LEICESTER, England, April 25, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) -
According to the Daily Mail newspaper, a young British man owes his life to an
insistent father who would not allow his son’s organs to be removed from his
body, despite assurances from four doctors that his son could not recover from
the wounds he had suffered in a recent car accident.
The Mail reports that Stephen Thorpe,
then 17, was placed in a medically-induced coma following a multi-car pileup
that had already taken the life of his friend Matthew, who was driving the
vehicle.
Although a team of four physicians
insisted that his son was “brain-dead” following the wreck, Thorpe’s father
enlisted the help of a general practitioner and a neurologist, who demonstrated
that his son still had brain wave activity. The doctors agreed to bring him out
of the coma, and five weeks later Thorpe left the hospital, having almost
completely recovered.
Today, the 21-year-old with “brain
damage” is studying accounting at a local university. “‘My impression is maybe
the hospital weren’t very happy that my father wanted a second opinion,” he told
the Mail.
The case is similar to dozens of others
LifeSiteNews has reported in recent years, in which comatose or otherwise
unconscious patients are declared to be “brain dead,” or hopelessly incurable.
In many cases, aggressive doctors seek the organs of the patient for
harvesting.
In 2011, the Quebec Hospital Sainte Croix
de Drummondville sought permission to extract the eyes of a patient who had
choked on hospital food in the absence of a nurse, claiming she was “brain
dead.” After the family demanded proof from physicians of her alleged condition,
she regained consciousness, and recovered most of her faculties. The family
declared its intention to sue the hospital.
In 2008, a 45-year-old Frenchman revived on the operating table as doctors prepared to
“harvest” his organs for donation, following cardiac arrest. In the subsequent
investigation by the hospital’s ethics committee, a number of doctors admitted
that such cases, while rare, were well known to them.
That same year, a “brain dead”
21-year-old American, Zack Dunlap, was about to have his organs harvested when his two sisters,
both nurses, decided to test the hospital’s theory that his brain was no longer
functioning. Family members poked his feet with a knife and dug their
fingernails under his nails, provoking strong reactions by Dunlap and proving he
was conscious. He recovered completely. He later related that he was conscious
and aware as doctors discussed harvesting his organs in his presence.
The term “brain death” was
invented in 1968 to accommodate the need to acquire vital organs in their
“freshest” state from a donor who some argue is still very much
alive.
While death had previously been defined
as lack of respiration and heart activity, “brain death” was judged as
compatible with an otherwise living patient. “Brain death” has never been
rigorously defined, and there are no standardized tests to determine if the
condition exists.
Dr. John Shea, a medical advisor to
LifeSiteNews.com, points out that patients diagnosed as “brain dead” often
continue to exhibit brain functions.
In “Organ Donation: The Inconvenient Truth”, Shea states that the
criteria for “brain death” only “test for the absence of some specific brain
reflexes. Functions of the brain that are not considered are temperature
control, blood pressure, cardiac rate and salt and water balance. When a patient
is declared brain dead, these functions are not only still present, but also
frequently active.”
A list of articles by LifeSiteNews on comotose and “brain dead” patients who unexpectedly recovered follows:
* Brain dead’ woman recovers after husband refuses to withdraw life
support
* Woman Diagnosed as “Brain Dead” Walks and Talks after Awakening
* ‘Brain dead’ Quebec woman wakes up after family refuses organ donation
* Doctor Says about “Brain Dead” Man Saved from Organ Harvesting - “Brain Death is Never Really Death”
* Doctors Who Almost Dissected Living Patient Confess Ignorance about Actual Moment of Death
* New study questions “brain-death” criterion for organ donation
* Coma Recovery After 19 Years Poses Questions About Terri Schiavo
* Polish Man Wakes from 19-Year “Coma”, Talks and Expected to Walk Soon
* Man Wakes from Two-Year Coma – was Aware and Remembers Everything
* Boy in “Hopeless” Vegetative State Awakens and Steadily Improves
* Commentary: The Significance of that Case of the Man Trapped in a “Coma” for 23 Years
* Girl Once Comatose and Scheduled for Euthanasia Will Testify against Attacker
* ‘Comatose’ UK Man Chooses Life by Moving Eyes
* Woman’s Waking After Brain Death Raises Many Questions About Organ Donation
* Russian Surgeons Removing Organs Saying Patients Almost Dead Anyway
* Denver Coroner Rules “Homicide” in Organ-Donor Case
* Woman Diagnosed as “Brain Dead” Walks and Talks after Awakening
* ‘Brain dead’ Quebec woman wakes up after family refuses organ donation
* Doctor Says about “Brain Dead” Man Saved from Organ Harvesting - “Brain Death is Never Really Death”
* Doctors Who Almost Dissected Living Patient Confess Ignorance about Actual Moment of Death
* New study questions “brain-death” criterion for organ donation
* Coma Recovery After 19 Years Poses Questions About Terri Schiavo
* Polish Man Wakes from 19-Year “Coma”, Talks and Expected to Walk Soon
* Man Wakes from Two-Year Coma – was Aware and Remembers Everything
* Boy in “Hopeless” Vegetative State Awakens and Steadily Improves
* Commentary: The Significance of that Case of the Man Trapped in a “Coma” for 23 Years
* Girl Once Comatose and Scheduled for Euthanasia Will Testify against Attacker
* ‘Comatose’ UK Man Chooses Life by Moving Eyes
* Woman’s Waking After Brain Death Raises Many Questions About Organ Donation
* Russian Surgeons Removing Organs Saying Patients Almost Dead Anyway
* Denver Coroner Rules “Homicide” in Organ-Donor Case
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