The following comments were posted on the AJC's Facebook page in response to the death of Anthony Stokes. Stokes, 17, died Tuesday in a car crash while fleeing Roswell police. He had been in the news two years earlier, when Children's Healthcare of Atlanta bumped him off of the waiting list for a new heart, due to earlier "non-compliance." After a firestorm of media attention, the hospital reversed its decision, and Stokes eventually received a transplant.
Commenters' names appear below as they appear on Facebook, but identities have not been verified:
Kelly Baker: As I recall, the medical ethics were more complicated than simply having a troubled past--hospitals are not in the business of determining who is most deserving. The actual issue was that he and his caregivers had a history of being non-cooperative with medical instructions. Having a heart transplant requires following a very strict, detailed regimen, and so the hospital was rightly concerned with allocating a rare and precious organ on someone who was not willing to follow medical guidelines.
Greg Henry: ... So let's say you have one heart available and two patients who need it. Are you going to give it to the person you KNOW will appreciate it and do everything the doctors tell them to do, or, give it to the street kid who already has told doctors to go to hell and doesn't give a crap about anything?
Tricia Hise: ... His family and the media decided to make the Anthony Stokes case about something other than the truth - that he was non-compliant in his care; they created a lie. And a person that was compliant did not get a heart transplant.
Laura Owen Stringer: ... It's tragic that he wasted a heart that could have went to another deserving (yes, I said deserving) individual. The only good that has come from this is he didn't kill anyone during the rest of his criminal life up to his death.
Charlotte Fenn: No, no, and no again! We should never play God. No one but God knew this young man's fate. Who's to say that if someone had been given this heart that they would have survived? You just never know. We as a society needs to stop being so judgmental and be more compassionate.
Pat Smith: Let's shut this down right now! Should people with records and troubled past be allowed to donate healthy organs? I'm sure all of you in favor of selective transplants would happily accept an ex-convict's healthy organs if it meant life or death for you or your loved one.
Robin Titterington: I feel conflicted. I had a kidney transplant for nine wonderful years. Even though it eventually failed, not a day goes by that I don't thank the donor's family in my prayers. To think someone else could have gotten this heart ... but yes, who knows how he would have behaved. But it seems he did not understand what a tremendous gift he was given.
Stephanie Bullock Deal: In looking at this horrible situation, put yourself in the shoes of the family who DONATED the heart that was put in Anthony Stokes chest. How do you think they feel - knowing that the loved one's heart was given to someone who truly did NOT value their sacrifice?
Justin Graham: For all of you "Yessers" on this post: If you say it, then hopefully you mean it across the board. That means cigarette smokers or smoking anything for that matter, heavy drinkers and OBESE people should also be denied on non-compliance.
