[ladyknight]

link: http://cannabisnews.com/news/23/thread23894.shtml

MMJ User Dies From Lack of Transplant


Posted by CN Staff on May 02, 2008 at 05:11:51 PT
Local News
Source: Seattle Times

medical Seattle, WA -- A musician who was denied a liver transplant because he used marijuana with medical approval under Washington state law to ease the symptoms of advanced hepatitis C died Thursday.

The death of Timothy Garon, 56, at Bailey-Boushay House, an intensive care nursing center was confirmed to The Associated Press by his lawyer, Douglas Hiatt, and Alisha Mark, a spokeswoman for Virginia Mason Medical Center, which operates Bailey-Boushay.

Dr. Brad Roter, the physician who authorized Garon to smoke pot to alleviate for nausea and abdominal pain and to stimulate his appetite, said he did not know it would be such a hurdle if Garon were to need a transplant.

The case has highlighted a new ethical consideration for those allocating organs for transplant, especially in the dozen states that have medical marijuana laws: When dying patients need a transplant, should it be held against them if they've used pot with a doctor's blessing?

Garon died a week after his doctor told him a University of Washington Medical Center committee had again denied him a spot on the liver transplant list because of his use of marijuana, although it was authorized under Washington state law.

"He said I'm going to die with such conviction," Garon told an AP reporter at the time. "I'm not angry, I'm not mad, I'm just confused."

Garon believes he contracted hepatitis C by sharing needles with "speed freaks" as a teenager. In recent years, he said, pot has been the only drug he's used. In December, he was arrested for growing marijuana.

He had been in the hospice for two months and previously was rejected for a transplant at Swedish Medical Center for the same reason he later got from the university hospital.

Swedish said he would be considered if he avoided pot for six months and the university hospital offered to reconsider if he enrolled in a 60-day drug treatment program, but doctors said his liver disease was too advanced for him to last that long. The university hospital committee agreed to reconsider anyway, then denied him again.

Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Published: Friday, May 2, 2008
Copyright: 2008 The Seattle Times Company
Contact: opinion@seatimes.com
Website: http://www.seattletimes.com/

[onecrazyfoo]

This is an outraging story..I'm beyond words.The lack of compassion given to a man simply trying to take his pain away only to be shunned away by the people who were supposed to save him...Disgusting to say the least.This story really pissed me off.Something 's got to change.

[Dieselworks]

Mean while Larry Hagman:

"In August 1995, Hagman underwent a life-saving liver transplant after admitting he had been a heavy drinker. Numerous reports state he was drinking four bottles of champagne a day on the set of Dallas. He was also a heavy smoker as a young man, but a terrifying cancer scare was the catalyst for him to quit. Hagman was so shaken by this incident that he immediately became strongly anti-smoking. He has recorded several public service announcements pleading with smokers to quit and urging non-smokers never to start. Hagman was the chairman of the American Cancer Society's annual Great American Smokeout for many years, and also worked on behalf of the National Kidney Foundation." source Wikipedia

"Larry Hagman: "I'm Not Dead"
by Mary Murphy


Let's clear something up: Larry Hagman is not dead. For months, rumors have been circulating that the actor, who had a liver transplant in 1995, has passed away. Or is dying. Or needs another liver transplant. We caught up with the former Dallas bad boy at his swank Santa Monica pad. And trust us, he's very much alive.



TV Guide Online: With the first and second seasons of Dallas due out on DVD August 24 and a reunion special filming this fall, you sure are busy for a dead guy.
Larry Hagman: Henry Winkler called me up a couple of months ago [about producing the reunion]. I think Charlene Tilton came up with the idea: a Dallas retrospective. We're going to show stuff from the show and stuff from behind the scenes. I shot thousands of feet of Super 8 on the set.

TVGO: How did all these death rumors get started?
Hagman: I had a bad patch in December. Turns out it was some kind of E. coli bacteria that crossed over from my bowels to my liver. Part of my liver died, and they had to take [that part] out. I was on my back for a month. My muscles atrophied. I didn't have any strength.




TVGO: You now take 19 different pills a day. Does that include antidepressants?
Hagman: Do I look depressed? Pills are too easy. I like things like champagne, which is exuberant and bubbly and will destroy my liver.

TVGO: You've had one liver transplant. Will you need another?
Hagman: They said that if I did need one, then they would put me on the [transplant] list. I said, "Don't bother. I'm 72 years old. I don't want to deprive somebody of a new liver just because I'm greedy."

TVGO: Aren't you afraid you are going to die?
Hagman: I feel fine now. And I am not afraid of death. I had taken LSD 40 years ago and I had ego death. That took the fear of death away.

TVGO: What about the rumors that you were drinking yourself to death?
Hagman: I was at a pub in Ojai having a beer. I'd taken to having a beer every two weeks. A guy from one of the [tabloid] rags had a telephone camera and took a picture of me. He said, "Larry Hagman is killing himself... drinking again..." It wasn't for getting high or anything. It was for the taste. But, you know, one thing leads to another.

TVGO: How long had you been off alcohol?
Hagman: 11 years.

TVGO: Are you still drinking?
Hagman: I'm not doing anything. Jesus, I don't want to open myself up for even more [tabloid] rag B.S.

Wow, even admitted LSD use?! I guess you can do this AFTER you receive your transplant.

Sound like a double standard to me.