Stroke patient hears doctors discuss removing his organs

A Swedish man who was paralysed by a stroke is
filing an official complaint against a Gothenburg
hospital after he listened in horror to his doctors
telling his girlfriend and relatives he was going to
die and discussing transplanting his liver and
kidney.
"I heard them tell my girlfriend and my relatives
that there was no hope," Jimi Fritze, 43, told The
Telegraph.
"I couldn't do anything. I could only see and hear.
I couldn't move my body."
The former supermarket manager from Örebro
suffered a stroke nearly two years ago as he and
his girlfriend were dining on smoked fish and fine
wine at a restaurant on the Gothenburg
archipelago.
As it was too windy for a helicopter to land on the
island, it took one and a half hours to get him by
boat to hospital.
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By that time, he was completely paralysed.
"They looked at an x-ray of my brain, and when
they had done that, they told my girlfriend that it
wasn't good and that I wouldn't live," Mr Fritze
said.
"I could hear her crying the whole time, but I
couldn't do anything."
He drifted into unconsciousness, waking later to
hear the doctors discussing his case.
"I heard them talking about donation, they wanted
to do some tests on my liver and my kidney, so
they could give them to some people," he said.
Still, he could do nothing to alert anyone to the
fact that he was fully conscious.
"I was scared because I thought that I was going
to die then, and a hard death," he said. "I
remember I thought, what will happen if they
cremate me, will I see the fire and feel the fire?".
When his family came in to say their final farewell,
the doctors discussed organ donation with them,
even though Mr Fritze had yet to be declared
officially brain dead, something he believes
violated official guidelines.
If a more experienced doctor had not returned from
holiday three days after his accident, he is in little
doubt that he would not be here today.
"I think I would have been stuck in bed until my
body didn't work any more, so they could take the
parts from me," Mr Fritze said.
As it happened, when the new doctor took another
look at the x-ray, she immediately realised that
there was a good chance that Mr Fritze might
recover. Within days, he was able to communicate
by nodding his head.
After nearly two years, and constant rehabilitation
therapy, Mr Fritze can now speak and move,
although he remains confined to a wheelchair and
reliant on an assistant.
Last month, he filed an official complaint to
Gothenburg's Sahlgrenska Hospital, where he was
treated, hoping that it will help prevent the same
thing happening to others.
Stefan Sarajärvi, a spokesman for the hospital, said
that the hospital had begun an inquiry into Mr
Fritze's complaint, and would respond later this
month.
"We take all the complaints we receive very
seriously, and do everything we can to make sure
it doesn't happen in future," he said.
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