NYC ambulance would preserve bodies

NEW YORK, May 9 (UPI) -- New York is considering equipping a new ambulance to preserve bodies until families can be contacted about possible organ donation.

USA Today said crews would also perform procedures to preserve a person's organs until the family had time to decide on giving consent for donation.

Development of the Rapid Organ Recovery Ambulance began after families said they were unable to donate their loved ones' organs in cases of sudden death. The newspaper said an estimated 22,000 people each year don't get considered for organ donation because they died outside a hospital.

Performing procedures without consent is expected to be controversial.

No such ambulance yet exists, and none have been ordered. Officials with the Fire Department of New York, Bellevue Hospital and the New York Organ Donor Network say the program faces some hurdles before it can be implemented -- including securing community support and passing an ethics review.

"It is very difficult to try to do what is right without doing harm," Nancy Dubler, director of bioethics at Montefiore Medical Center, told USA Today.

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