Thoughts about $ and medical ethics

[Lamplighter]

This article has nothing to do with $ (yet), but it is medical ethics and public opinion...

CBS News
Michelle Castillo
June 28, 2013
Philadelphia girl recovering after second lung transplant

A Philadelphia girl who successfully sued in order to be put on the adult
lung transplant list is now recovering after receiving a second lung transplant.

It's unclear at this time if the second donor was a juvenile or an adult.
<snip>

Sarah's case isn't over yet though.
On Monday, she'll have diaphragm placation surgery to flatten
the dome her of diaphragm so her lungs will be able to expand further.
Currently, her diaphragm has been partially paralyzed because of lung transplant surgery,
and she was unable to have her breathing tube removed earlier this week as a result.

I'm not posting this as any sort of argument against any (lung or other organ) transplants.
But instead because the public Comments to this CBS News article are quite vehement and telling...

Two potentially life savings (adult) lungs, potentially down the drain,
and two more adults waiting or dead because of it.
I am not insensitive to the situation and am thankful
I am not in the mothers shoes, but this hardly seems fair.
Also, this little girl has a progressive disease and a dim chance of living a long, productive life.

So the doctors were right in the first place.
The first set of lungs were wasted and most likely these two will not work either.
Then when the options finally run out or the politicians finally stay out of it
or this little girl dies in the OR, the parents will sue.

Maybe instead they need to read When Bad Things Happen To Good People and learn to accept reality.
These people have been asking for prayers and insist they have faith.
Maybe they need to understand their prayers were answered and the answer was no!

Starting to have a hard time rooting for this family.
Maybe the courts and approved physicians who declared the law
they fought so hard to beat to get the lung had a good reason
for putting the law into effect in the first place.

My own feelings are closer to this one...

Arthur L. Caplan, director of the division of medical ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center,
previously added that while the judge's decision was a "reasonable compromise,"
not every medical case should be decided by the courts.