An Atlanta Children’s Hospital is denying a 15-year-old boy a lifesaving heart transplant because they say he has a “history of non-compliance.”
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This post originally appeared at ThinkProgress
By Tara Culp-Ressler
Fifteen-year-old Anthony Stokes has less than six months to live unless he receives an emergency heart transplant. But his family has been told that Anthony doesn’t qualify for the transplant list because he has a “history of non-compliance” — partly due to his history of earning low grades and having some trouble with the law.
“They said they don’t have any evidence that he would take his medicine or that he would go to his follow-ups,” Melencia Hamilton, Anthony’s mother, told WSBTV News. Hamilton explained that her son has an enlarged heart, and a transplant is the only thing that will help his condition.
The doctors at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta weren’t very specific about what exactly contributed to their decision to label Anthony as “non-compliant.” But family friends explained to WSBTV News that they were told it’s partly because of Anthony’s performance in school and run-ins with law enforcement.
His family and friends don’t accept that as a valid reason to deny the teen life-saving treatment. “We must save Anthony’s life,” family friend Mack Major, identified as Anthony’s mentor, told CBS Atlanta. “We don’t have a lot of time to do it, but it’s something that must be done.”
Civil rights organizations are beginning to take up Anthony’s cause, saying a child’s past shouldn’t have anything to do with the medical care they receive. “He’s been given a death sentence because of a broad and vague excuse of non-compliance,” a representative from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Christine Young Brown, said. “There was nothing specific in that decision. Just non-compliance.”
Regardless of Anthony’s specific past, his story fits into a larger pattern of racially-motivated skepticism about young black men. The routine criminalization of black youth — thanks in large part to the so-called “school-to-prison pipeline,” which funnels a disproportionate number of black teens into the justice system for minor infractions — ensures that teens like Anthony are often seen as threats. And once society labels those kids as criminal, suspect, or “non-compliant,” their lives are typically considered to have less value.
Every successful transplant is a walking talking advertisement for organ donation.
Each organ that is transplanted in one person didn’t extend the life of another.
It is incumbent on the screeners to attempt to maximize the chances of a successful outcome.
At the same time the people looking for a transplant are facing a death sentence and their family’s face the demise of a loved one- if it were me or mine I might play any card to try to move up the list.
Uland The idea that social conditions like political policy,wealth,status,etc.,don’t have agency is odd.Maybe all these white guys-full grown men-should stop complaining endlessly on GMP about how the agency of social conditions are holding them back,casting them under an ill-fated light. Maybe its time to stop bitching about how your being “scapegoated” as violent rapists,and as porn addicted sexual deviates who know little about true intimacy,and of disposability,etc., because it be must true.Right.I mean if these grown men would just assert their agency and DO THE RIGHT THING, all of these issues would just disappear,right.If you just accepted the criticism without… Read more »
I like how “the pipeline” is now a thing that grabs kids & does stuff to them, i.e, the kids behaviors/agency have nothing to do with where they go.
Transplants fail. You must prove that you are a low failure risk. Otherwise you die, and we throw away an organ that could have saved someone else. I don’t think this is as simple as it looks. If his issues with the law had anything to do with drugs or alcohol, that would disqualify him as we’ll as anyone else. I have a friend who could really use a new liver. She’s young and white and college educated. Her lifestyle choices disqualify her.
“Non-compliance = not taking meds as described, not following doctors orders, missed medical appointments. Which the mother of this young man admitted her son has done” This is the key issue and it has nothing to do with any criminal behaviors or school attendance. I had open heart surgery when I was 41, I’ve had 5 subsequent heart attacks. I changed my way of living after the surgery but as with many, in my case the disease is genetic. Nonetheless, my cardiologists were and continue to be very clear as to what I have to do to sustain life. They… Read more »
Organ and tissue donation and transplantation provide a second chance at life for thousands of people each year. You have the opportunity to be one of the individuals who make these miracles happen. Sign up as a donor in case anything should happen to you. Why is there not enough organs to transplant…because not enough people are signed up.
Dick Cheney has operations on him and helped start a war over oil in the MIddle East. So why was he allowed to get his operations, but this young man is not?
I did terrible my first couple of years in high school (though thankfully no trouble with the law), but I’m not allowed to receive a heart transplant because I’m not “perfect?” Give me a damn break. Taking a young man’s life, and not seeing what he will end up becoming, is ignorant.
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history of non-compliance seems to imply a ‘history’ from before a transplant was needed. It is also far easier to comply with medical requirements when you have money, a stable home, and a responsible guardian. That is not about race! It is about resources. The fact that this family looks at it from a racially oriented perspective is understandable, but it misses the real issue here. This sort of system becomes elitist very fast, it just takes a couple very small tweaks to the rules of ‘compliance’ to rule out entire demographics and make sure that the privileged get organs… Read more »
Striking to me is how quickly the criticism of this boy has become so hardened.1)Sometimes even kids from quote unquote,”goodhomes” do poorly.Many of them end up in government or are bankers or lawyers,when they should be in jail.Richard Nixon comes to mind and there are many,many more.I guarantee you if bankers and stock market types who put the entire country at risk in 08′ were of the wrong color,things would be different.I am not saying the medical pros are in their judgement,but labeling this kid a criminal and some lttle girl as innocent is absurdly ridiculous.That sounds like retribution.
I really struggle with this and to be honest, I’m not sure where I stand. Without knowing the so called rules of the transplant industry, it’s hard to say if this young man broke too many of them to disqualify him. I just don’t know. Now, with that being said, I would like to address something that was said toward the end of the article and that is “ ,,,, The routine criminalization of black youth — thanks in large part to the so-called “school-to-prison pipeline,” which funnels a disproportionate number of black teens into the justice system for minor… Read more »
Non-compliance = not taking meds as described, not following doctors orders, missed medical appointments. Which the mother of this young man admitted her son has done. That makes him ineligible for an organ transplant. Time to move on to the next possible recipient. End of story. The only reason this family is trying to make this a race issue is because it is their only trump card. Bully the system into doing what they want. Well, it doesn’t work that way and it shouldn’t be. Why doesn’t the media tell us about all the various races of people, including whites,… Read more »
Sam and Michael, there is something you both failed to understand. So you both avoided any trouble with the law? Does that mean you NEVER broke any law? Or you never got caught? Kids do all sorts of things and get into all sorts of trouble, some get caught, some don’t. The chances of a young African American Male in the inner city avoiding all trouble with the law are much MUCH lower than my chances of avoiding legal troubles as a teen. When we had a bonfire and some beers and the police showed up, they put out the… Read more »
If doctors had 1000 hearts to give away everyone would have one, but unfortunately they don’t. Nobody is saying he should be denied a heart transplant, they are saying other people are more deserving of a limited supply. If I was a doctor with 1 heart able to transplant and I had 2 patients needing one, and one patient had a criminal history and the other didn’t (all other things being equal) I would give the heart to the one without a criminal history. I believe in second chances, but one person didn’t fail their first chance, and there is… Read more »
a young man needs a heart transplant to live, without it he will die and will be denied the chance to have a life. it is not our place to judge whether he deserves it or not, whether he will make good use of his opportunity to live, as fellow human beings we should be helping each other to live. a person’s past should not factor into whether they receive care, even the people considered the worst of society deserve to receive medical treatment when it is available. for us to not help each other when we have the means… Read more »
If it is our place not to judge, should we then just choose randomly who gets it? We shouldn’t care if a repeating delinquent receives it instead of an innocent little girl? What if that was your daughter on that list? What if you raised her well and she showed to be a decent citizen? What if she was denied a heart transplant because a misbehaving teen who was not raised well received it instead of your child? You better fucking believe it is our place to judge, judging is the whole basis of law, without it we would have… Read more »
If you want to make the world a better place, at some point you have to make hard decisions. You have to save someone instead of someone else. Sometimes, it’s not possible to save everyone and you have to choose who is the most likely to take his medication regularly, who is the most likely to survive the procedure, and, yes, who deserves it the most. When that happens, some people, some doctors, take the weight of that responsibility on their shoulders and carry it their entire lives. Meanwhile, there are also journalists and entertainers who point at these doctors,… Read more »
Simple ignorance. It doesn’t matter if he gets on that list or not. There are more deserving people on that list and they’ve been on it for years. I feel sorry for the guy but thats the system. Its as simple as being a decent student and not get in trouble with the law.
Totally agree with Sam. I’m 28 years old and surprisingly haven’t had any problems with the law. Strange how I managed to do that for 28 years. I have a hard time believing that “low grades” in school was the only scholastic factor in this. Probably not attending school or just not trying while there. I’m sure there are plenty of 15 year olds waiting for a new heart who haven’t had “some trouble with the law” and are among the average students. The question they should be answering is “Why does Anthony Stokes deserve this heart more than anybody… Read more »
Do these people not realize that someone else, who did behave well, will be getting this heart? Do they think there are just millions of hearts, waiting for someone to pick them up? We only have so many hearts. People have been denied organs for things as simple as “I had a glass of wine last week”. There is a high demand, and almost nothing to give. You have to prove you’re the most deserving. There is a father on the transplant list. There is a 7 year old girl. There’s another 15 year old boy with an enlarged heart.… Read more »
So basically what you’re saying here is that a person literally does not deserve to live if they’ve broken the law. I did shitty in school for the first twelve years of my life because I had a difficult time in school, and I’ve also stolen things before. Does that mean I don’t deserve a heart, because some kid somewhere else got A’s while I got C’s?
Yes. Yes it does mean you don’t deserve a heart as much as the kid who got A’s. That kid is more likely to make better use of it than you.
You seem to be of the belief that there are enough hearts for everybody. There are probably 50,000 people on the waiting list and probably one 1 heart available at the moment. New hearts maybe come once a month, if not longer. Why would they give it to somebody who has a history of authority issues and not following the rules? There are very strict rules in place when you get a new organ. Strict diet and exercise as an example. If you can’t follow the basic rules of societal law, then how can you be trusted with even more… Read more »