Readied To Donate Organs, 21-Year-Old Emerges From Coma

Steely Dan

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http://news.yahoo.com/readied-donate-organs-21-old-emerges-coma-204904805.html


Readied To Donate Organs, 21-Year-Old Emerges From Coma

By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES | Good Morning America – Wed, Dec 21, 2011

Sam Schmid, an Arizona college student believed to be brain dead and poised to be an organ donor, miraculously recovered just hours before doctors were considering taking him off life support.

Schmid, a junior and business major at the University of Arizona, was critically wounded in an Oct. 19 five-car accident in Tucson.

The 21-year-old's brain injuries were so severe that the local hospital could not treat him. He was airlifted to the Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Medical Center in Phoenix, where specialists performed surgery for a life-threatening aneurysm.

As hospital officials began palliative care and broached the subject of organ donation with his family, Schmid began to respond, holding up two fingers on command. Today he is walking with the aid of a walker, and his speech, although slow, has improved.

Doctors say he will likely have a complete recovery. He even hopes to get a day pass from the hospital to celebrate the holidays with his large extended family....
 
My brother came out of a nearly 3 month coma...the brain is an amazing creation.
I'm not a proponent of organ donations in situations like this...

he has a long road in front of him, I wish he and his family blessings, and complete healing.
 
I guess the moral of the story is that doctors are not yet capable of distinguishing between brain dead and deep, deep sleep ... and should not be relied upon when important life and death decisions have to be made regarding coma patients.
 
That's why I am weary of organ donation. If this guy didn't recover before they turn his life support off, he would be no longer with us. And for someone with brain trauma, he is able to communicate really well. He is already talking in complete sentences.
 
I had a sixteen-year-old student to whom something similar happened. He was thrown from his vehicle which then landed on his head. Two months in a coma with doctors insisting he'd never recover and his organs needed to be harvested ASAP. His dad finally moved him to Scottish Rite Hospital--he woke up two days later and has recovered. He went on to graduate from high school.
Organ donation is an amazing gift; however, too many doctors are pushing it on families when it is not yet time.
 

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