A team of doctors in Denver
are facing ethical questions after it was revealed that they had gone ahead and
removed hearts of dying babies after their hearts had stopped beating for less
that 75 seconds.
The standard waiting time recommended by the Institute of
Medicine for organ harvesting after the heart stops beating is 5 minutes though
exceptions can be made if the patient is brain dead. However doctors from Denver had waited just
three minutes before harvesting the heart from one patient and less than 75
seconds in two patients between 2004 and 2007.
Kidney Transplantation
Since the early times, the novel idea of transplanting tissues and other body parts from one organism to the other has captured the imagination of successive generations.
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While the doctors face ethical questions for disregarding the minimum waiting time as recommended by Institute of Medicine, one of the doctors, Dr Mark Boucek defended the team's action by saying that waiting for a long time may reduce the chances of a successful transplantation.
"Adding an additional two, three or five minutes, or
even 75 seconds, does add some additional injury. It could be 10 percent,"
he said.
A detailed report is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Source: Medindia
RAS/L
A detailed report is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Source: Medindia
RAS/L
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Bone Marrow Transplantation - Animation
Animation and slides providing graphic explanation of Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT)/Stem Cell Transplantation that is done for leukemia and other blood-related disorders.
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