# He died of rabies? Let's give his organs away! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 2, 2004, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-died-of-rabies-lets-give-his-organs-away/253215 "2004-07-02T14:37:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-died-of-rabies-lets-give-his-organs-away/253215/1 "2004-07-02T14:37:41Z")
[From this article:](http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/07/01/rabies.organ.transplant/index.html) > [@](#): > > Rabies spread by organs taken from an infected donor has killed three transplant recipients, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. > > \ > > Rabies was also determined to be responsible for the death of the organ donor. So either they 1) didn’t know the cause of death (he died of a brain hemorrhage) and gave his organs away, or 2) they knew the cause of death, and gave his organs away anyway. :eek: Insanity. ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-died-of-rabies-lets-give-his-organs-away/253215/2 "2004-07-02T14:38:48Z")
Sorry, meant to include this part as well: > [@](#): > > The number of tests is limited because doctors have only about six hours from the time a patient is declared brain-dead until the transplantation must begin for the organs to maintain viability. ---
**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-died-of-rabies-lets-give-his-organs-away/253215/3 "2004-07-02T14:45:00Z")
But he didn’t die from a car accident or something like that. Wouldn’t you want to find out what caused the brain to go ker-blooey before stripping the guy for parts? Those poor people. What a nasty way to die after all they’d been through. ---
**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-died-of-rabies-lets-give-his-organs-away/253215/4 "2004-07-02T14:51:45Z")
Also from the article you linked: > [@](#): > > Rabies tests are not routine donor screening tests, Virginia McBride, public health organ donation specialist with the Health Resources and Services Administration, said. So I think it’s clear that they were unsure of the cause of the donor’s brain hemorrhage at the time the organs were harvested for transplantation. Rabies is so incredibly rare that it would take a very experienced clinician to make that diagnosis without a clear history of bat (or possibly another mammalian) bite. ---
**Author:** ![USCDiver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uscdiver/32/354_2.png) [@USCDiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/USCDiver)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-died-of-rabies-lets-give-his-organs-away/253215/5 "2004-07-02T14:53:04Z")
Also, since we’re in MPSIMS, I think the day of, or the day before, this story broke they aired the Seinfeld episode where Elaine is bitten by a dog and convinces herself that she has rabies. Coincidence? I think not! ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-died-of-rabies-lets-give-his-organs-away/253215/6 "2004-07-02T14:57:33Z")
Horrible as it is, it’s an extremely rare occurrence and once they get everyone he came into contact with re-isolated I’m guessing we’ll not see anything like this happen again. > [@](#): > > Person-to-person rabies transmission has been reported in only two cases, both of which occurred in Ethiopia via contact with saliva, … They had to harvest his organs quickly to retain viability, tested for likely problems but not for rabies because they’d never seen anything like this happen before. While the deaths of all were indeed tragic, even in hindsight I’d be hard pressed to say anyone was negligent. This was simply a freak, tragic occurrence. I’m guessing nationwide procedural changes won’t be necessary or implemented. ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-died-of-rabies-lets-give-his-organs-away/253215/7 "2004-07-02T15:04:28Z")
> [@USCDiver](#): > > Also, since we’re in MPSIMS, I think the day of, or the day before, this story broke they aired the Seinfeld episode where Elaine is bitten by a dog and convinces herself that she has rabies. Coincidence? I think not! “No shot. Bite. Woof woof, not bang bang” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-died-of-rabies-lets-give-his-organs-away/253215/8 "2004-07-02T15:19:10Z")
I find it odd that they said it never happened before because a few years ago I was doing some reading about rabies and I remember reading about someone who got it from corneal transplants where the donor had died of rabies (of course they didn’t know the donor died of rabies until it was too late). ---
**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-died-of-rabies-lets-give-his-organs-away/253215/9 "2004-07-02T15:53:23Z")
I guess I can agree with the point and the notion that they can’t test for everything but… damn, that’s scary. ☹ I just can’t imagine what it’s like to think your loved one is _finally_ getting the transplant s/he needs (and yes, I know that in and of itself, it’s a risky thing) only to find out something like this. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-died-of-rabies-lets-give-his-organs-away/253215/10 "2004-07-02T16:58:31Z")
Dying of rabies in the US is not just rare, it’s almost insanely rare. Something like [30](http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabies/Professional/publications/Surveillance/Surveillance01/Table2-01.htm) reported cases between 1990 and 2001 in the US. Three or four cases/ year out of a population of 250+ Million. Pick any almost ridiculously unlikely scenario of death, and it will be more likely than rabies. You can’t blame them for missing this. Which doesn’t mean it’s not awful. ---
**Author:** ![flamingbananas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f4b2a3/32.png) [@flamingbananas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flamingbananas)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/he-died-of-rabies-lets-give-his-organs-away/253215/11 "2004-07-02T17:13:12Z")
Scary bananas. Another coincidence: I just bought _Cujo_! There is a rabies case you don’t want to be apart of.