Your expression of emotion through your writing style has a knock out punch to the gut each time you put your thoughts on the blog. Let’s back up a bit to your first comments. Your boy was given a 3 out of 15 points when he entered the emergency room. The Glasgow Coma Scale was probably used. This measures coma and impaired consciousness for head injury. A 3 on this scale translates to no eye opening, motor response, or verbal response. A 15 translates as normal response in each of these areas. I believe that the three is the lowest score on this scale. Eight hours later, your son was pronounced brain dead by hospital staff. According to your statement, medication to reduce brain swelling continued for 4 more hours. At the end of 12 hours medication ceased to be given, the brain was swollen and had stopped any activity during the 8th hour in the emergency room. Staff requested your permission to harvest the organs. Only after your family physician pronounced your son and his patient dead could the hospital proceed. The hospital could not tranfer your son to another hospital from the beginning because there was no motor response, verbal response, or eye opening. Unfortunately, there was no easy way to tell you there was no hope for your son to regain consciousness. It is sad that there is no customer relations departments at hospitals that service the families of organ donors.

You must admit to yourself that you are a superdad. You have run a mental and physical marathon trying to handle all the issues involved in critical care for your son and his friend. You also have to admit that you gave the permission for your son’s organs to be harvested to give life immediately to other American sons or daughters. You need to recover yourself. Take time now to heal yourself. Should you feel like sharing your pain and thoughts further, I would suggest a chaplain. You may wish to see an attorney who handles wrongful death cases to get real counseling on these difficult issues.

MY SON AND HIS BEST FRIEND WERE INJURED ON A 4 WHEELER THIS PAST FRIDAY. THEY WERE CARE FLIGHTED TO WICHITA GENERAL HOSP., AND HAD THE SAME DOCTOR AS ZACK DUNLAP. THESE BOYS WERE BOTH 20 YEARS OLD AND IN GREAT CONDITION, AND GREAT CONDITION FOR A POTENTIAL DONOR. BEING A POTENTIAL DONOR CHANGED EVERYTHING ON THE TREATMENT THEY GOT AT THIS HOSPITIAL, AND YES THEIR FUNERALS ARE THIS SAT, NOV 22,2008.

AFTER FINDING OUT THAT WE MAY HAVE SOME INTEREST IN ORGAN DONATION, THE TREATMENT STOPPED IMMEDIATELY AFTER ONLY 12 HOURS IN THE ER. THEY WERE NO LONGER INTERESTED IN SAVING OUR BOYS BUT PERSERVING THE ORGANS UNTIL WE DECIDED TO GIVE UP. THEY INSISTED THEY THEIR BRAINS WERE SWOLLEN AND THEY COULD DO NOTHING TO GET THE SWELLEN DOWN AND THEY HAD NO CHANCE. WE BEGAN TO ASK ABOUT THE MIRACLE DEAL AND ZACK DUNLAP, THIS WAS A MISTAKE, OUR DOCTOR WHICH WAS THE SAME AS ZACKS, TOOK US IN THE HALLWAY AND SAID THERE WAS NO COMPAIRISON, BECAUSE QUOTE “THE REASON ZACK CAME OUT OF HIS COMA AND WAS NO LONGER BRAIN DEAD WAS BECAUSE HE SIGNED OFF ON THE CT SCAN WITHOUT LOOKING AT IT, STATING HE THOUGHT THE OTHER SPECIALIST KNEW WHAT HE WAS DOING”. HE THEN GOT MAD AT US FOR WANTING ANOTHER OPIONION FROM AN OUTSIDE SOURCE THEN REMOVED HISSELVE FROM BEING OUR DOCTOR. NEEDLESS TO SAY WE HAD DO CALL OUR DOCTOR FROM OUR HOME TOWN TO COME UP AND PRONOUNCE THEM DEAD SO THE ORGAN HARVEST COULD GET STARTED. REMEMBER THIS WAS 2 BOY BOTH 20 YEARS OLD AND THEY DID NOTHING FOR EITHER, TOLD US THAT BOTH WERE A 3 ON A SCALE OF 15 WHEN THEY ENTERED THE ER, THEN TOLD US BOTH WERE COMPETELY BRAIN DEAD 8 HOURS LATER AND NOTHING THEY COULD DO. WE ASK TO BE TRANSFER TO HOSP IN DALLAS, THEY SAID THEY WOULD SEE IF THEY COULD FIND AN OPENING SINCE IT WAS THE WEEKEND, AND WOULD GET BACK TOO US. WE NEVER HEARD ANYTHING BACK.
WE WERE THERE FROM 2:00 AM SAT UNTIL 3:00 TUES AND NOT ONE TIME DID THE DOCTORS SAY ANYTHING ABOUT TRYING ANYTHING TO SAVE THEM. THE ONLY TIME THEY MENTIONED WHAT THEY WERE TRYING TO DO WAS AFTER BEING THERE 12 HOURS THEY WANTED TO STOP THE BRAIN SWELLING MEDICATION AND SEE WHAT IF ANY KIND OF REACTION THEY WOULD HAVE. THAT WAS THE LAST AND ONLY TIME ANY MEDICATION WAS MENTIONED, AFTER THAT THEY ONLY MENTION ORGAN DONATIONS. AFTER 3 DAYS OF SAYING NOTHING HAS CHANGED AND WE NEEDED TO MAKE A DECISION WE FINALLY DID. WE EVEN HAD THE NURSES CALLING OUR WAITING ROOM AND HOTEL EVEN AT 3:00 IN THE MORNING TELLING US THAT WE NEEDED TO DONATE THE ORGANS. KEEP IN MIND NOTHING OTHER THEN THE BRAIN WAS IN QUESTION, ALL VITIALS AND EVERYTHING WAS DOING FINE. WE WERE NOT EVEN CLOSE TO WAITING TOO LONG IN ORDER TO DONATE THE ORGANS. THEY KILLED OUR BOYS FOR THE DONATIONS AND THATS THE BOTTOM LINE. THANKS

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Here in England we’ve got tabloid style national newspapers and some of the TV stations also have the “if it bleeds it leads” mentality. My advice to Americans: generously support NPR and PBS. I know they’ve started running quite a few ads as well but I bet a lot of the reporters would argue against it if the money came in.