Brett Guthrie, whose mother died awaiting a liver transplant, addresses alarming organ procurement practices while stressing the importance of maintaining donor participation. (Getty Images)
"People need to have confidence in the system, or at least know the questions to ask if they're in this end stage with their loved one," Guthrie continued. "Because when you're sitting there, and you're getting prepped to go get your next – hopefully, chance at life – you also, as you sit there, know that there's some other family in some other emergency room somewhere else having a different experience. And they are losing a loved one, but they're willing – the loved one, either pre-designated or they're willing to let their loved one live on by helping somebody else live."
Guthrie's experience stems from his mother, who died waiting on a new liver. He recounted how she was, at one point, told they had found her a new liver, but when the surgeon went to go pick up the new organ, it was not in the adequate shape to be transplanted.
Despite assurances that she was high on the list, Guthrie's mother never found an organ in time before declining so fast that neither the congressman nor any of his relatives could attempt a live-organ transplant procedure. The live procedure allows a living person to donate a part of their organ, which will later grow back but can help repair the damaged organ in the person receiving the partial transplant.
A human organ ready for transplantation is transported on an ambulance. (iStock)
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"This should never have gotten to the point of them being in the operating room," Guthrie said of the case. "There were a lot of indications this person was not going to die."
Guthrie added that the issue is a bipartisan one and said the work will be done when confidence in the system has been shored up.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/watch-lawmaker-shares-personal-experience-congress-weighs-organ-donation-reforms