posted
What is everyone's opinion as far as organ donation after having Lymes and or Babesia?
At this point I am still dealing with Babesia so obviously I will/would not take a chance on putting someone through what I have been through but what about someone who has been symptom free for 10 years or so?
Posts: 37 | From Midwest | Registered: Jan 2014
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I have seen this topic discussed here before, and many people get very passionate about the idea of donating organs. Their argument always seems to be that giving a dying patient a chance at life trumps the fact that that patient might end up very ill.
I am not so sure that is a good or fair trade. I think living like this may be a worse punishment than being allowed to die.
I would hate to have been put through the ordeal of a transplant, a long recovery, a lifetime of immunosuppressant drugs, only to end up living in misery. It is like a bad Twilight Zone episode.
Posts: 845 | From Eastern USA | Registered: Jul 2006
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posted
As mentioned, you are banned in US from donating blood if you have ever had babesia. This is because there are no tests that can conclusively prove the disease is cleared from the blood. Therefore you should not be an organ donor either.
As for Lyme, because Lyme can take on a latent form, like syphilis, hiding in the body for years only to resurface later, it would be unwise IMHO to donate blood or organs as there is no test at present that can prove someone is free of Borrelia.
Here in the UK the authorities allow people to donate blood two weeks after being pronounced cured by Denialist doctors dispensing two weeks' abx. As for Babesia, the official statistics claim there is virtually none, even though wildlife studies have proven that our small mammals are teeming with human-pathogenic Babesia. So no efforts are being made to ensure the blood supply is free of it.
One day the toll of all this wilful negligence will be exposed.
I don't think it is correct to think of the organ donation issue in terms of "giving someone a chance at life". If someone is ill enough to need an organ, it's very likely that receiving borrelia or Babesia-contaminated blood or organs will not make them chronically sick - it will kill them.
Elena
-------------------- Justice will be ours. Posts: 786 | From UK | Registered: Oct 2007
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- Absolutely do NOT -
do not donate any blood, tissue or organs - ever. Ever. And be sure your family all knows this, your driver's license reflects it and any formal papers relating to your end of life care. -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
- It's a safe bet that Ötzi did not get treatment with a LLMD, still . . . how long might lyme stay in a body?
- by Stephen S. Hall - National Geographic - November 2011
5,300 years
Ötzi - the Iceman the earliest known human infected by the bug that causes Lyme disease
he had been found . . . on the Italian side of the border with Austria
He grew up northeast of Bolzano, possibly in the Isarco River Valley, and spent his adulthood in the Venosta Valley.
Perhaps most surprising, researchers found the genetic footprint of bacteria known as Borrelia burgdorferi in his DNA—making the Iceman the earliest known human infected by the bug that causes Lyme disease. . . . -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
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posted
Thanks for everyone's input....time to update my license and take off the organ donor.
Posts: 37 | From Midwest | Registered: Jan 2014
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