Greetings.

I am looking for any policies ({*filter*} or pediatric) that address organ
donation where non-heart beating organ donors are used.  We are also
looking
for policies where the patient is essentually dead, however brain death
criteria has not been met -- eg: where the patient is anecephalic.   We
are
looking into developing a policy for our OPO.  

If you have any information, would you please send it to me at the
following
address:

Snail Mail:     Richard Hemmer, RN, BSN, CEN
                    Transplant Coordinator
                    New York Regional Transplant Program, Inc.
                    475 Riverside Drive,   Suite 1244
                    New York,  NY  10115-1244

FAX:       212-870-3299

VOICE:   800-GIFT-4-NY

THANK YOU FOR ANY ASSISTANCE.

I know that Felix Rapaport over at Stony Brook has published on this
fairly recently, but you're probably already aware of that.  UNOS is
on-line, you know.  I don't know about the rest of the outfit, but their
communications department reads their e-mail.  Joel Newman's address is

Now I'm confused.  Sounds more like you'd need proposed legislation, no?

Mike Holloway

You don't need a policy.  If non-heart-beating solid organ
donation worked, you could use the same policies that you now use
for tissue donation (eye, skin, bone, etc.)  The trouble is,
without continuous perfusion up to the time of organ removal,
solid organ transplantation is unlikely to be effective.

You can't, of course, kill an anencephalic infant for its organs
(at least not without getting into a bit of legal trouble).
Alternatively, you could try to harvest immediately after
heartbeat cessation.  They tried this at Loma Linda a few years
ago, but the effort failed because of logistical problems.

Feel free to call me at (718) 579-5000 ext 3702 after Sept. 8; we
can discuss this or other issues.  I'm a neurologist at Lincoln
Hospital (in da Bronx), and I've been a sort of consultant to
NY/RTP for the past several years.

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