Slog - Comments on The Morning News

Comment by Fnarf

Fnarf — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 09:43:01 -0800

The University of Washington Medical Center is murdering Mr. Garon. How attractive. Your excerpt makes it sound like he's in South Carolina, but he's just a couple of miles from here. Dr. Jorge Reyes should be in prison.

Comment by ellarosa

ellarosa — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 09:45:17 -0800

so, do they deny transplants to cigarette smokers, too? i sure hope so, otherwise it would be logically insupportable.

Comment by Dominic Holden

Dominic Holden — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 09:55:17 -0800

Good call, Fnarf. I exchanged a paragraph to make clear he's being killed here, not over there.

Comment by kinaidos

kinaidos — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 12:44:13 -0800

Meanwhile other scarce medical resources are wasted daily on the obese, smokers, and the chronically sedentary. The difference: those vices are mainstream.

Smoking tobacco places direct stress on the liver. THC concentrations in bud smoke are so low that there is no significant stress.

At the top of the list for those denied transplants should be : alcoholics, the obese and cigarette smokers. But the obese and smokers are not generally excluded. At least I can find accounts through 2007 all over the country of transplants given to obese and smoking patients.

Comment by keshmeshi

keshmeshi — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 12:59:53 -0800

@4,

Funny that you didn't mention a direct link between obesity and stress on the liver. Perhaps because there is none?

Comment by Will in Seattle

Will in Seattle — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 13:17:37 -0800

@1 - we murder people every day, when we triage, when we only have so many organs, when we run short on rare blood types, when you in your SUV make it hard for the ambulance to get to the hospital because you can't be bothered to follow traffic regulations.

Deal with it.

Comment by Fnarf

Fnarf — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 15:53:02 -0800

Will always falls back on heartlessness when he has nothing to say.

Remember when Mickey Mantle got a liver? Remember when George Best got a liver?

Comment by Furcifer

Furcifer — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 16:09:26 -0800

@5, obesity can be extraordinarily hard on the liver. See "nonalcoholic steatohepatitis."

Comment by yucca flower

yucca flower — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 16:39:04 -0800

@2,a

Maybe they do. I know it used to be (probably still happens) that if a smoker severed a limb, surgeons wouldn't re-attach it. Nicotine causes blood vessels to contract and the re-attachment would fail and therefore the doctor considered it a waste time/resources, because smokers won't quit smoking even if warned they're going to lose the limb.

Comment by keshmeshi

keshmeshi — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 17:15:28 -0800

@8,

Uh huh and yet, despite the fact that the majority of Americans are overweight or obese, only 5 percent of all Americans have NASH. So, it would seem that obesity's effect on the liver is not enough of a risk to deny transplants to fat people.

Comment by Greg

Greg — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 08:37:21 -0800

Yay, torture! Look! I wrote something on a piece of paper! And it says I can do whatever the fuck I want! See? I made a law all by myself!

Comment by cdc

cdc — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 08:52:59 -0800

Re: first paragraph of Vesey's "density" column - this guy is a professional writer?