Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Los Angeles Times: marijuana and organ transplants don't mix
Patients who have used doctor-prescribed pot are being turned away from
hospital transplant programs.
By Stuart Glascock
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 19, 2008
SEATTLE — Should using doctor-prescribed marijuana be a deal-breaker for
someone needing an organ transplant? It is not a theoretical question but a
pressing and emotional one confronting hospitals and patients in states
where medical use of marijuana is legal.
This month, Timothy Garon, 56, a Seattle musician, died after being turned
down for a liver transplant. He was rejected partly because he had used
medical marijuana.
Now, a second critically ill patient in Washington state says he has been
denied a spot in two organ transplant programs because he uses
doctor-prescribed marijuana.
Jonathon Simchen, 33, of Fife, a town south of Seattle, is a diabetic whose
kidneys and pancreas have failed.
He said he was removed from the transplant program at Virginia Mason
Hospital in Seattle because he admitted using medical marijuana. Later, he
said, University of Washington Medical Center transplant officials refused
to accept him because of the medical marijuana issue.
"I'm just so discouraged," said the community college student, who wants to
be a teacher. "I've lost all remnants of hope. I look at my life right now
as if it is a prison term. I just have to serve each day."
The lawyer who represented Garon has taken on Simchen's case.
Douglas Hiatt argues that his clients are the victims of a loosely defined
transplant policy, one not based on science.
"They are really killing people over this," he said. (more)
hospital transplant programs.
By Stuart Glascock
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 19, 2008
SEATTLE — Should using doctor-prescribed marijuana be a deal-breaker for
someone needing an organ transplant? It is not a theoretical question but a
pressing and emotional one confronting hospitals and patients in states
where medical use of marijuana is legal.
This month, Timothy Garon, 56, a Seattle musician, died after being turned
down for a liver transplant. He was rejected partly because he had used
medical marijuana.
Now, a second critically ill patient in Washington state says he has been
denied a spot in two organ transplant programs because he uses
doctor-prescribed marijuana.
Jonathon Simchen, 33, of Fife, a town south of Seattle, is a diabetic whose
kidneys and pancreas have failed.
He said he was removed from the transplant program at Virginia Mason
Hospital in Seattle because he admitted using medical marijuana. Later, he
said, University of Washington Medical Center transplant officials refused
to accept him because of the medical marijuana issue.
"I'm just so discouraged," said the community college student, who wants to
be a teacher. "I've lost all remnants of hope. I look at my life right now
as if it is a prison term. I just have to serve each day."
The lawyer who represented Garon has taken on Simchen's case.
Douglas Hiatt argues that his clients are the victims of a loosely defined
transplant policy, one not based on science.
"They are really killing people over this," he said. (more)
Monday, May 5, 2008
Death of Medical Marijuana Patient Denied Organ Transplant Shines a Light on the Federal Government's Absurd Marijuana Policy
ACLU
Timothy Garon, a 56-year old Seattle-based musician, died last night from liver failure due to hepatitis C. Like so many critically ill people in the United States, he needed an organ transplant to survive. Unfortunately, the University of Washington Medical Center decided to deny Garon a new liver. Because donated organs are in such scarce supply, patients often remain on long transplant waiting lists or are denied an organ altogether if they fail to meet certain criteria established by transplant committees. Some common reasons for denial are that alcoholic patients continue to drink, those addicted to cigarettes continue to smoke, and those addicted to illegal drugs continue to use.
But Garon was not an alcoholic or drug addict. He did not get a new liver because he used a medicine recommended by his doctor to ease severe abdominal pain, nausea and lack of appetite. Were this medicine any other pill or prescription, Garon would have likely had his new liver and a chance to live out a full life. The problem is that Garon’s medicine was marijuana. The Associated Press reported Garon’s story on April 26:
Timothy Garon's face and arms are hauntingly skeletal, but the fluid building up in his abdomen makes the 56-year-old musician look eight months pregnant. His liver, ravaged by hepatitis C, is failing. Without a new one, his doctors tell him, he will be dead in days.
But Garon's been refused a spot on the transplant list, largely because he has used marijuana, even though it was legally approved for medical reasons.
If Garon was legally using medical marijuana, what’s the problem? Medical marijuana is legal under Washington’s state law, but remains illegal under federal law. There’s the rub. The federal government has refused to ease its criminal prohibition on the medical use of marijuana despite the fact that twelve states have made medical marijuana legal, the vast majority (upwards of 70 percent) of the American public thinks that medical marijuana should be made legally available to patients, and the American College of Physicians recently called on the federal government to acknowledge the medical uses of marijuana and remove it from its classification as a “Schedule I” drug, which subjects users to stiff criminal penalties.(more)
Timothy Garon, a 56-year old Seattle-based musician, died last night from liver failure due to hepatitis C. Like so many critically ill people in the United States, he needed an organ transplant to survive. Unfortunately, the University of Washington Medical Center decided to deny Garon a new liver. Because donated organs are in such scarce supply, patients often remain on long transplant waiting lists or are denied an organ altogether if they fail to meet certain criteria established by transplant committees. Some common reasons for denial are that alcoholic patients continue to drink, those addicted to cigarettes continue to smoke, and those addicted to illegal drugs continue to use.
But Garon was not an alcoholic or drug addict. He did not get a new liver because he used a medicine recommended by his doctor to ease severe abdominal pain, nausea and lack of appetite. Were this medicine any other pill or prescription, Garon would have likely had his new liver and a chance to live out a full life. The problem is that Garon’s medicine was marijuana. The Associated Press reported Garon’s story on April 26:
Timothy Garon's face and arms are hauntingly skeletal, but the fluid building up in his abdomen makes the 56-year-old musician look eight months pregnant. His liver, ravaged by hepatitis C, is failing. Without a new one, his doctors tell him, he will be dead in days.
But Garon's been refused a spot on the transplant list, largely because he has used marijuana, even though it was legally approved for medical reasons.
If Garon was legally using medical marijuana, what’s the problem? Medical marijuana is legal under Washington’s state law, but remains illegal under federal law. There’s the rub. The federal government has refused to ease its criminal prohibition on the medical use of marijuana despite the fact that twelve states have made medical marijuana legal, the vast majority (upwards of 70 percent) of the American public thinks that medical marijuana should be made legally available to patients, and the American College of Physicians recently called on the federal government to acknowledge the medical uses of marijuana and remove it from its classification as a “Schedule I” drug, which subjects users to stiff criminal penalties.(more)
Pot eased suffering, may have cost his life
Legal medical marijuana use bars transplant
P-I STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES
The death this week of a musician who was three times denied a liver transplant highlights a new ethical concern: When dying patients need a transplant, should it be held against them if they've used marijuana with a doctor's blessing?
Timothy Garon, 56, died Thursday at Bailey-Boushay House. He was the lead singer for Nearly Dan, a Steely Dan cover-band.
His lawyer, Douglas Hiatt, said that although no one told him why Garon was turned down for a transplant, he suspects it was because he used marijuana with medical approval, as allowed under state law, to ease the symptoms of advanced hepatitis C.
Garon died a week after a University of Washington Medical Center committee had for the second time denied him a spot on the liver transplant list. Harborview Medical Center previously turned him down. No reasons were given for the denials, Hiatt said.
Harborview said he would be considered if he avoided pot for six months, and the UW Medical Center 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, Hiatt said. The university hospital committee agreed to reconsider anyway, then denied him again.
"When a doctor authorizes medical marijuana, it's like a prescription," Hiatt said. "Telling a dying guy in his shape to wait 60 days is insulting and sickening in my opinion." (please read)
P-I STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES
The death this week of a musician who was three times denied a liver transplant highlights a new ethical concern: When dying patients need a transplant, should it be held against them if they've used marijuana with a doctor's blessing?
Timothy Garon, 56, died Thursday at Bailey-Boushay House. He was the lead singer for Nearly Dan, a Steely Dan cover-band.
His lawyer, Douglas Hiatt, said that although no one told him why Garon was turned down for a transplant, he suspects it was because he used marijuana with medical approval, as allowed under state law, to ease the symptoms of advanced hepatitis C.
Garon died a week after a University of Washington Medical Center committee had for the second time denied him a spot on the liver transplant list. Harborview Medical Center previously turned him down. No reasons were given for the denials, Hiatt said.
Harborview said he would be considered if he avoided pot for six months, and the UW Medical Center 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, Hiatt said. The university hospital committee agreed to reconsider anyway, then denied him again.
"When a doctor authorizes medical marijuana, it's like a prescription," Hiatt said. "Telling a dying guy in his shape to wait 60 days is insulting and sickening in my opinion." (please read)
Friday, May 2, 2008
Medical marijuana user dies for lack of liver transplant
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.(here)
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
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.(here)
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
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