If a Person Dies From an Overdose, Can Their Organs Still Be Donated?
Question by Perpetual_Notion: If a person dies from an overdose, can their organs still be donated?
My question is, in the state of New York, if a person overdoses on an “oral drug” (not heroin or cocaine, etc.) and dies, can any of their organs be donated, or are they all basically trashed? If certain organs can be donated, which ones? If it matters what they overdose on, you pick something because it doesn’t really matter to me, this is all hypothetical.
P.S. I am not planning on overdosing, I just saw something on an episode of “House” that made me wonder.
Best answer:
Answer by Aiden
The answer is yes — so long as a decedent meets brain death criteria it does not matter how they died (homicide, OD, suicide, etc.) — all organs are potentially procurable for transplantation, just as they would be if someone were to become an organ donor after a stroke, MI, etc.
Answer by lampoilman
What you may not realize is that the most important factor in viability of organs is “down time”. If someone dies at home from simply drinking to much water (it does happen -see water intoxication) they may not be able to donate organs because breathing and circulation were interrupted for to long a time and cell destruction occurred. clinical death inside of a hospital offers the best possibility for viable organs.
The vast majority of drugs associated with overdose would not preclude donation as the half-life of drugs could be taken into consideration when choosing time for donation as long as oxygenation, ventilation, and perfusion can be adequately maintained.
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