From: ak949@yfn.ysu.edu (Michael Holloway)
Subject: Re: ORGAN DONATION AND TRANSPLANTATION FACT SHEET
Organization: St. Elizabeth Hospital, Youngstown, OH
Lines: 32
Reply-To: ak949@yfn.ysu.edu (Michael Holloway)
NNTP-Posting-Host: yfn.ysu.edu


In a previous article, dougb@comm.mot.com (Doug Bank) says:

>In article <1993Apr12.205726.10679@sbcs.sunysb.edu>, mhollowa@ic.sunysb.edu 
>|> Organ donors are healthy people who have died suddenly, usually 
>|> through accident or head injury.  They are brain dead.  The 
>|> organs are kept alive through mechanical means.
>
>OK, so how do you define healthy people?
>
>My wife cannot donate blood because she has been to a malarial region
>in the past three years.  In fact, she tried to have her bone marrow
>typed and they wouldn't even do that!  Why?
>
>I can't donate blood either because not only have I been to a malarial
>region, but I have also been diagnosed (and surgically treated) for
>testicular cancer.  The blood bank wont accept blood from me for 10
>years.  

Obviously, it wouldn't be of much help to treat one problem by knowingly 
introducing another.  Cancer mestastizes.  My imperfect understanding of 
the facts are that gonadal cancer is particularly dangerous in this regard. 
I haven't done the research on it, but I don't recall ever hearing of a 
case of cancer being transmitted by a blood transfusion.  Probably just a 
common sense kind of arbitrary precaution.  Transmissable diseases like 
malaria though are obviously another story.


-- 
Michael Holloway
E-mail: mhollowa@ccmail.sunysb.edu (mail to freenet is forwarded)
phone: (516)444-3090
