Comment by gjsman-1000 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by gjsman-1000 | Hacker News Reader

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For more horror: There are stories of people who were legally brain dead who woke up - see Colleen Burns, for example. She woke up just before her organs were going to be removed for donation (quite literally under the surgical lights). The hospital was also fined for inexplicably (possibly maliciously) giving off-the-record sedatives when she started to show signs of life after the diagnosis - but she managed to wake up in time anyway. (It's also why I'm not an organ donor - I'm scared I won't actually be dead, and that the hospital is perhaps not the most impartial decision maker of whether I am dead.)

https://www.syracuse.com/news/2013/07/st_joes_fined_over_dea...

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/dead-patient-collee...

See also Zack Dunlap, a 21-year-old man who claims to have heard the doctors pronounce his death - and also awoke very shortly before organ removal.

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna23768436

https://www.today.com/news/pronounced-dead-man-takes-miracul...

There are about a ~dozen others out there as well.

I'm also not an organ donor for the same reason.

If you read the medical literature on this they always claim that the test(s!) for death are reliable. But either they aren't, or people aren't able to always reliably perform the tests, or they don't want to.

Agreed that the hospital staff are not impartial, thus, the third option is not unlikely in my mind.

French word for undertaker is 'croquemort' which seems to mean "bite-dead" .. a final check to ensure proper lack of life from an unresponsive body. A low success profession according to the numerous scratch marks found in caskets.

I am an organ donor, already donated one and can assure you I am not dead yet.

Donating organs is an easy way (for the donor -- the medical staff is performing magic) to make a significant, positive difference. And frankly, for many of us, it's probably the only way.

No need to be afraid.

I'm not speaking about when you are alive, go ahead, donate. I'm only talking about the "Donor" tag on your driver's license after an accident - where, well, people have woken up who were considered "brain dead" and were sometimes just minutes from organ removal. Which naturally induces shivers about the people who would have woken up but didn't have enough time...

How likely is that situation vs. being considered brain dead and having all life-supporting treatment halted? It seems like you're more likely to survive if they try to harvest your organs than if they unplug you and leave the room.

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