It's Happened Again -- Premature Declaration of Death

One of the most often cited reasons a person does not want to make anatomical gifts is a fear that a doctor may accelerate death to obtain needed organs.  The media is full of reports of situations where a person is declared dead and later turns out to be alive.  One of my favorite cases is about a man who was declared dead after a traffic accident and placed into a box.  He woke up about 48 hours later and made a full recovery.  But, he still had a problem.  His fiancee spurned him thinking he had turned into a zombie.  See Man Cheats Death, Loses His Fiancee, New Orleans Times Picayune, Mar. 22, 1993, at E15.

Well -- it's happened again.  Larry Green was in a car accident and injured.  He was declared dead, placed into a body bag, and hauled to the morgue.  Two hours later, the medical examiner noticed that Larry was not dead -- he was breathing!!  So, now Larry is in the hospital in critical condition.  One can only speculate if he would have been in better shape if he had received medical treatment rather than "the bag."  For more details, see the article on wral.com.

Maybe I'll get a tattoo on my chest that says, "Please -- try CPR one more time!"