FWIW, I did a search on Dow Jones Interactive, which is a very reliable database containing the full text of several hundred publications, including the Arizona Daily Star. I searched not only that paper, but other Arizona papers, for the time period 1/1/1999-9/19/2000, using the words “Rasmussen,” “liver” and “transplant” in all combinations. No hits with those words in any combination. So, until we have confirmation from Ms. McClain as to the veracity of this story, we are all just tilting at windmills.
Who knows–this could be some disgruntled former patient or employee talking trash about the place.
I’d also like to point out that, if Mr. Rasmussen really does exist, if/when he recieves his new liver, quite likely someone on the list after him (maybe several someones) is going to die. I don’t think any of us are in a position to judge who deserves it and who doesn’t.
Until the story is verified, I am not going to get my knickers in a twist. I find it a little odd that search results have come up negative and it does smell a bit like an urban legend.
If this story is true, we are only hearing one side. Working in an agency that gets a lot of press exposure, I can guaranty that stories don’t sell if the grusome “facts” are clarified. Virtually every amount of press we have gotten has either been confusion of facts, exagerations, reporting errors, or just old fashioned lies. We spend a great deal of man hours repairing damage made by the press.
They have a bad habit of ignoring certain elements and exagerating the juicier parts to make the story a lot more interesting. Large companies and agencies are usually made out to be the bad guy since the general public are more likely to be sympathetic with the regular Joe victim.
As I said, I am not making any judgments until the story is verified and all facts are known.
I also agree with Phil that the donor program does not have an endless supply. For every person who receives a donor part, another dies. If this man is denied a transplant, it may be used to save a single mother of 5 children who may otherwise leave her own children orphans or maybe a young man who will grow up to discover something wonderful. Who really knows?
There aren’t enough donors to go around and I sure as hell am not in a position to judge who should or should not receive.
I work in a health care institution (read: hospital) and have more than one client who has received a transplant. Livers, kidneys, hearts. Some of them are Grade-A assholes, others are warm real persons. In no instance that, I am aware of, has someone’s personality or pissiness played any role in their transplantation.
The role of compliance (actually non-compliance), though, has come forth on occasion and it is an incredibly wrenching thing work through. No one here takes lightly the action of putting someone on a recipient list or not.
Incidentally, there is no mention of the bio-ethics component of this decision. This commitee or it’s ilk is a vital part of decisions made concerning ‘the list’.
I went one step further. I actually tried calling the reporter. Nada. Couldn’t get through.
The fact that her paper has no listing for Rasmussen, Transplant, etc., leads me to wonder the veracity of the story. AP searches and other’s who have posted before me bear out the fact that this is both hard to prove or not.
Until it’s proven or disproven, a knee-jerk reaction to this story seems a bit premature.
I just got off the phone with the reporter, Carla McClain, at the paper.
1). Story is true according to her.
2.) She was time-crunched, but will fax me the story tomorrow or this evening.
3.) I can call back with questions if we have any. (Hah!)
Thank you Germ Boy, I had emailed her myself, as I am sure several others have. People I would never post about something like this unless I were 99.99% sure it was no hoax.
I personally believe the story. I just don’t understand the why. The guy laid on the call button for 40 minutes, and no one came to help him? That’s disgusting.
I have signed my driver’s license to be an organ donor, and I’ve also made my wishes known to anyone & everyone who might have some say in what’s done with my body when I’m dead. Basically, it’s “gut me like a deer. I won’t need anything.” And though I know that I have no say as to who gets my organs, if I did, I wouldn’t care. I wouldn’t care at all if the person was a saint or a flaming asshole. No one deserves to die in such a terrible way. And no one deserves to get a death sentence just because he got angry at a nurse.
Did you not read what Germ Boy wrote ? This is not UL. This is a mans life. Pardon me if I gert emotional, but since I too have hep C I could be in that situation one day. I don’t post bull shit storys about something so serious.
Whoa!
WTF? People were saying it MIGHT be a hoax, so I said to verify it, maybe ask at Snopes…
Fuck, I think it’s a pretty shitty situation (No pun intended) too, however, since most said it was hard to find, I suggested researching it!
Cheese and rice! Hell, I’d be fucking HAMMERING on that sucker if someone ignored me when I had the shits.
IN fact, I would LOVE to believe it’s IS an UL, because that would mean that it didn’t happen, and that the guy was okay.
If it is true, it would be horrible, so maybe that’s why I’m hoping it is not.
What you read in the newspapers may not be true. What you read in the newspaper is often only one side of the story. Newspapers and other mass media dumb things down, gloss over nuances, and often miss very important details. The media are interested in manufacturing controversy to sell papers/get ratings. They also like being on the side of the little guy up against the big institution.
Of course, everyone knew all that.
It should go without saying, but I’ll have to say it anyway, that if what the article says is true as written, it is outrageous. But outrageous things happen every day to the little guys, the big guys, good guys and bad guys. I’m keeping my powder (and eyes) dry for outrages a little closer to home.
Well, since I have Hepatitis C it is close to home for me. Y’all pardon me if I am too sensitive about this. But I can’t help but put myself in this man’s shoes. After all I could very well wind up needing a liver myself and would hate to see myself denied one due to some bull shit like this.
Ayesha, I don’t think anyone here is accusing you of posting bullshit, we are only saying that we want some additional verification or facts (if the story is true) before we fly into an outrage. It is possible that this is an urban legend or misrepresentation of the facts by the press (believe me, this happens all the time). I am not sure why you are insulted that a few posters have suggested sending this story to SNOPES.
I can’t pretend to know how you feel, but if had hepatitis C I would be trying to verify the validity of this story before I accepted it as gospel.
No one would want to be in that man’s position. Which is why we should try and verify the story. And why we should HOPE that it’s not true.
Because then it wouldn’t have happened.