Meat Wagon's, the FINAL frontier......

[Bababoosky 24]

This is going to be a VERY controversial topic, I would love to hear everyone's thoughts the ethical ramifications of such a program....

If you're old enough to imagine your dead body being carted away, you're probably old enough to remember "Meat Wagon Action Set," the sidesplitting (oops—wrong metaphor!) parody ad that first aired on Saturday Night Live in 1977. It looked like an ordinary commercial for a kids' race-car set until one car crashed and burst into flames. That's when the flagship vehicle arrived: an ambulance that picked up the bodies and hauled them away. In the background, you could hear the manly jingle, "Meat Wagon ..."

Back then, "meat wagon" was just slang for ambulance. No more. It's about to become quite real. Here's the skinny (oops—bad metaphor again!) from Rob Stein of the Washington Post. Backed by a three-year federal grant,

New York City is working on a plan to deploy a special ambulance to collect the bodies of people who have died suddenly from heart attacks, accidents and other emergencies and try to preserve their organs. If the "rapid-organ-recovery ambulance" succeeds, officials would like to expand the unique pilot program citywide with a fleet of ambulances and eventually duplicate it in other cities.

Stein explains how the plan would work:

Once all hope for resuscitation was gone, and as long as no family members objected, the victims' bodies would be transferred to the organ ambulance team, even if the victims' willingness to be organ donors was unclear. The crew could then perform measures on the body to prevent the organs from deteriorating, including chest compressions with an automated device and pumping oxygen into the lungs through a tracheal tube to keep blood and oxygen flowing. The crew might also administer the blood-thinning drug heparin to prevent clots while speeding to Bellevue. At the hospital, doctors could take additional steps, such as inserting a plastic tube known as a cannula into an artery, usually in the groin, to infuse the body with fluids to cool and preserve the organs. Organ bank workers would then assess whether the person was a suitable donor, determine whether they had an organ donor card or were listed on an organ donor registry, and try to locate a family member to give consent....

The rest of the article can be found here

http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/humannatu...eat-wagons.aspx

Like I said before, VERY interesting, VERY controversial.

[LTNRFD 266]

The lawyers and legislator will be working double time to iron out all of the legal issues.

I can see all of the on scene family not objecting to the immediate removal and the meat wagon taking away the body. Then along comes the family member that lives just far enough away not to get to the scene prior to the removal. And you guessed it, thats the person that objects. Now what is done, bring the body back. First Bellevue will have to unhook all of the tubes, clean the body up and call for the wagon for the return trip.

This is similar to the DNR situation. If all family members on the scene tell you not to work the code on grandma, who just had her 95 birthday and they say was talking to them just before you walked through the door, and there is no hard copy of a DNR on scene, start pumping. You never know what the reason the family members are telling you to do something for.

As I said, the lawyers and the law makers will have to work out all the details. I hope!!!

[WAS967 97]

Maybe they can make extra money druming up business for the crygenic companies. Pack the head in ice so they can drop it into Liquid Nitrogen in a lab somewhere in hopes of a miracle 100 years from now.

[ny10570 745]

I can't imagine having to first tell a family that the patient is dead and then convince them to agree to the meat wagon. Its enough all ready convincing them that there's no reason to transport to the ER for further resuscitation. However I know several medics who will transport "healthy" arrests just so that the hospital has a chance at selling organ donation.

[helicopper 1,050]

If the crew on the "Meat Wagon" is as well trained as the transplant teams that currently go around to hospitals and interact with the people involved in the decision making and organ harvesting process, the contact with the family may not be so contentious. Personally, I think it is a fascinating idea and can't wait to see the results of their study. So many people are not successfully rescucitated in the field that there may be a lot of viable organs out there. On the street there are also very few family members around to be concerned about offending.

This way when some 20 year old gets shot in the head on the street the remainder of his organs don't go to waste.

As for that Saturday Night Live commercial, I will never forget it! It was one of the funniest things I ever saw and I remember the fallout from it for weeks after - people were calling NBC to complain about the tasteless product they were advertising. If I remember correctly, it was also around Christmas time and billed as a "great gift idea". Wow, SNL used to be really clever!!!