Doctors doubt favoritism in Cheney transplant

[onehandle]

Source: AP

CHICAGO (AP) — Doctors say it is unlikely that former Vice President Dick Cheney got special treatment when he was given a new heart that thousands of younger people also were in line to receive.

After spending nearly two years on a waiting list, Cheney received a transplant Saturday. The 71-year-old underwent surgery at the same Virginia hospital where doctors implanted a small heart pump that has kept him alive the past few years.

Cheney was recovering Sunday at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va. He had severe congestive heart failure and had suffered five heart attacks over the past 25 years.

Dr. Allen Taylor, cardiology chief at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, said Sunday that the heart transplant waitlist is "a very regimented and fair process, and heavily policed."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/doctors-doubt-favoritism-cheney-transplant-191947633.html

[rfranklin]

1. Bullshit!

Please don't try to tell me that there are no people under 70 waiting for transplants.

[unkachuck]

4. +1

[CountAllVotes]

45. Plus a zillion & then some ...

B. 'effin S. is all I have to say!

[jeff47]

9. Age isn't the only criteria. (nt)

[onenote]

16. Apart from revealing that you don't know how these decisions are made

what else do you have to offer us?

[rfranklin]

31. Odds are, Onenote, that I am absolutely correct....

The Organ Transplant Waiting List

In the United States, more than 84,000 men, women and children are waiting for organ transplants. Their struggle to live depends on a complex and technologically-advanced organ allocation system that links patients with organs donated by strangers
http://www.organtransplants.org/understanding/unos/

[onenote]

34. No one doubts that there are people of all ages on the waiting list

For what its worth, there are around 3000 people on the waiting list for heart transplants. Again, I have no doubt that some, indeed most, are younger than 70. But where does it say that they are prioritized solely by age (which is what your post implied)? This is from the very website you cited:

"General principles, such as a patient's medical urgency, blood, tissue and size match with the donor, time on the waiting list and proximity to the donor, guide the distribution of organs....Factors such as a patient's income, celebrity status, and race or ethnic background play no role in determining allocation of organs....Contrary to popular belief, waiting on the list for a transplant is not like taking a number at the deli counter and waiting for your turn to order. In some respects, even the word "list" is misleading; the list is really a giant pool of patients. There is no ranking or patient order until there is a donor, because each donor's blood type, size and genetic characteristics are different. Therefore, when a donor is entered into the national computer system, the patients that match that donor, and therefore the "list," is different each time. The other major guiding principal in organ allocation is: local patients first. "

See also:http://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/PoliciesandBylaws2/policies/pdfs/policy_9.pdf

[Ecumenist]

26. RFranklin, You are SO RIGHT it isn't funny.. I just remind people who doubt this of

the situation in the 90's where Mickey Mantle got that Liver Transplant even though he was a poor candidate for it. First of all, he had hepatocellular carcinoma due to chronic alcoholism and somehow, MIRACULOUSLY, he was able to receive the transplant after being on the waiting list ONE DAY!!! Now, tell me that there was no string pulling...Yeah right.

[tularetom]

2. Organ transplants didn't work out so well for Mickey Mantle or Steve Jobs

And they were younger than Cheney.

I understand what they are saying about the regulation of the list, but it's always suspicious when some public figure gets moved to the top of the list.

I hope that story is the truth. There is always going to be some doubt only because it's Cheney.

[onenote]

17. so how do you explain the 20 month wait?

[russspeakeasy]

19. More like a 20 hour wait. Is that less credible ?

[lastlib]

41. Romulan organ donors only come along so often in this century.....

...ya gotta get 'em while you can.....

[MaineDem]

3. And I doubt the doctor

I can't believe this.

[Liberalynn]

6. I doubt the doctor too

Of course they are going to deny it so their profession doesn't look bad!

[backscatter712]

5. Helps if you have a Learjet and a bank account with nine or ten figures in it...

Then you can get yourself not just on one transplant center's local list, but on bunches of them. And since they know your money is good, if they have the choice between giving an organ to you and getting a guaranteed check, or to some skid-row homeless guy who's worth a quarter of the revenue, assuming they can squeeze it out of Medicaid or the state indigent care fund, guess who's going first?

[jeff47]

10. No need to "squeeze" Medicaid or similar

Because they don't cover organ transplants. At least, they don't in several states.

Also, Cheney lives in Northern Virginia. So if he got himself on multiple lists, he got massively lucky that the first one showed up in his home district. Or he didn't do what you claim.

[deutsey]

7. Just like the corporate-owned media doubted Bush and Cheney stole the 2000 election

or doubted they were leading the US into a disastrous quagmire of war.

[lib2DaBone]

8. Doctors doubt favoritism...

Oh broither... like a 71-year-old janitor at the local school system could even DREAM of getting a heart transplant.

This country is SO fucked up...

[Journeyman]

14. My friend, a 67-year-old retired school janitor, received a heart transplant 18 months ago. . .

[Posteritatis]

28. Away with your pesky facts and reality! They undermine the narrative! (nt)

[rhett o rick]

11. Odds are that War Criminal Cheney got a Democrat heart. Doubt ass-hat Republicans are

organ donors.

[AllyCat]

12. It's heavily policed so that those with the most money and greatest fist of threat to swing

get to be first in line. It's the way it always is with bullies.

[freshwest]

15. IDK if he did. I don't care. This doesn't mean the larger system is income neutral.

[crunch60]

18. The key here is "people were also in the same line" yet he got it, despite his age.

And just why do you think he got the transplant before people who WERE ALSO in line?

CHICAGO - Doctors say it is unlikely that former Vice President Dick Cheney got special treatment when he was given a new heart at age 71 that thousands of younger people also were in line to receive.

“The ethical issues are not that he had a transplant, but who didn’t?” Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist at Scripps Health in La Jolla, Calif.

[Grassy Knoll]

20. Wow, Sounds like they need to block.....

water cooler talk come Monday, and Goon not Coon was the phrase
to justify an unarmed killing. Silly republicans your mirror has had a hole
in it for years, We see through you.

[a2liberal]

21. "Let's just kill the old people"

That's what I'm hearing when I see the ridiculous comments about how he shouldn't get it if there's anyone younger on the list. Seriously, people? It's one thing to say you don't want him to have it because he's evil or whatever (something I'm also not on the same page about, but it's different). But people here saying that he shouldn't get it (or wouldn't/shouldn't naturally be next in line to get it), after a long wait, solely because he's older than other people on the list, makes me very sad. Feels almost death panel-y.

[Bette Noir]

22. One criterion for organ transplant is general state of health otherwise.

I have a friend, on dialysis, who is ineligible for a kidney transplant because of a previous heart attack. They don't want to give organs to someone who is going to die with or without the transplant; they want the organs to go to someone who will be able to use it in relatively good health for some years. I'd think Cheney would be ineligible for a transplant on the basis of long-term poor health, and therefore poor prognosis for long-term survival. Unless there were favoritism involved.

[onenote]

23. Are you one of his doctors? If not, how do you know what the state of his health was?

Last edited Mon Mar 26, 2012, 08:10 AM - Edit history (2)

Here's a shocker: no one needing a heart transplant can be considered to be in good health. But there are very detailed criteria for matching donors and recipients. I doubt many people here will bother to read them since they've already made up their minds about how the system works.

Too much uninformed speculation going on about cheney's transplant for my taste. Beginning to sound like we have a lot of Dr. Frist's showing up on DU.

For those that want to read up on the criteria:

http://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/PoliciesandBylaws2/policies/pdfs/policy_9.pdf

[a2liberal]

24. valid point

I was referring to posts insinuating or flat-out stating that just the age alone made it clear there was foul play.

[Posteritatis]

29. Yep. (nt)

[Lugnut]

25. A bioethicist weighs in.....

From MSNBC's website.

http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/25/10855120-cheney-too-old-for-transplant-bioethicist-weighs-in

It is concerning that a 71-year-old got a transplant. Many of those who manage to even make the waiting list for hearts die without getting one. More than 3,100 Americans are currently on the national waiting list for a heart transplant. Just over 2,300 heart transplants were performed last year, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. And 330 people died while waiting.

According to UNOS, 332 people over age 65 received a heart transplant last year. The majority of transplants occur in 50- to 64-year-olds.

Most transplant teams, knowing that hearts are in huge demand, set an informal eligibility limit of 70.

Cheney is not the first person over 70 to get a heart transplant. He is, however, in a small group of people who have gotten one. Why did he?

[onenote]

35. why did the other 332?

[NICO9000]

27. Given his history of heart problems

I also wondered why he was considered a good candidate. The man had a heart attack behind his knee for crissakes! I can't believe that who he is didn't have a lot to do with this. Glad his gold-plated lifetime guvmint health insurance was around to help pay for this!

And frankly, if he croaks tomorrow, I'll break out the champagne. This war criminal is responsible for so many young lives snuffed out - Americans, Iraqis, Afghans - and god knows who else. Fuck him - a piece of shit is a piece of shit, period. And he's a pretty evil piece of shit.

[onenote]

37. Which people getting heart transplants don't have a history of heart problems?

Last edited Mon Mar 26, 2012, 10:04 AM - Edit history (1)

Are they just getting transplants as a status thing?

[muriel_volestrangler]

39. What is "a heart attack behind his knee"?

[onenote]

40. I think that is a reference to the arterial aneurysms

on the back of his knees that Cheney had surgically repaired a few years ago.

[muriel_volestrangler]

42. Thanks; nothing like a heart attack, then (nt)

[jeff47]

46. So we need to save donor hearts for people who have no history of heart problems?

Yeah, that makes perfect sense! There's so many perfectly healthy people who can't get heart transplants today.

[GreydeeThos]

30. A suitcase full of money can easily buy silence

Blackmail works wonders for keeping unwanted information hidden.

Cheney is a rich, powerful man with lots of rich powerful friends.

Cheney also got a transplant heart at age 71. Nothing to see here folks; just move along.

[fasttense]

32. Is there any corner of American society that has NOT been corrupted by money and greed?

I doubt it. So, why should the transplant allocation system be any less corrupt than the tax system? Just look at how corrupt our health care system is.

Cheney got bumped ahead, and paying off some doctor to say he was NOT given special treatment tells me he certainly was.

[Botany]

33. Sure and Ohio 2004 was not stolen, Iraq had WMDs, and Dick Cheney's energy task force

didn't stop deep water drill rigs from having acoustical shut off switches
because they cost too much money ..... a safety measure that would have
stopped the BP Gulf Oil Spill.

Cheney is 71, a former smoker, he has had 5 heart attacks, and with all the
work he has had done to his heart and blood vessels having a graft take
seems very unlikely.

[6000eliot]

36. Was he holding a gun on them when they said it?

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

38. They mean implant? nt

[Kolesar]

43. "Professionals who are silent about forced vaginal ultrasounds doubt favoritism in Cheney transplant

"Professionals who benefit from huge tax breaks on dividends and capital gains doubt favoritism in Cheney transplant"

[Smilo]

44. What about the criteria that you should be almost at death's door.............

that's what the rank and file have to go through.

That's if they don't die before a heart becomes available.

Cheney should have been denied on the grounds that he doesn't need a new heart because the heart he had was never used - just run by hate and anger.

[olddad56]

47. It isn't fair because the other people on the list had a heart to begin with...

and their death might be considered a loss, not a step forward for mankind.