Questions are being raised about the case of a 36-year-old Ontario woman who died of liver failure after she was rejected for a life-saving liver transplant after a medical review highlighted her prior alcohol use.
Giving a donor liver to an alcoholic, who only quit drinking upon diagnosis? Hell no. There are people with 5+ years who still worry about relapsing. A year is a start. Being forced to quit? I'd have wished her good luck if they gave the liver, but the person who dies instead of her?
I've watched alcoholics die of liver failure. It is a horribly sad thing. But sobriety is a choice, and you don't get to go back in time to make it. I'm not sure why this article is spinning this as cruelty from the transplant board instead of maybe, just maybe, highlighting the destructive role that alcohol plays in society. I wonder if a booze company pays their bills or something.
Did you bother to read the article? Her partner was a match, and could have donated a portion of their liver to her, if approved, as opposed to a donated liver.
Judge someone all you want for their previous life choices, but the decision referenced in this case should have been between the two of them and their doctor.
Second paragraph in: 'However, documents show the Alcohol Liver Disease (ALD) team at UHN rejected her in part because of "minimal abstinence outside of hospital." '
The article quotes Dr. Jayakumar making a general statement regarding alcohol diseased livers, but the University Health Network declined to comment on Amanda's specific case outside offering their (patronizing) condolences.
Feel free to quote the article and back up your statement.
I'm sorry, maybe I'm just daft this week, but I missed the concept "the doctors believed her liver is so far gone, a partial would lot [sic] work" in that.
I quote: "Huska, he said, stopped drinking as soon as she was diagnosed with Alcohol Liver Disease on March 3 and had also registered for an alcohol cessation program to begin once she was discharged." So where does the article state she kept drinking while waiting for the transplant?
I’m sorry, maybe I’m just daft this week, but I missed the concept “the doctors believed her liver is so far gone, a partial would lot [sic] work” in that.
This was posted like 5 times and I assumed it was the same article... I'll find the link to the original one where they detailed this. In any case, she was not eligible because she was likely to go back to drinking and ruin the new liver...
So where does the article state she kept drinking while waiting for the transplant?
I never said that... what the article says is that she was an alcoholic since late teens and was never able to stop. She literally only stopped drinking after she found out she was going to die, and that was only like 3 months. She tried to quit before but never succeeded... that tells you she was a super high risk of relapsing
Stopping to drink for a few weeks after you realize you are about to die from drinking... doesn't really make a difference here. Unfortunately, she was an alcoholic for most of her life and, before diagnosis, did not show any capacity to quit
So, even if she did stopped drinking 100% after May... it was just too late
It's literally what the article said... she stopped drinking after diagnosis
Here, second hand from her partner (my emphasis)
Her partner Nathan Allan says he and her physicians petitioned four times for permission to get her a transplant, the only treatment that would possibly save her life. ->Huska, he said, stopped drinking as soon as she was diagnosed with Alcohol Liver Disease on March 3<- and had also registered for an alcohol cessation program to begin once she was discharged.
Yes, I read the article three times over, trying to chase down false info someone posted in here. His offer is irrelevant. The prognosis was not good enough for him to donate. They only included it in the article for the melodrama. It's nothing more than an "I would die for her!" moment. Well, I'm glad the medical board did not condone assisting him with suicide.
Please quote the article where it states her prognosis was not good enough for him to donate. All I'm seeing is a statement that her prior alcohol consumption was a factor in that decision.