E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Lucas Massey
This photo, posted to the website Reddit, claimed that Greg Muzzy, 45, had received lungs from victims of the Aurora, Colo., theater shootings. However, officials said that's not true.
The coincidence seemed too real to ignore.
Early last Friday morning, within an hour of the horrific movie theater shooting that killed 12 in Aurora, Colo., the Dallas family of a man waiting for a double lung transplant got a call saying the scarce organs were suddenly available.
“I thought, ‘That is very odd,’” recalled Tami Teeples, the sister of Greg Muzzy, a 45-year-old emphysema patient. “Something tragic happened and it could have possibly saved my brother’s life.”
The news quickly spread, both within the family and online, after an excited cousin, Lucas Massey, 18, posted a photo of a recovering Muzzy on the website Reddit.
“My uncle Greg just got two new lungs from a victim of the Aurora shootings,” Massey wrote. “Amazing that such a tragedy saves a mans life, too. (sic)”
More than 2.2 million people viewed the photo and more than 2,000 comments poured in. News sites including the HuffPost Living Canada and the British tabloid the Mirror ran stories touting the transplant.
“A feel good story has some out of the Aurora massacre,” the HuffPo story read.
Trouble is, it isn’t true.
Greg Muzzy, a former construction worker from Wichita, did get his lungs in a successful operation on Friday. But the donor wasn’t in the Aurora movie theater early Friday morning, hospital and transplant officials said.
“We can tell you that those lungs did not come from Colorado,” said Pam Silvestri, public affairs director for the Southwest Transplant Alliance in Dallas. A spokeswoman for UT Southwestern Medical Center, where Muzzy was treated, said the same.
It’s not clear whether any of the 12 victims of the movie theater shooting were organ donors. That information is confidential, said Jennifer Moe, communications director for Donor Alliance, the organ procurement organization, or OPO, in Colorado.
Ten of the victims -- those who died in the theater -- likely would not have been eligible to be solid organ donors because their bodies remained so long at the site, more than a dozen hours in some cases, because of the police investigation.
Nor would they have been able to donate corneas or living tissue, which must be recovered and preserved within 12 hours of death, said Robert Austin, spokesman for the Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Bank in Aurora.
In general, organs such as the heart, lungs and kidneys remain viable for only about an hour after circulation stops, said Dr. John Friedewald, a kidney transplant expert with Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
The Arapahoe County Coroner's office confirmed that two victims were taken to area hospitals, where they later died: Jessica Ghawi, 24, and Veronica Moser-Sullivan, 6. Their organ donation status remains unknown.
Silvestri, the Dallas expert, understands the confusion. Whenever there’s a mass tragedy, recipients of donated organs often assume that’s the source.
“People think they know where they come from and they just don’t,” Silvestri said.
'We have a miracle in itself.'
Muzzy’s sister, Tami Teeples, never said the family was certain the organs came from Aurora. On Sunday, before the situation was sorted out, she told NBC News they were grateful no matter the source.
“My brother’s still alive,” she said. “We have a miracle in itself.”
She said she didn’t want that positive story “turned into a negative.”
Muzzy suffers from a worsening form of genetic emphysema in which people have too little of a vital protein called Alpha-1 antitrypsin circulating in their blood. He’s become gradually weaker and more debilitated in recent years, to the point that he had only 7 percent of lung capacity, his sister said. In March, doctors said a lung transplant was his only option.
“They said, ‘You need to say your goodbyes,’” Teeples said.
In June, she moved her brother from Wichita to Dallas and helped him get on the local lung transplant list. They were waiting until last Friday, when the call came through just after midnight.
“My mom came into my room and said: ‘We have lungs,’” Teeples recalled.
If averages bear out, those lungs were among five allocated per day in the U.S., and some 1,822 transplanted last year, according to Anne Paschke, spokeswoman for the United Network for Organ Sharing, which tracks donation data.
Overall, some 114,651 people are waiting for organs now, according to statistics from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.
Most of the donations come from everyday tragedies, the private deaths that receive no national news attention, no presidential condolences.
That’s the message that Muzzy’s family would like to share, said his sister.
“No matter how big the tragedy, whether a mass murder or a car wreck, we never know when we may lose our life,” said Tami Teeples. “Being an organ donor is a blessing for many in a time of loss.”
Related stories:
Leave a Comment:
Mr. Muzzy... congratulations on the successful transplant operation.
Regardless of where the organs came from, you know as well as others that your good fortune was at the expense of another. However, I'm also sure the donor along with me wishes you well and a long life. I only hope my organs are useful for another when my time on this planet is done.
Again, CONGRATULATIONS and a speedy recovery!!
Awesome story, Godspeed in your recovery!! Also prayers to the family who during the time they lost a loved one, donated the persons' lungs.
What would it matter if they did? I understand in a crucial time its hard to worry about witch ones are organ donors but that's how the system works. I'm an organ donor and if I die in a massacre, car accident or whatever else I still want my organs to be played in someone elses body..
just sayin..
Don't "get it"., MSNBC.
If a registered organ donor dies, what difference does it make how they left this life?
All that matters is that a qualified survivor benefits.
It wasn't NBCNews that first reported it. The nephew made an unsubstantiated claim and it went viral. As a DisguistedConservative you should be used to those by now. They come up all the time on FoxScrews.
Here's my favorite bit of totally untrue misinformation from the article: "In general, organs such as the heart, lungs and kidneys remain viable for only about an hour after circulation stops, said Dr. John Friedewald, a kidney transplant expert with Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago." Someone ought to clue in Friedewald about UW Solution, cause obviously he doesn't have a clue. For the rest of you, UW Solution is used to preserve kidneys and livers for up to 24 hours. I know one of the people who invented it . . . and I just HATE seeing stupid s**t like this, especially when it comes from a "doctor," a "transplant expert," no less. Shame on him, but it's no less than I expect from Northwestern.
Maybe the doctor meant that inside the body, at a CRIME scene, having been there for 12 plus hours. Of course, if you die in a hospital where they can harvest the organs and get them into that fluid, I could see them being viable for 24 hours. But after they have been hanging around in a dead body for that long, I would think there would be too much deterioration.
Could be the doctor is not as dumb as you think.......
I wonder why it took over 12 hours to remove the deceased from the theater. They would have had plenty of photographs and video of the placement. It may have saved other lives if they were organ donors. Also the grief of family members that knew deceased family were still laying on the ground inside the theater.
They-the cops- probably had to wait until some office worked with a high paying job-more than the cops's-arrived on the scene.
There's more that goes into a death investigation than most people know. Even when someone dies in their own home, it can take hours before an official investigation is over and the body can be removed. And considering there were 10 bodies in that theater, I can see where it took them 12 hours to remove them all.
It never ceases to amaze me that people will tell you how to do your job when they don't have a clue as to how it's done but if you screw it up trying to do it the "right" way, they are the first to criticize. There are procedures to preserve evidence and like everything else, it takes time. Not to mention it's a theater that was full of people. So I'm sure the crime scene took a lot longer to process.
Murder victims rarely have viable organs for Transplant. This is due to the Deceased needs to usually have an autopsy. In addition, the Body usually is not removed from a crime scene for Hours after the Crime.
How this even made the News, shows how sick the Media really is and how we fall for it each and every time. The Man has a very long road to recovery and is not out of the woods. But I hope he survives.
I'm just sorry this became news worthy for all the wrong reasons.
Little I--I'd like to think that somewhere in the US, a family who had just lost a loved one, heard about the slaughter in Colorado, and was inspired to do SOMETHING to help.
Probably not true, but at the very least this story renews interest in organ donation.
and what action exactly should people do? run out and get hit by a bus so their organs can be harvested to save someone else? all organ transplants are the result of a tragedy, or did we forget that part where a healthy young person has to die suddenly?
you're wrong aggrevatedofficeworker. or maybe you've never heard about "living organ donation"? it happens all the time.
MariAdkins, I've been a donor since they started the program, decades ago. My point is the Family made a misguided statement that the Mass Media jumped all over. This was unfair to both the Victims of the Shooting and the Man receiving the Transplant. People refuse to research and assume that if the Media says it, it must be true.
So What, if it did. It's nobody business. That's a private and personal matter.
It's not a miracle, it's modern medicine.
I agree with you, no loving God would barter with lives as some perhaps unwittingly suggest.
God was with this young man in securing the organs to help him live. It was God's will no matter who donated these organs and I am sure he is thankful to the family who lost a loved one.
God was with this man? helped him "secure" the organs. Was God not with the person who died?- so are you saying God killed a healthy a young person to save his life? doe not sound like a God i would want any part of, one that would throw my life away to save someone else. Remember when you pray for an organ you are praying for the untimely death of a human being, your praying the death that rightfully should be visiting your family moves off instead to another.
No such thing as a untimely death. We have no idea when our time is up on this Earth. It may seem untimely to us, but we all have an end and don't know when that will be up
I had a bumper sticker on my car that registered my sentiments exactly: "Don't take your organs to Heaven, Heaven knows we need them here". My 14-year-old daughter just had to get a legal photo ID for a trip she was going on, and I was very proud to realize that she signed the organ donor line. That's my girl!
That is so half-ass rediculous,why take their lungs,when they can do surgeries on the deceased to revive them.Useless doctors.It wouldnt be tragic if the medics would save the deceased or revive them.The shooting wouldn't be so tragic.Have they ever tried to release sex offenders?
That's why I'm not an organ donor. I want the doctors to actually attempt to save me, not give up because they think my lungs or corneas or heart could go to someone else. I saw that happen to a family member and the pain and suffering it has caused to those of us that have to deal with that loss every day. Doctors begin to play God, picking and choosing who lives and who dies for their organs and who gets the organs and who doesn't, because we all know that money can buy ones way to the top of a donor list.
That's a crock, Jay. The world isn't out to get ya, man.
Jay - There are strict criteria for donation. It isn't about just taking organs for donation. Multiple individuals need to sign off to provide a system of checks and balances.
PS. Organ transplant donors do sometimes receive additional supportive care prior to donation to prevent additional damage to the system. My father died of an intracranial hemorrhage. He was unable to donate because his organs were very damaged when his heart stopped.
It is very sad that this family wanted to take advantage of the media attention of the tragedy in Colorado. Also sad that the media treats all tragedy as if it is a reality show for TV, which happened specifically to garner ratings and web clicks to please the advertisers.
No one in their right mind would believe that within an hour of the shootings in Colorado, where there was a scene of chaos, that they would get a victim to the hospital and harvest organs, test for a match and get them down to Texas to this lung recipient.
THANK YOU!!! my thoughts exactly!
I don't think that the family was trying to exploit the situation. It was simply a post...or speculation by a family member. It wasn't meant to go viral. Please give the family a break as this is a very difficult time for them also.
I don't think it came from the Theater tragedy. Just too sudden and shocking to take more from them after what had happened.
erectile hyperfunction---I am so happy for you. My hubby and I are both donors. If the time ever came that one of us is a donor it would be nice to meet the recipient some day. If it were my hubby I would like to meet the person who was able to live on and I would be happy for them. Yes it would be emotional but great.
Yes people sign up to be a donor. You will not need these parts when you are gone.
Just amazes me, in this day of instant information and multiple ways to search that so many people are naive about simple facts. Fact 1, no one can even be considered donor until absolute brain death is declared. 2, the donor must match in size as well as tissue types. All those that have doubts about the american organ donor system should spend some time at a donor call center, and emergency room, and an ICU.
The article is factual. I know personally because where I worked we were required by law to talk with families whose loved ones were on ventilators (and were planning on following criteria to turn them off because of no brain activity) or even with patients who had died to approach families about cornea, bone, tissue donations. They can use skin for burn victims and bone for grafts. For solid organ transplants you must have perfusion and there are so many criteria that have to be met in order to donate. The poor souls who died in the theater would have not been candidates for solid organ transplant donation because they were left in the theater for hours as a crime scene while they took the viable patients to area hospitals. That is why there was a massive triage (to sort) to get the patients who had a chance to be saved and those that were dead were told to be left. The sad part was all the wonderful families who had to wait for hours and going hospital to hospital trying to find their loved ones..very painful..wish it could have come quicker..they had to make positive ID's and take evidence and pictures of the crime scene and positive identity before going to the families. I am glad that that man got his lung transplant..You can never know if might be the giver or the receiver of a organ transplant.
The donor was clinically dead as in, not going to survive without machine and /or had no brain function, period. This man has been given the ultimate gift from a complete stranger. Think about that a minute and it's pretty spectacular. They did this expecting nothing in return.
Greg will see many hurdles on a long road to recovery so I wish him well and be strong.
May the donors family and friends find comfort in knowing that their gift has probably saved the lives of several others.
What difference does it make where the transplanted organs came from? What business is it of every one knowing where the donor organs came from? If your child or another family member life depended on life, sight, skin or any other body part donated, would you really care where the organs came from. It is a private decision between the donor an recipient, and no one else has the right to speculate what took place.
Sadly the donor has to die for their donation to take place. Happily, another person is given a 2nd chance to live. Leave these people alone to grieve, and any recipients thank their "higher Power" or God, (insert your belief here,)
It is just a shame that many donors bodies were left laying around to be rendered useless because of red tape.
May my God give those left behind peace, strength and the sanity or whatever else they need to get through this tragedy.
We are all born starting off on a mortal journey.Which will be filled with challenges,sorrow, and frustration. Hopefully there will also be much success, happiness,love and adventure along the way.Sharing these experiences helps unite people,bringing understanding and gives us strength.This man now has a second chance to be with his loved ones. Because one special person paused to consider their death. It reminds us that we all depend on others in different ways. No one gets through life on their own, in small or large measures we are helped. We also leave our mark in other people's lives. With consequences beyond our imagining. Through words, deeds of commission or omission. It may not be a pair of lungs. But each day is a gift.Use it wisely,smile often, you never know the life you may save.
Years ago I read in a magazine that a mother whose teenage daughter was killed in an auto accident donated her organs. She was shocked when she got a gigantic bill for organ removal or something. That stopped me in my tracks from donating organs. I don't want my family to get a big fat bill for organ removal if I were a donor. Maybe it has changed since then, but I don't know who pays for the organ removal.
Errors can be made; however, the donor's family does NOT pay for the removal of the organ. The recipient's insurance covers the bill. Many organ recipients are on governmental programs (Medicare/Medicade) because they have exhaused their lifetime benefits prior to getting the transplant. Private insurance companies don't want to pay for chronic care for severely ill people.
That being said, the donor's insurance would be billed for the care up-to donation and for the care after.
The donor does not pay anything, nor do they get paid anything.The recipient's insurance, medicare,medicaid pays for the cost of the transplant.For those without the means, there are local,state and national organizations which provide grants to assist in helping to cover the costs.There may still be shortages and fund raisers are usually held in communities to help makeup the differences.
My husband had a double lung transplant 18 years ago and is still going strong. That being said, information in both this article and many of the comments is not only totally untrue, but out of line, unnecessary and inappropriate, as well. Twenty years of being in the system have taught me that many factors and decisions and luck and blessings go into a successful transplant. It's just not helpful for people who have no knowledge or experience to comment, especially in a platform such as this.
Hopefully, this man will make a full recovery and live a long life with his new lungs, no matter where they came from.
Congratulations to this man and his family. No doubt someone lost a love one but no better way to preserve their memory by donating organs. Speedy recovery and long life.