Dr. Heidi Klessig, M.D., appeared on Children's Health Defense (CHD) TV the other day to warn people that registering to be an organ donor puts them in danger of having their organs harvested from their bodies while they are still alive.
When registering to become an organ donor at the DMV, well-meaning people are told that they are "giving the gift of life," but Dr. Klessig says this is a complete misnomer based on what she knows about how the process really works.
"When you go to sign up to be an organ donor, you go to the Department of Motor Vehicles and you see the brightly-colored signs saying 'give the gift of life,' you're not offered a consent form," she explains in the video below.
"You're never told that when you become a brain-dead organ donor, you are not biologically dead. These people have a beating heart. Their lungs are working. Their digestive system works. Their kidneys work."
As an organ donor in a hospital setting, your organs are only taken if you actually die … right?
Wrong. pic.twitter.com/DSqlOAi61R
— Children’s Health Defense (@ChildrensHD) September 26, 2024
Braindead doesn't mean dead
Because of how the word sounds, braindead can make it seem like a person is pretty much already dead and ready for their organs to be harvested and given to someone else in need. The truth, though, is that being braindead does not mean that a person is actually dead.
"People who have been declared braindead have delivered healthy babies," Dr. Klessig says. "These people are in no way dead."
In recent weeks, there have been two such cases of organ donors who were declared braindead before their organs were extracted for transplant. Both individuals may have been able to recover were it not for being taken advantage of, it appears, by the organ transplant industry.
A 19-year-old athlete named Terrance Howard was declared braindead following a serious motor vehicle accident that left him with a terrible brain injury. Howard's parents have what Dr. Klessig describes as "shocking and horrible" video footage that they shared to social media begging medical professionals to help their son get better, but to no avail.
The other case involves 23-year-old Jamaican business student Amber Ebanks who, following her braindead diagnosis, was neglected and left to die of starvation. Ebanks suffered some kind of injury that prompted her to drive herself to Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, only to 10 days later end up actually dead with her organs harvested by the hospital.
"She had a beating heart. She had lungs that were working. She looked like every other patient in the hospital that was getting better. And her family fought for her. They wanted care for her, but they were pressured almost every other day – doctors wanted to remove her life support."
"The organ procurement team actually showed up the very first day after her procedure, even before she was declared braindead – you know, being interested in seeing her become an organ donor, which her family refused."
If you are interested in watching the full video interview with Dr. Klessig, visit ChildrensHealthDefense.org.
"Once on, it's not easy to get off," someone on X wrote about becoming an organ donor. "You can't just request it like you can to add. You can't even do it online. You fill out a form and mail it. You never hear from anyone that it was completed. Then you go to renew and tell them you're no longer a donor and they tell you computer says you are."
