Comatose Woman Wakes Up in the Nick of Time Before Doctors Harvest Organs

This is a story of Colleen S Burns who was admitted to hospital in 2009 after a drug overdose.

She went into coma for three days and doctors decided to harvest her organs for donation after consulting with Colleen’s family.

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Investigations into the callous treatment meted out to Colleen at St. Joseph’s hospital in Syracuse, led the US Department of Health and Human Services to slap a fine of $6,000 on the hospital.

41-year-old Burns had arrived at the hospital in 2009 after she had consumed a combination of Xanax, Benadryl, an anti-inflammatory and a muscle relaxant.

She was in coma for three days and also suffered seizures during that time. Doctors then sought permission from the family to harvest her organs. They were quite sure she had suffered a cardiac death and would never regain consciousness.

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Doctors had wheeled her into the operation table to harvest her organs. Only when she opened her eyes on the operation table, did they realize her true condition.

An investigation by HHS revealed that the hospital had made many mistakes, and the most glaring one was that a nurse had recorded some improvement in Burns’ condition. Despite having survived the drug overdose, this 41 year old was in the throes of major depression and committed suicide sixteen months later.

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Source-Medindia