Slashdot Mirror
Todd Need[ed] a Liver
Mr. Christmas Lights writes "According to this CNN article, Todd Krampitz's liver transplant operation was a success. What is significant about this is how he used a multi-media campaign to get a donor - this included billboards stating 'I need a Liver. Please help Save my Life' that all pointed to his web site at ToddNeedsALiver.com where you can read more. Certainly a novel use of the World Wide Web."
I don't understand. I thought organ transplants could not be done privately and could only be done through organ transplant lists where you were ranked on necessity and the immediate terminality of your situation?
So, how exactly would a media campaign expedite such a transplant?! It's not like he could pay someone for it and I'm pretty sure they require anonymity. As happened in this case, I don't believe they allow a specific person to donate a specific organ to a specific recipient without going through the hospital process as there might be someone else chosen as more needy or more urgent.
And at any rate, this just further shows the disparity between those who have money and those who do not. Those who have it can do a media blitz to get a liber or find their abducted child and so on while those without it are fucked.
By the way - his girlfriend is hot. Too bad they seem like a couple of religious nuts.
does this mean that the person who is able to finance a media blitz will be first to receive a liver or other major organ?
Get well soon!
Sincerely,
The Internet
Since when has this country used intellectual elite as a pejorative term?
I find it utterly unbelievable that relatives of organ donors can designate a recipient. Only medical criteria should matter. Otherwise, people with the money/wit to start a public relations campaign will be more likely to get an organ. And all that without the approval of the donor! I know that I would have hated to find my liver in this guy.
I heard that it had something to do with someone getting drugged, passing out, and waking up in an icy bathtub. Really. My friend sent me an email about it.
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
The real question to ask here is whether or not such ad campaigns equate to 'buying' a liver through spending money on the advertisements? Could this be the next boon to advertisers?
Things like this help to defeat the image of the web as the online wild west which makes it harder to lobby for fundamental changes to be forced on the architecture. Kinda hard to paint it as a force for "darkening our childrens' hearts" as Bush insinuated it often was in the 2000 election when it is being used effectively to save lives.
Click here or a puppy gets stomped!
Capitalism at its finest, or semi-evil abuse of having money?
This seems to shout that those who are able to afford it, or able to come up with the best resources first, get the goods (a liver, in this case). So life and death quickly become a matter of being the cleverest.
On that note, though, isn't that what natural selection, survivial of the fittest, is about? Those who are able to best take advantage of the situation to make out the best in the end.
Still not sure I agree with it, however...
Isn't everyone supposed to have an equal chance at getting an organ? Remember Mickey Mantle who pickeled his liver with many decades of hard alcohol? He got a liver ahead of many people then promptly died a few months later. I guess this just proves yet again that some people are more equal that others (namely those with money).
On one hand, I am glad this man got his liver and was able to live. On the other hand, why did he have to choose clear channel billboards to advertise on? (see pic in CNN article).
While not as crucial as this one, I can think of two similarly novel uses of the Web to get what one wants.
Karyn Bosnak was $20,000 in the hole and set up SaveKaryn.com. Within a few months she had paid off all her debts from the contributions of strangers. Now she's an author.
Ramon Stoppelenburg wanted to travel around the world but had no money, so he started LetMeStayForADay.com, and managed to hitchhike around the world for a couple of years without spending a dime.
I also seem to recall a far older site called 'Send Me A Dollar', but I don't have the URL to hand now. Does anyone know of any other people who've used the Web for interesting personal gain?
So when are the first "I need a date" billboards from slashdot geeks going to appear? You can point it to your TomsADnDandStarwars.com fan page. The similarities are obvious. He only needed one liver, most geeks will settle for one girl. He needed a liver to keep on living, most geeks need one for bragging purposes at the next trekkie convention. Very similar.
"I want more life, f*cker"
Bad taste I know, but I couldn't help thinking of the scene in Blade Runner, where Roy kills Tyrell.
First, I'm glad that his life now has a higher probability of being saved. No transplant operation is a guarenteed success. He has a family who cares, he's young, and he deserves a chance.
However, there is a great shortage of organ donors - many of whom are people who do not have access to the financial resources necessary to conduct such an impressive media campaign. Do these people have less of a right to survive? Unfortunately, the success of Todd's campaign will likely encourage future copycat media blitz's.
Are we going to allow wealth to decide who live's or dies? Simple charisma, money, and good looks seem to be the factor which saved (hopefully) this fellows life. What do you say to the single teacher who needs a transplant? Sorry, you just have to wait your chance?
If you want to make a difference for many people, sign your organ donor card, donate to the red cross, encourage stem cell research. And please, try to think of a better way to allocate organs than giving an organ to those who have the most money. I'm sorry that I'm harsh with this, but now someone else has been pushed farther down the line in the transplant list, and that person may not survive.
/* Dang, I can't type that well. */
to create my own website. I'm hoping donations will start flowing in any day now.....
... I'm happy he's alright, and that the transplant was a success. However, what worries me is the number of people repeatedly passed-over for transplants based on questionable justification.
Speaking from experience, the donation and subsequent dole-out process is supposed to be on a first-come-first-serve priority, based on compatibility and/or severity. Any attempts to get around this process are not only unfair for those that wait (painstakingly) in line, but also for the unfortunate soul that may have been bumped back a position in favour of the media-savvy Todd.
Unfortunately we may never know their name, they did not invest in billboards or an online advertising campaign.
I only hope that the next available donation arrived in time.
Every year there are about 45'0000 deaths from Car accidents alone.
Are you a registered Organ Donor?
If more people would be registered, that waiting list would shorten dramatically in a year or two, and this guy would not have had to do this to stay alive.
Or do you have other plans for your organs after you are dead?
get 7 free Japanese lessons.
Mental note: domains to register...
c om ... mmm no, George Bush has that.
Ineedakidney.com
Ineedaheart.com
Ineedabrain.
(PD: Get well Todd, just joking).
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former" - Albert Einstein.
Gotta be worth a try.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
As someone who is seperated by only one degree from Todd and his family (one of our best friends is also good friends with his wife) we've been following this for some time now. You can damm well bet that if it were my family or close friend, I wouldn't not hesitate to do the same thing they did. Only a fool would fail to capitalize on whatever assets they have in order to stay alive.
*Fortitudo, aequitas, fidelitas.*
In a perfect world, there would be new organs for all who needed them. In the imperfect world that we have to live in, there are waiting lists. Todd jumped the queue, the donor's liver would otherwise have gone to the number one on the list. One life saved at the expense, possibly, of another. I wish Todd and his family all the best, but I have nagging doubts about the ethicality of this thing. The precedent it sets is potentially nasty. It reminds one of drowning men climbing on each other's shoulders to get to the surface, drowning those beneath them.
----- One learns to itch where one can scratch.
But what if people do not agree with the way this list is handled? There can be very valid reasons, to disagree. Think about priorities. Everything else equal...
Organ donations are a complex matter. Whatever the details, I believe that every patient has the right to come up with creative ideas to fight for his/her survival, and also that each donor has the right to decide what should be done with his/her organs; who else could have a higher right?
www.BobNeedsADualG5PowerMac.org
So how would that Janis Joplin song go in the internet age?
__ Someday, but not this morning, I'll finally learn to use the preview button.
Despite a liver transplant the chances of long term survival (>5 years) is low for a patient with such a large tumor (~30%). Obviously, much better than not having had the transplant at all. Our prayers should go out to Todd and his family. Interestingly, some transplant centers do "split liver" transplants from a parent to a child, for example, with good success. A normal liver has tremendous proliferative potential and the donor's "half" liver returns to normal size in a few months. I don't think this works, however, when the recipient is an adult.
Remember this guy?
I have the feeling he's still quite single.
Then there was "I bought too many shoes, give me $20,000" girl.. Karyn?
...where you also can't buy a baby
but you can buy the sperm, you can buy the egg,
and you can rent the uterus.
...Rob
The American Dream isn't an SUV and a house in the suburbs; it's Don't Tread On Me.
It is cutting edge, but it is possible to do living unrelated liver transplants. The transplant clinic here in Richmond, Virginia ( Hume Lee Transplant Center ) has done about 60 in the past three years according to their web site. Several have been published in the local paper.
.
In general, transplants from living volunteers have better results because the organ is away from a real blood supply for the shortest amount of time.
I'm sure the transplant center Todd delt with had a medical reason to do what they did ( or possibly that is the only transplant his insurance would cover )
7 years ago I received a kidney from my mom so I could live. Three months later my brother died suddenly and his tissued were used in transplants to others, so I am in a unique position to see both sides.
I think that those who have complained that Todd "jumping the list" fail to see the point: There needs to be more organs available for transplant, better preventative health care to reduce the chance diseases don't destoy one's organs, and more research towards ways of improving transplantation, and alternatives to transplant ( for example: artificial hearts )
Some places already have organ exchanges set up for kidney transplants so that if you have a member of the family that needs a kidney, and yours won't work, you can arrange to give yours to someone else and your relative gets bumped up the list. For example see
There is also Living Donors Online which seeks to coordinate living donors for kidneys, livers and bone marrow. There are many cases of people who donate even if they don't know someone who needs an organ, because they feel it's the right thing to do.
I work in the medical industry and know it to be fully driven by the same financial considerations as most other industries.
I am an organ doner, happily. I am an organ doner because I hope that if I die, my organs can be used to the most needy recipient. If they go to a person who has the cash to bend the rules, then I think they better just pay me or my family.
Obviously, their religion was just a PR trick. Had they been true believing Christians, they could have saved themselves a lot of work and money: as Jesus said so eloquently in Mt 21:22 "And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."
Curiously, still available:
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.