I just don’t want there to be any reason for my death to be sped up or facilitated in some way by doctors who think someone else will be better off with what I have when there’s a medical crisis. And as long as prisoners are receiving state and federally funded organ transplants, there’s no way I would even consider being an organ donor unless I or my friends could at the very least control who the organs go to.
Doctor Accused of Killing Patient to Harvest Organs
…Prosecutors in San Luis Obispo County said Dr. Hootan Roozrokh, 33, of San Francisco, gave a harmful drug and prescribed excessive doses of morphine and a sedative to 26-year-old Ruben Navarro, who died in 2006.
Navarro was taken in a coma to Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center, 150 miles northwest of Los Angeles, in 2006 after suffering respiratory and cardiac arrest. Although Navarro was found to have irreversible brain damage and was kept on a respirator, he was not considered brain dead because he still had limited brain function.
The day before Navarro died, his family gave approval for a surgical team to recover his organs for donation. That didn’t happen, however, because Navarro didn’t die within 30 minutes of being removed from life support. He died a day later.
Roozrokh, a surgeon at Kaiser Permanente’s now-closed kidney transplant program, was working at the time on behalf of a group that procures and distributes organs. The prosecutor’s office said in a statement that the drugs were prescribed “to accelerate Mr. Navarro’s death in order to recover his organs.” […]
The coroner’s office this year determined Navarro died of natural causes. Last month, his mother, Rosa, filed a wrongful-death and medical malpractice lawsuit against Roozrokh and others, claiming her son was removed from life support without her permission and given lethal doses of drugs.
UPDATE:
Debbie Schlussel has a post looking at this case, asking why Roosrokh isn’t being charged with murder, and some funny business being engaged in by other doctors who are Muslim. (HT Tink in Comments)
This just confirms one of those old stories my mother used to use to scare me as a kid. She would say; “What if they have you in the hospital and then they roll in Lyndon Johnson and he just happens to need something you have?”
Needless to say it always scared me off from checking that box on my driver’s license!!
“Prosecutors are charging Roozrokh with dependent adult abuse, administering a harmful substance, Retadine, and unlawful prescribing of sedatives to a severely disabled man and if convicted of all charges, he could face up to eight years in prison.” Taken from my local paper The Tribune.
Roozrokh took this man’s life and all he MIGHT get is up to 8 years! That’s insane. This sounds like murder to me.
That’s why I’m only registered National Bone Marrow Donor’s Program List. They don’t have to kill you off for that. It’s just a pain in the butt. (Literally).
Your right Gina – doesn’t make sense – he gets off on bail with only $10,000. I know all about their lies. Go to: http://WWW.MYFOXNY.COM and search the movie clip using words: organ donation controversy. Young man cut on for organs – 29 minutes before pronounced dead. He was tortured like this man from California. Don’t fall for their b/s – 60% of all organs go to people 50-70 years of age!!!
As a former member of the medical “industry”, it used to amaze me whenever a potential donor was about to pass away. And most doctors and nurses are full blown kool-aid drinkers on this subject, thoroughly convinced of the righteousness of their position. If the person wasn’t a documented donor, they immediately start the guilt tripping, often before the family has left the hospital room. And the dirty little secret is, you donate your precious organs, and everyone but your family makes money. The harvesting facility and medical team makes money, the transport companies make money, and each facility that does a transplant makes a ton of money. I will become an organ donor when they pass a law that guarantees my next of kin a part of the money that the hospitals and doctors are getting. I think that would also fix the shortage of donors problem.
Did you know this doctor is a muslim? And why isn’t he being charged with murder?
Debbie Schlussel has much more about this at her site today.
Tammy,
Generally I agree with you on most things. On this I think you are dead wrong. My son is a heart transplant recipient. There are literally thousandes of transplants conducted in U.S.A each year an almost all are done per existing laws and protocols. This Doctor directly violated those laws and protocols and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. However, to color a whole program that does immense good because of the misdeeds of a few is dead wrong. I’ve been listed as a donor for years, when I die I would like to know that my death at least benefited someone. The decision to list ones self as a donor is personal and should remain so, but I think your position on organ donorship is not well thought out.
After reading this story, my organ donor card will be made invalid!!!!!