Teenage heart transplant receipient dies in police chase

[MillCreek]

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-courts/anthony-stokes-teen-who-got-heart-transplant-dies-car-chase-n334001

And the kicker is he was initially turned down for a transplant due to his criminal history.

[Angel Eyes]

. . . and the rickrolling continues.

[lupinus]

. . . and the rickrolling continues.

It does? I just dawned on me to click it and I didn't get a rickroll...

[Angel Eyes]

Jackwagon.

April 2nd can't get here quickly enough.

[makattak]

His mother, Melencia Hamilton, told TODAY at the time, "He's a young boy... He's going to make mistakes, but I still think he deserves a second chance."

Clearly she was wrong and the hospital should have stuck with their initial determination.

Instead, they took a heart from someone deserving and gave it to someone who chose to throw his life away. Bravo.

[dogmush]

I wonder if someone didn't get a heart and died so that this guy could shoot at an old lady and hit a pedestrian.

[makattak]

"Bleeding heart" from 2013 how we should just give this poor soul a break. Why, there's NO WAY we can know what he'll do after the transplant:

(Included in it's entirety because the original article has been memory-holed...)

Commentary: Teen needs a break in heart transplant case
Art Caplan, Ph.D. NBC News contributor

Aug. 13, 2013 at 12:30 PM ET

Fifteen –year-old Anthony Stokes needs a heart transplant. His mother, Melencia, says Children’s Healthcare Atlanta, a hospital near his home in DeKalb County, Ga., told her he is not going to be placed on their waiting list to get one.

Doctors said they don’t think Anthony will follow directions and do what he needs to do to keep a transplanted heart working. Melencia thinks that is just wrong. "If they got to know him, they would love him," she told a local TV station Family friends hint that maybe the hospital just does not want to give a scarce heart to Anthony.

This denial of a transplant comes hard on the heels of the Sarah Murnaghan case in Philadelphia. The 10-year-old girl's parents were told she was not eligible to get a lung transplant from an adult donor because of her age. After wide-scale media attention, she later got not one but two. So do American transplant centers have it in for young people? What is going on here?

In Anthony’s case there seems to be concern because to date he has not been a very compliant patient. This should come as no surprise. It is well-known that teenagers are among the worst group in terms of complying with doctors' orders, taking the medicines that keep a transplant working and simply showing up on time for regular appointments to make sure everything is OK.

The core ethical issues raised by Anthony’s case: Is he likely' to be non-compliant after a transplant? And would other transplant centers not list him if they thought he was a high risk to fail post -transplant?

No one can really say with certainty what someone will do after a transplant, but if there is concern about compliance, it might make more sense to get him and his family into intensive counseling. Despite the orneriness of adolescence, can he be persuaded to do what it will take to live if he gets the gift of a heart?

Not all transplant centers kick out unruly teenagers. Some would argue that a young person, even one who is a pain in the neck and might foolishly waste a scarce donor heart, should still be eligible based on age. Those who have not lived a life ought to get that chance when they compete with much older potential recipients.

Evidence of non-compliance must be a factor in deciding who gets a transplant. But teenagers are almost non-compliant by definition. Even if it means the loss of some organs that could have saved other lives, isn’t gambling on kids justified by giving them a shot at a life? Before saying "no" to Anthony Stokes, shouldn’t we insist that he be put through a very intensive program that makes him and his family absolutely aware of what it means if he says "no" to his doctors after a transplant?

[vaskidmark]

WSBTV has video of the crash scene.  Not gonna put the link here just to have the mods screw around and change it into another rickroll.

Not gonna post a llink here just to allow the mods to screw around and turn it into a rickroll.  I'm sure most folks know how to figure out the web address for a tv station having the call letters WSBTV.  It's in the "News" section.

“I couldn't believe that I was seeing something like that. I usually only see it on TV,” said witness Brett Dudley.
Dudley took cellphone video of the chase as the car lost control and then crashed into the pole in front of a SunTrust Bank at Hembree Road and Highway 9.
"He did a fishtail spin going around to the right and hit a pedestrian. I saw a white shirt fly up in the air,” said witness Claudia Kuklis.
That white shirt belonged to a woman who police say was walking along Hembree Road when the suspect came barreling through.
Hernandez was taken to North Fulton Hospital. She is stable in good condition.
Crews had to cut Stokes from his car, which was nearly cut in half by the pole. He was taken to a nearby hospital, where he died.

Looking at how that car fishtailed and slammed sideways into the sign I am amazed he lived long enough to get to the hospital.  The socially inappropriate part of me is saying stuff like how it hopes he was conscious and cognizant all they way so he could experience the feelings of the family of the person who did not get that heart.  The socially appropriate part of me is making comments about how the transplant program folks might be feeling.

stay safe.

[MillCreek]

^^^I know some transplant folks at the local medical school, and what happens more frequently are liver recipients who go back to drinking and/or drug use and end up killing the new liver via cirrhosis or Hep C, much as they did the original liver.  I am pretty sure you have to be clean and sober for X amount of time before you are put on the liver list, but some people fall off the wagon post-op.

[vaskidmark]

Then they should have put the kid on a waiting list and allowed him x amount of time to show he had gotten himself "clean and sober".

I'm sure that just like what happens to liver candidates that do not last long enough to finish the probationary period and have to wait for an available organ it would suck for the kid to actually turn his life around and then still not get a new heart.

But sucking is what keeps us stuck to the surface of the planet as opposed to floating off into space.

stay safe.

[charby]

Jackwagon.

April 2nd can't get here quickly enough.

So, can you go a day with APS?

[MechAg94]

So was the kid an organ donor?  Can they take the heart back and give it to someone else?  Along with other organs maybe?

[vaskidmark]

Sudden deceleration trauma usually does not leave much that is harvestable.

stay safe.

[Hawkmoon]

"Bleeding heart" from 2013 how we should just give this poor soul a break. Why, there's NO WAY we can know what he'll do after the transplant:

(Included in it's entirety because the original article has been memory-holed...)

That can't be the entire commentary. You cut out the part where the commenter enumerates the kid's criminal history.

[erictank]

^^^I know some transplant folks at the local medical school, and what happens more frequently are liver recipients who go back to drinking and/or drug use and end up killing the new liver via cirrhosis or Hep C, much as they did the original liver.  I am pretty sure you have to be clean and sober for X amount of time before you are put on the liver list, but some people fall off the wagon post-op.

6 months, apparently.

Husband of a work friend of my wife had bad cirrhosis, led to liver failure while in treatment, and until failure he was being constantly cautioned he had to keep on the wagon for at least 6 months before he'd be considered for a transplant. I guess he made 6 mo. prior to failure, as he got bumped to the top of the list when his went away and he got a new liver just recently.

Too early to tell about post-transplant compliance.

[roo_ster]

Hell, we train up some of our best and brightest women as teachers and encourage them to waste their time in inner city schools pouring their knowledge into the sand.  Why not do the same with all our other precious resources to include transplantable hearts?

Rudyard Kipling knew the score.

[makattak]

According to rumors in other comments, the was his SECOND heart and he was rejected for it for non-compliance after the first transplant.

But hey, toss the race card and who cares someone actually deserving on the waitlist had to die for this waste.

[lupinus]

According to rumors in other comments, the was his SECOND heart and he was rejected for it for non-compliance after the first transplant.

But hey, toss the race card and who cares someone actually deserving on the waitlist had to die for this waste.

MA BAHBY NEEDS DIS HAWT! HE DINT DO NUTTIN DEM DAMN DOCTAHS DUN KNW WAT DEY DOIN MESSIN UP MAH BAHBY! HE NEED ANOTHER WON YOU DAMN RACISTS HONKEY MOFOS!