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Invasion of the Body Snatchers
theodp writes "Newsweek reports that a grim trade in stolen human tissue isn't just the stuff of Robin Cook novels. Demand for the tissue, which is used in such procedures as joint and heart-valve replacements, back surgery, dental implants and skin grafts, has driven the price for a single harvested body up to $7,000. Many unsuspecting recipients are now rushing to doctors to be tested for tainted tissue."
No names and no pack drill.
I worked for a man who was incredibly rich and extremely well connected, there might have been things he couldn't buy, like some countries, due to lack of money, and there was one thing he could not buy in reality, which was sight for his blind daughter...
However he did tell me very matter of factly that when you were a millionaire it was a simple matter of going to miami where jewish doctors (I'm repeating what I was told, so I'm not going to alter it to remove any racial / religious references in a bid to make it more credible etc) would sell you any transplantable organ or tissue you liked, at a price, harvested from medically screened live donors, said donors being sourced in south america.
A healthy 20 year old heart, chosen to match your tissue etc etc etc
He was as matter of facts about things that were just there and available to the super rich as we would be about a 1U web server, it's there if you want it.
I doubt the actual true non politically correct market value of a single average human life has increased any in the intervening 19 years.
http://slashdot.org/~GuyFawkes/journal
From the pdf file the_immune_system:
Immunology and Transplants
Each year thousands of American lives are prolonged by transplanted organs -- kidney,heart,lung,liver,and pancreas.For a transplant to "take," however,,the body 's natural tendency to rid itself of foreign tissue must be overridden. One way,tissue typing ,makes sure markers of self on the donor 's tissue are as similar as possible to those of the recipient.Each cell has a double set of 6 major tissue
antigens,and each of the antigens exists, in different individuals,in as many as 20 varieties.The chance of 2 people having identical transplant antigens is about 1 in 100,000.
Transplant patients must first overcome these odds. If it were me I think my tendency would be to breathe a sigh of relief at having found donor tissue and that relief might make me tend to put questions about tissue health on the back burner.
"Academicians are more likely to share each other's toothbrush than each other's nomenclature."
Cohen
For those of you who wonder about how they test for "tainted" tissue, it's rather easy:
Does the patient now have a disease that they didn't have before the transplant? Were they at risk to contract the disease independently of the transplant? If someone who has been married for 50 years suddenly shows up with AIDS, hepititis, etc. it's a pretty good bet it's from the transplant and not risky sexual behaviour. You assess the patient and see if a new condition they are experiencing is due to lifestyle or other factors.
If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
The most tragic outcome of this story is that it might discourage tissue and organ donation. The advantages of tissue donation in particular are not as widely known as they should be. Where organ donation requires tissue type matching, tissue donation does not, and tissue donation is an option for far more people who want to make a contribution after death (including the elderly and many who are in very poor shape at the time of death). It can be an option for those dying at home under hospice care. Tissue donation can benefit 50-100 people.
http://shareyourlife.org/
http://organdonor.gov/
http://www.rtix.com/index.cfm
http://lifecell.com/
http://www.cryolife.com/
I think a bigger factor is that Christian's send many people to talk to prisoners, and forgiveness of sins helps deal with guilt or crimes committed (and the day of judgements helps with dealing with enemies, being able to think they will eventually get what they deserve). I know Nation is Islam has had many people join out of prison (their programs to help ex-convicts stay out of jail and gang deterrence programs are probably major factors in that), I don't know about Islam in general though.
Computers allow humans to make mistakes at the fastest speeds known, with the possible exception of tequila and handguns
I live in Australia where the Australian Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service (ARCBTS) collects and co-ordinates blood donations.
In the 80s - 90s, I worked in a pathology lab where we both screened the donors and crossmatched for recipients. This was when HIV was well established to be a bit more than "teh ghey dizzez" and the Next Big Worry was Hep C, for which there wasn't a reliable antigen test at the time (remember, cost is everything - a $100 test might not be used for a disease with 0.1% incidence because of the massive cost of it).
The subject of autologous transfusions came up often, and the ARCBTS was generally against it for several reasons:
- patient selection
- the logistics of collection
- the logistics of storage
- the logistics of giving it back
Selection
Who is able to donate blood prior to surgery? Who isn't? The very old and the very young can't. Those with anaemia can't, neither can those undergoing chemo or radiotherapy. Those with blood-borne diseases shouldn't. Obviously only reasonably health people having elective surgery can. Smallish pool of people that.
Do they need to give blood? Depends on the type of surgery. Most surgery doesn't require a blood transfusion unless something goes wrong. Some surgery (open heart, for example) requires more blood than a single person can be expected to give.
Collection:
Since 99% of donations are from anonymous donors, it would be difficult to segregate directed donations to ensure they don't get lost in the system. At the moment, a bag of O+ is just a bag of O+. Once it's cleared, it doesn't matter who it's from or where it ends up as long as it gets transfused into a compatible recipient. Having to track each bag individually would add enormously to the cost of collection, as well as increase the chance of "lost" bags. Just like luggage, these things happen. Also, bags may get mislabelled. If there's a group mismatch, these things will be picked up on crossmatching, but if the're not different groups, then the patient will receive someone else's blood. Because of this, I would never issue autologous blood without performing a crossmatch, so there's no cost saving to be found by using autologous.
These hassles can be overcome, but it's a cost issue.
Storage:
Blood is usually separated into plasma which is frozen (I can't remember how long fresh frozen plasma (FFP) is good for - it's a couple of years. hey, it's been a while since I worked in the field...) and red cells, which are refrigerated. The red cells are only good for a month, and even then a month is stretching it. The general rule is not to transfuse someone until they need two units, so a single unit donation that's to be refrigerated is useless. It would be medically negligent to get more than monthly donations from someone prior to surgery, since they'd be going into surgery with volumetric anaemia so you'd have to begin the process quite a few months prior.
Red cells can be successfully frozen, but the process is more difficult than that required by FFP, as is the thawing process. It requires labs to have more expensive equipment, preparing for transfusions will take longer (have to thaw out the cells), and if the surgery is cancelled at the last minute, then I don't think re-freezing the cells would be an option.
Giving it back:
The blood will still have to be crossmatched, assuming it can be thawed in time. Surgery schedules get moved all the time, not necessarily for the benefit of the blood transfusion staff.
Although your idea is meritorious and seems logical, it would be difficult and expensive to implement.
When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."