I'd like to meat that

 

Trust me, you're not missing much I met Daddy once, at a track event, good guy

 

did you have to wait on a waiting list for a transplant or did you just pay big bucks for one?

 

mmm big bucks always shrink that list

 

Ya, i remember Governor Casey here in PA was about number 4000 in line but somehow a dude got jumped in the Pittsburgh with his exact liver and heart (or whatever) that Casey needed.... Bingo...front of the line.....

 

Yo momma didn't say that when i was leavin'....



maybe next time I will actually give you a ride in the car....doh!

 

No I was really lucky and only waited a week, I was the whole list. I was told that because of my blood type (AB+) my wait could be very short or it could take a long time. I was fairly healthy and only in the hospital for 4 days. Went in late Thursday and was home by 2:00pm Tuesday.

You can't buy your way in here in the US you would have to travel overseas to purchase...Liver in Singapore, Hong Kong...$290,000. There's an article in this week's Economist about it. Sorry it wasn't the Economist it in this month's WIRED.

What you can do to shorten your wait is to see if you can get listed at multiple transplant facilities around the country.

 

How long ago was that, because you don't really get in a line, it's based on scores as to how sick you are. It's now called the MELD system...Model for End stage Liver Disease. Seeing as he needed a heart and liver his score may have been high. The blood and tissue types also need to match. As a person with AB blood I can take an organ from any blood group but I was restricted to AB because of fairness to everyone else. There are currently about 90000 people all around the US waiting for transplants of different organs. About 1 in 3 will get their transplant.

They need to make it "OPTION OUT" and the default would be that you ARE an organ donor unless you make it known that you DO NOT want to be one.

 

[quote name='THEOLDMAN' date='Mar 28 2007, 09:57 AM']How long ago was that, because you don't really get in a line, it's based on scores as to how sick you are.

 

Well in 1993 the MELD scores weren't around so that answers that, and the line about the short list for heart/liver transplant can answer the second one. Does politics play a role in transplants, one would hope not but I can't answer that. He was listed on multiple lists though and you are tested frequently while waiting. I had numerous tests and procedures even before I was listed, due to my failing liver. So coming into the hospital and being tested/treated just before getting a liver is not a big surprise. The current average wait time is now 88 days. The old system of get in line and wait didn't take into account how sick you were, just where you were in line. However being able to be listed several times was the determining factor that more than likely moved him up taking precedence from the shortest list. Blood types and tissue types still played a big role in the procedure. Pulling the plug on the braindead patient that had been kept on life support may have been coincidental to the governor's hospitalization or the patient's family may have said that's enough and that the governor was there may have helped them make that decision. What better epithat for your loved one than to be able to say he still lives in someone else.


BTW the co-pay on my transplant was $15.00. The actual cost was 120000+ for the surgery.