 1 available. Of the following, who do you give it to?

-A 16 year old female with questionable IQ
-A 30 year old male police officer, no medical problems
-A 40 year old female doctor, sterile
-A 23 year old talented musician, hooked on speed
-A 60 year old minister
-A 7 year old boy, hemophiliac
-A 38 year old prostitute
-A 19 year old african-american college militant (US Marines) with a police record, lesbian
-A 25 year old brilliant architecht, gay
-A 18 year old male, college freshman, promising future, smokes marijuana

It's a hard decision, but someone has to make the decision who lives and who dies. Consider the above scenario...The 16 year old may or may not be "mentally challenged", the cop will never be able to work in the field again after surgery, the doctor has the chance to help others, but can never have children, the musician's habits are likely to lead to premature death anyway, the minister helps people every day, but is too old, surgery would kill the 7 year old, even though we all want to help the child first, the prostitue obviously has a risky job, the 19 year old girl..who knows what'll happen there (military, police record), the architecht is at higher risk for AIDS, and the 18 year old has a good future ahead but uses drugs.

So who gets it? Most people would take the minister, musician, and kid out of the picture right away..that still leaves us with 7 likely candidates. How do you decide who lives and who dies? It's a tough decision doctors and hospital administrators face daily. And as horrible as it sounds, the candidates are narrowed down based on, any drug/alcohol use, risky sexual behaviors, medical problems, etc.

[ThePhantom]

That is a crazy scenario I never thought of. This is another reason why marijuana, at least medical for the time being, NEEDS to be legalized!

[JLacoste]

This makes me so frustrated, how cn people be so ignorant that they will deny this man a WAY TO LIVE. FUCK THE GOVERNMENT

[amsterdamage]

Mr. Garon passed away yesterday.

If doctors denied patients a transplant based on them taking other legally prescribed/recommended
medications, this would make some sense. But to the best of my knowledge, they don't.


http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...writethru.html

[flyhalf87]

Originally Posted by amsterdamage

Mr. Garon passed away yesterday.

If doctors denied patients a transplant based on them taking other legally prescribed/recommended
medications, this would make some sense. But to the best of my knowledge, they don't.


http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...writethru.html

i can agree with that mostly because i know that there are a lot of medication pills that harm you in some way or another as well as help you, just like marijuana. the only difference is; marijuana never changes, it is understood that it can be a poor factor in regards to the health of your lungs, other pills and stuff, its luck of the draw which ones cause similar, less, or more intense forms of harm to the body, so they can't really make an informed decision the same way as with marijuana and have to leave it out as a factor in order to be fair.

the outrage is that the public will assume that he was denied because "marijuana is bad for you". im fairly certain however, that this is not the view of a medical board whos purpose is to give life to people. direct the anger towards the right targets (yes the government, media etc)