Feb. 20, 2003 ~ Good news
The teenage girl who was accidentally given transplanted organs of the wrong blood type, may survive after all. A friend of the family went on TV and pleaded for a direct donation of organs, meaning the donor's family would make a specific request that the organs go to this girl, and apparently someone has responded to that plea. Details are sketchy now. I understand that she is currently in surgery. I wish her the best. I just hope it's not too late. They say she is quite ill. After this is over, there may be some talk about the fairness of a direct donation. The girl's situation was grave. They said she probably would not have lived another day without the second transplant, but there has already been damage to her kidneys and other organs, due to the blood type incompatibility. So I wonder if she would have been considered for a second transplant under ordinary circumstances. I suspect not. I would very much like to see this girl make it. It's not her fault that the first operation was botched. In the back of my mind, though, there is a very small, quiet thought. What about the next person on the list, the one who might have been in better condition to survive the operation, who did not get the organs, because they were a direct donation? What if that person doesn't get a second chance?
A dear friend also needed a heart-lung transplant, and she, too, had deteriorated badly, towards the end. She made the decision to take herself off the waiting list, because she no longer felt she would survive the transplant. The doctors tried to talk her out of it, but she was firm. Her mind was made up. The end for her came less than two weeks later.
The whole issue of transplants is emotionally charged. One family's great sorrow, another family's great joy. There are never enough organs for all who need them. Many die waiting. Critical, life and death decisions must be made about donors. When you have several equally sick people, all desperate for the same organs, how do you decide who gets them? These are choices I would never want to make.
I wish her the best.
On a happy note, a dog who had been stranded on broken patches of ice in the river... was rescued! And the Bachelorette chose the sweet one! But in beween those good news stories we had the typical crappy stories about chemical warfare, saw pictures of dead bodies in the streets of Iraq, saw old footage of Hussein with a young hostage, and heard tales of the torture and beatings of captured American military during the first Gulf War. It saddens me that we are now referring to it as the FIRST Gulf War, as if a second one is inevitable. I pray it is not. It is so hard for me to watch those war stories. I think I've heard way more than I need to hear. I hear those awful details and can't help but think of Soldier Boy.
I'm praying for peace.
And happy for whatever good news comes my way, whether it's a young girl's survival or a rescued dog. We need all the good news we can get.
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