From Spawny’s blog:

Brain-dead man’s kin in scuffle over op to remove organs
Relatives, hoping for miracle, wanted doctors to delay surgery for another day; confrontation lasted 3 hours before matter was resolved
By Tracy Sua

(article edited by blogger for clarity and length)

SUDDEN COLLAPSE: Mr Sim, 43, with his girlfriend from China’s Hainan Island whom he had planned to marry. He had no major illnesses before he collapsed at work. He was declared brain dead four days later. — LIANHE WANBAO

GRIEF-STRICKEN relatives of a brain-dead man on Tuesday begged that his organs not be taken - and then got into a tussle with hospital staff when their request was rejected.

They were praying for a miracle, hoping that Mr Sim Tee Hua, 43, would awake from his coma.

But the crane operator was declared brain dead at 6.20pm on Monday - four days after he collapsed at work last Thursday.

The cause of death: a stroke, or brain haemorrhage.

When doctors at Singapore General Hospital (SGH) said on Monday that they were going to remove his organs, the family requested that they wait for 24 hours - and the doctors agreed.

After that time was up, the family asked for another 24 hours, but doctors felt that a delay would make the organs unusable for transplant and went ahead with the operation.

Under the Human Organ Transplant Act (Hota) amended in July 2004, kidneys, livers, hearts and corneas suitable for transplant can be removed from all Singaporeans and permanent residents upon their death - unless they have opted out. Muslims are exempted because of religious reasons.

Mr Sim had not opted out of the programme, so his family was powerless to stop his organs from being removed.

Lianhe Wanbao reported that around 20 members of Mr Sim’s family intervened when his body was being wheeled into the operating theatre at about 10.15pm on Tuesday. His mother and five other relatives went down on their knees to beg doctors to delay the operation for one more day.

But when their request was denied, emotions ran high and the police were called. An aunt tried to bite a police officer in the arm.

Nine police officers and about 10 hospital security staff members were involved in the three-hour confrontation before the matter was resolved peacefully and doctors performed the operation.

Mr Sim’s sister, Ms Shen Qiu Xia, 45, told Lianhe Wanbao: ‘We were actually prepared to accept that he was dead if his condition did not get better by Wednesday night.

‘Although he was brain-dead, his body was still warm and my mother said that she felt he would awake from the coma.’

A Health Ministry spokesman told The Straits Times yesterday: ‘Where possible, doctors will accommodate a family’s request for a grace period as death is usually a difficult time for them. However, the transplant team will have to balance this with the need to save the lives of organ failure patients.’

Brain death is defined as a complete and irreversible cessation of brain activity. When this happens, a person can be declared dead even if the heart continues to beat due to life support measures.

The kidneys taken from Mr Sim’s body were given to two patients. One, a 55-year-old man, was on the transplant waiting list for about six years. The other is a 49-year-old man who had been waiting for almost eight years.

Anyone who does not want his organs to be taken after his death can register with the Ministry of Health. The opt-out form can be obtained from all public hospitals and polyclinics or from the Organ Donor Registry at SGH.

tracysua@sph.com.sg

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Spawny: The above somewhat sounded like a scuffle somewhere up in North Asia, but it’s in our own backyard at Outram Park

What’s your take on this?

Of course this practice is not entirely totalitarian since one’s given the option to Opt Out of the bodyparts snatchers program, opting out also deprives one’s priority when one needs a transplant in future. (But if there are 5000 opt-ins waiting for a kidney, 5001th onwards will be the opt-outs, so what difference does 4999, 5000, 5001 and 5002 make? And also, who gets it first? The first in the queue, or the highest bidder among the 5000+1?)

As an individual, one probably thinks that the organs can be harvested from one’s body upon death for good use on another living being. But family members who are still alive will have their own opinions on that, and they should be the ones to be given the rights to make the decision, not some fk’ing Vulture based on some Act.

For the sake of one’s family, Opt Out the next time when one drops by any polyclinic. Leaving family members to go down on their knees, beg and fight off Vulture Droids is cruel, an uphill task, esp after accepting news of one’s demise. It’s a package, for the sake of those one left behind; draw up a will, get an insurance plan and opt out of the Act.

Me: Well maybe, just maybe, it was his choice to not opt out, and it was his family who didn’t want him to donate his organs. In which case, it was his decision to donate the organs, not his family’s. Just saying.

I’m aware of the opt-out but I choose not to opt out. If I can save someone’s life and health after I die, isn’t that great? (Although don’t know how healthy my organs are, hoho, definitely don’t want my corneas, my eyes lan lan already.)

The doctors had terrible bedside manner in dealing with the family, but I think that’s more the trouble here than the hoohah over the actual removal of organs.

Anyway, you said what’s the difference if it’s the 4999th, or the 5000th, or the 5001th?

You know that story about the little boy walking down the beach during low tide and throwing starfish back in the water? An old man asked him, “Boy, what’s the point? You can’t make a big enough difference. There are too many starfish. The beach is miles long. You can’t throw that many starfish back in.” The little boy held up a starfish and said, “It makes a difference to this one.” And he threw it back into the sea.

What if you were that person waiting 8 years for a kidney transplant? Spending years paying money (to golden peanut charities, teehee) for treatment, spending years in dialysis, always hoping for that transplant?

It would make a difference to you.