St. Patrick's Day, March Madness, and Steve Jobs' Liver

Many Americans are probably rubbing their temples and wandering around with a bit of a post-St. Patrick's day hangover. Reader theodp writes with a sobering statistical consequence of traditional heavy-drinking holidays: "Keep in mind that this time of year has traditionally been very good to those awaiting organ transplants, including the late Steve Jobs, as Walter Isaacson explained in Jobs: 'By late February 2009 Jobs had secured a place on the Tennessee list (as well as the one in California), and the nervous waiting began. He was declining rapidly by the first week in March, and the waiting time was projected to be twenty-one days. 'It was dreadful,' Powell recalled. 'It didn't look like we would make it in time.' Every day became more excruciating. He moved up to third on the list by mid-March, then second, and finally first. But then days went by. The awful reality was that upcoming events like St. Patrick's Day and March Madness (Memphis was in the 2009 tournament and was a regional site) offered a greater likelihood of getting a donor because the drinking causes a spike in car accidents. Indeed, on the weekend of March 21, 2009, a young man in his mid-twenties was killed in a car crash, and his organs were made available.'"

Comments

Had he not waited. . .

[smooth wombat]

until the last second to begin real treatment, things might have turned out better.

Instead, Jobs abandoned common sense and reason in favor of hocus pocus, "alternative" crap which did absolutely nothing to help his condition and may in fact have contributed to its severity.

There's a reason real medicines are tested and "alternative medicine" isn't. If they weren't alternative, they would be listed as medicine, used every day and give tangible results.

Re:Had he not waited. . .

[the eric conspiracy]

One thing to be aware of is that there is more than one type of pancreatic cancer. The most common type (95%) is very aggressive and by the time it is detected in most people it is too late. 5 year survival of stage 1 cases is only 12%.

The other type (5%) creates slow growing or even benign (neuroendocrine) tumors. This is what Steve Jobs had. 5-year survival of stage 1 cases is 61%.

Steve Jobs delayed treatment by going off on alternative medicine until the cancer advanced to stage IV. At that point survival rates are 15% or so.

Basically Steve committed misguided suicide. Who ever advised him in this foolish escapade should be in jail.

Jobs DID promote the cause of organ donation

[Anonymous Coward]

How clueless you are.
He did indeed promote organ donations. Actively.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhKzyAoiTJE

http://www.tuaw.com/2010/03/19/steve-jobs-helps-push-organ-donation-legislation/

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14710654

http://www.forbes.com/sites/velocity/2010/04/20/how-steve-jobs-got-sick-got-better-and-decided-to-save-some-lives/

Need more evidence?

Re: Jobs DID promote the cause of organ donation

[Anonymous Coward]

He promoted it in the very public keynote while introducing new iProducts. How much more public should it be??? His Cali law endorsement was also all over the country in the newspapers. Again, it couldn't be more public.

It's YOUR fault, not his, that you haven't taken notice.
It was not his obligation to personally call you to inform you about the donation law promotion.

Re:Jobs didn't promote the cause of organ donation

[tbuddy]

Other than the $52 million to hospitals. He promoted organ donation heavily after receiving his much like Michael J Fox did with Parkinson's and Christopher Reeve did paralysis.