Lyons, Colorado
I see motorcyclists without helmets on
the Colorado freeways. I keep suspecting that the original group that got
motorcycle helmet laws passed, the emergency room physicians, have
had a change of heart. With the improvements in body parts
transplants, the demand for livers, kidneys, hearts and corneas
continues to rise and the value of brain-dead
helmetless-motorcyclists rises. Maybe ER physicians stopped
campaigning for motorcycle helmets.
While we are on the subject. Institutional thinking suggests to me that, if we don't already have it, we need medical specialist on the standard ER team who deal with organ removal from brain-dead patients. The job is inherently in conflict with the Hippocratic Oath and probably unpleasant for most surgeons. Yet we need people who become expert in organ removal and love their job; so they can share their experience with others in a similar position.
The way to improve skills is to create a technical specialty within an institution. I look forward to hearing that there is a medical specialty in transplant organ removal.