Hospital refuses liver transplant for medical marijuana patient

[babsbunny]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/11/17/hospital-refuses-liver-transplant-for-medical-marijuana-patient/

By Eric W. Dolan
Thursday, November 17, 2011

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles has denied a liver transplant to a patient with inoperable liver cancer because he uses medical marijuana. But the marijuana was prescribed by the very same hospital, according to the advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA).

Sixty-three year-old Norman B. Smith was diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer in 2009. His oncologist at Cedars-Sinai, Dr. Steven Miles, approved of his medical marijuana use as a means to deal with the effects of chemotherapy and pain from an unrelated back surgery.

In September 2010, Smith became eligible for a liver transplant, but after testing positive for marijuana in February he was removed from the transplant list due to non-compliance with the hospital’s substance abuse contract. Smith was within two months of receiving a transplant before he was de-listed.

[PassingFair]

1. NO.

This blows my mind.

We need to do some kind of action alert on this.

[diane in sf]

2. Murderers.

[Patiod]

3. Jesus Mary and Joseph

You've got to be kidding. Who put together the substance abuse contract? Sounds like it was compiled by moral police rather than medical people.

I can see alcohol, since it damages the liver, but marijuana? (and I'm a drinker who doesn't smoke anything).

[WCGreen]

4. This is standard for all transplants....

I am in the program here in Cleveland for a Lung Transplant

They have a strict no substance abuse what so ever or you will be denied a transplant. They made that perfectly clear.

It is probably more of an insurance/medicare edict.

It's really simple, there are so few transplantable organs available that they don't want to deny someone who is clean.

I'm sure that the insurance companies, which are nationwide, are stopping this.

[Ms. Toad]

7. There's a little more than "clean" to it. . .

The post transplant regime is pretty strict, and failure to comply with it will likely result in organ rejection - and the gift of life will have been in vain when someone else also needed it. One of the big things heading into being listed is strict compliance with doctor's orders - The theory is that if you can't comply with doctor's orders when your life is on the line, chances are you will be less likely to be compliant later when there is less urgency to it.

For PSC patients, where there is no good treatment and doctors don't all agree on appropriate protocol, it often means talking your doctor into trying things s/he might or might not have ordered otherwise (Milk Thistle, omega fatty acids for example) so there is no question when they look at your record that you look like someone who can't comply with doctor's orders.

No substance abuse is another - whether it is a reasonable restriction is mostly beside the point, the real question is are you likely to be a compliant post tx patient.

[WCGreen]

8. I do know that as I have been in the system now since 2004...

I have been able to stave off the transplant because I do adhere to a strict regime.

I was just pointing out that from day one, they made it clear there was a no substance abuse allowed. Period.

[Ms. Toad]

10. Yep -

My only point is that even if the substance is harmless, the rule is no substance abuse. Period. They could say "No playing basketball on Wednesdays," and if they catch you on the basketball court on Wednesdays you could be bounced from the program.

It is less a matter of whether the substance is harmless than it is that if you don't demonstrate you can play by the rules, you will look like someone who will not properly respect the scarce resource they are contemplating giving you.

[JVS]

5. Another reason I'm a proud non-donor to America's shitty health care industry.

I'd rather bury my organs than support this system.

[saras]

6. It's not substance abuse if it was prescribed - the problem is internal to the hospital.

[Ms. Toad]

9. Yes and no...

The liver doctor would need to buy off on it - at a minimum - and get it out of the listing contract. If it is still there, being noncompliant will get you bounced in favor of someone better able to be compliant with the transplant doctor's orders.

There are some studies which suggest marijuana increases the rate of fibrosis for patients with Hepatitis C (one illness that may require a liver transplant), so the restriction is not necessarily unreasonable - and at a minimum needs to be cleared by the liver doc. (When you're a liver patient, ALL medications should be approved by the hepatologist, since virtually all medications are processed through the liver.)