Georgia teen who got donated heart dies in crime spree: cops

[Dakine10 5,452]

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

Obviously the hospital was scared of a high profile lawsuit. They took the easier course, and IMO, they are in part to blame for not being completely honest. I don't see any reasons for the blanket allegations on the theme of the world being unfair to white people that seems to pop up with some of the regulars here. This is what it is. I don't see it being different if he was white.

The guy had a social history that the medical team saw this coming, but to blame it all in on race? As if he would have had this same crowd of supporters outside if he was 40 years old instead of 15. He had an outpouring of support because he was young and people wanted him to have a second chance. Hindsight shows us they were wrong. Foresight cant always do that. He's not the first person to waste the gift of life and he won't be the last.

The outpouring of support was from civil rights leaders and had nothing to do with his age. I can promise you the same crowd would not have rushed in had his skin color been different, now would they ?

No matter how many facts keep getting presented to you and how many time your rationale for justifying this changes, you just can not accept the fact this was about race and that he was given preferential treatment because of the color of his skin.

[Dakine10 5,452]

No matter how many facts keep getting presented to you and how many time your rationale for justifying this changes, you just can not accept the fact this was about race and that he was given preferential treatment because of the color of his skin.

Just post a damn link. I don't care about the fact's swirling around in your brain. It's the same brain that imagines a long history of persecution of white people in America. I don't trust what's in there.

I keep hearing about how he didn't take his meds. Prove it.

[Janelle2002 3,865]

Just post a damn link. I don't care about the fact's swirling around in your brain. It's the same brain that imagines a long history of persecution of white people in America. I don't trust what's in there.

I keep hearing about how he didn't take his meds. Prove it.

Don't hold your breathe too long. I actually like you.

[Dakine10 5,452]

Don't hold your breathe too long. I actually like you.

Iv'e asked 3 times now. He's got nothing.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

As you so wonderfully explained he was not put on the list for a lot of very good reasons that had nothing to do with color. every article clearly said he was non compliant.

He was put on a list he so clearly did not belong on for one reason and one reason only. The color of his skin and the lack of backbone by the hospital to stand to the race bait thugs.

Someone was a good candidate was bumped off the list and died . because of the absurdity of race polotics in this country.

This was blatant racism and can't be painted any other way

This is funny, coming from you.

When that college fraternity was caught on tape talking about no black people pledging and lynching, which is pretty much condoning murder AND racism at the same time, you didn't even call it racism. It was considered Political Correctness gone wrong. But I guess when it's going in the other direction, that makes it worse in your eyes.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

This is funny, coming from you.

When that college fraternity was caught on tape talking about no black people pledging and lynching, which is pretty much condoning murder AND racism at the same time, you didn't even call it racism. It was considered Political Correctness gone wrong. But I guess when it's going in the other direction, that makes it worse in your eyes.

It is, isn't it?

[unsmiley 111]

Imagine, for a moment, being a young teenager. You're fifteen years old. You've been healthy your whole life. You've never had a problem. Then suddenly, you have problems sleeping. Your chest hurts. You're told you have 3-6 months to live. It's a death sentence. You have no prior medical history to tell doctors whether you'll be compliant with medications, because until now, you have been healthy. You've made serious mistakes in your life, but you're fifteen.

They tell you that teenagers often are non-compliant. There's your first mark against you--based solely on age. They point out that you're bad at school--maybe because you just can't be bothered, maybe because of problems in school with other kids, maybe because the teachers don't actually care about their jobs, maybe because you've got an undiagnosed learning disability. It bears noting that poor people are much less likely to be diagnosed with even severe learning disabilities and that people of colour often get less attention from teachers. Strike two. You've got into some fights and the police got involved in that. You're on house arrest. It bears noting that black teenage boys are far more likely to go to jail or receive sentencing for fighting than white teenage boys or teenage girls of either race. Strike three.

Because you are a teenage boy who has made mistakes and you are not good at school, you have now been sentenced to die. It has nothing to do with your medical history, because you DO NOT HAVE a medical history. The heart problem that affected Anthony Stokes came up over the course of the summer where he was 15 and within only a short amount of time, not long enough to get any actual history of MEDICAL compliance established, he was sentenced to die.

That's why people challenged the hospital decision. Because he was a child without a history of medical non-compliance. The hospital even said, in the news, that people could be denied a spot on the transplant list simply because they lacked family members to drive them to the hospital as often as they might need in the time after the transplant--and so due to no fault of their own, the crime of simply not having family, they might be denied a heart due to 'non-compliance.'

Sorry but a lot of the things you cite are important. How many other teenagers are/were out there that needed a heart but were more "compliant" and/or did not make "serious mistakes" in their lives? And having someone available to get him to the hospital is an important thing. After all, we want any transplant performed to work out. If he cannot avail himself of follow up care, a precious heart would be lost, and hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money wasted.

All things being equal, I could envision giving him this chance you think he deserves. However, we are dealing with an environment of scarce resources, I am certain there were many better choices than this criminal.

[unsmiley 111]

If you are talking about behavioral non-compliance, which is a different issue, and a more subjective one, then we should take all the smokers and obese people off the transplant list too. And then it's a short list.

There is nothing wrong with subjective criteria. They are used in medical decisions on a daily basis. Not every choice can be decided objectively. Even the fact that certain donor lists and transplant eligibility vary from region to region in the US is somewhat subjective. We simply do not have enough hearts for everybody. And it makes perfect sense to me to exclude certain "behavioral problems" in these situations.

Edited April 6, 2015 by unsmiley

[Dakine10 5,452]

There is nothing wrong with subjective criteria. They are used in medical decisions on a daily basis. Not every choice can be decided objectively. Even the fact that certain donor lists and transplant eligibility vary from region to region in the US is somewhat subjective. We simply do not have enough hearts for everybody. And it makes perfect sense to me to exclude certain "behavioral problems" in these situation.

I agree with that, but I would qualify it by saying that subjective reasons do not always disqualify people. The number I have seen cited is 15%, but I'm not sure how accurate that is.

There are automatic exclusions. If you have cancer, or certain infectious diseases that would not allow you to take immuno-suppressive drugs, you are excluded medically. It is automatic. Subjective criteria on the other hand - it disqualifies some people and not others. Sometimes for the same reason.

[unsmiley 111]

I vaguely remember when the singer David Crosby got his liver transplant after a lifetime of drinking and drugging that destroyed his liver. I, and many others, were outraged. What a waste! And he apparently went right back to his destructive behaviors...

I do not care who are the "sickest" or whatever the current rules are in the US. They need to be revised. There are so many people on these transplant lists who are not drug or alcohol abusers, or criminals, and we should be giving the organs to them.

[We Keep Receipts 9,238]

Iv'e asked 3 times now. He's got nothing.

That's because he and the few people co-signing this conversation are mad about this teen's skin color more than any non compliance issues.

[Dakine10 5,452]

That's because he and the few people co-signing this conversation are mad about this teen's skin color more than any non compliance issues.

It's getting old.

[Dakine10 5,452]

I vaguely remember when the singer David Crosby got his liver transplant after a lifetime of drinking and drugging that destroyed his liver. I, and many others, were outraged. What a waste! And he apparently went right back to his destructive behaviors...

I do not care who are the "sickest" or whatever the current rules are in the US. They need to be revised. There are so many people on these transplant lists who are not drug or alcohol abusers, or criminals, and we should be giving the organs to them.

I'm not sure if it's still this way but it used to be years ago, if you were an exact HLA match for an organ, you would jump to the front of the list. Almost like a lottery, because the chance of the transplant being successful was so much greater that all other considerations were secondary. Never seemed like the most fair process. I guess if it can't be fair, I'd like it to at least be consistent.

[unsmiley 111]

I'm not sure if it's still this way but it used to be years ago, if you were an exact HLA match for an organ, you would jump to the front of the list. Almost like a lottery, because the chance of the transplant being successful was so much greater that all other considerations were secondary. Never seemed like the most fair process. I guess if it can't be fair, I'd like it to at least be consistent.

Agreed.