Neal Dunn Urges HHS Official To Use 'Standard Protocols For Brain Death' For Organ Procurement

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During a House Energy Committee hearing before the Congressional Recess, Rep. Neal Dunn (R-FL) asked Chief of the Organ Transplant Branch at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Dr. Raymond Lynch about TOPIC.

Transcript

00:00When yields, the chair recognizes the gentleman from Florida, Dr. Dunn, for his five minutes of questioning.

00:05Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and I want to thank you for holding this important hearing.

00:11While I was practicing as a physician, I performed organ donation surgeries and transplants,

00:18and drawing on my experience, I was shocked when reviewing the reports for this hearing.

00:23They're deeply disturbing.

00:24Transplant services depend on the generous donors, and they must have 100% trust in us in all things on these donations.

00:37I was horrified by the findings and commit to working to ensure that these stories do not repeat.

00:43Dr. Lynch, I do want to first commend you for your work with HRSA while compiling this investigation.

00:50Based on your testimony, I must say it seems that there was an effort by others to downplay the facts.

00:59HRSA didn't let that happen, and I thank you for that.

01:03Has HRSA been made aware of additional patient failures like those outlined in these reports?

01:14I'd like to acknowledge the Division of Transplant and the HRSA and the Secretary as a whole.

01:20This is a team sport, and this has been one in which I believe everybody shares the goals

01:25and has shared the work in generating reports like this.

01:28We are aware of other instances, and in fact, as we conducted our review of the OPO in question here in Kentucky,

01:37even after the September event that they were made aware of in this hearing and after their merger with another OPO,

01:47subsequent reporting came to us from individuals within the community identifying cases of concern.

01:52We did substantiate cases of concern in that time period, even during that era.

01:57I trust HRSA will investigate those as well, and I appreciate your attention to these important investigations

02:06and reestablish the public trust in all of us.

02:10I remain concerned that the OPO responsible for the particular blatant failures we read about here today

02:17continues to operate, even if under a new name.

02:20And I believe that the HHS should consider all options to protect patients,

02:26including considering decertifying OPOs with a record of failure in this regard.

02:32Finally, perhaps HRSA or the OPOs, whoever's in charge of making a CMS who makes these rules,

02:40should consider demanding the use of standard protocols for brain death.

02:46We always used brain death, not circulatory death, when I was in practice.

02:52In all cases of drug overdose, that seems to be the most common type of patient.

02:59He gets confused in these situations with circulatory death, yes or no.

03:05And they're much more difficult people to, or patients, to understand.

03:10Is that a fair consideration?

03:12The determination of brain death really does require a rigorous evaluation.

03:18And a layman's way of describing it is that nothing is wrong with the brain except that it's not working.

03:23The brain should be warm.

03:24The person can't be hypothermic.

03:26They can't be without oxygen.

03:27They can't have too low a blood pressure.

03:29That would make your or my brain not work well.

03:31And they can't be medicated or paralyzed so that we're not getting an accurate assessment of that.

03:37Those things are well described in, you know, consensus guidelines that are used as the basis for many state laws.

03:44And they are knowable.

03:47Well, that was always the standard that we applied.

03:50And I have to say this circulatory death standard is, seems to be, I think, confusing the issue.

03:58So I urge you to revisit that.

04:02And with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.

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