Hep C Victim Ineligible For Transplant Due To Medical Marijuana Use Dies

Timothy Garon was a Seattle-area man suffering from Hepatitis C who had a recommendation for medical marijuana from his physician for pain relief and nausea and also as an appetite stimulant. He was denied a spot on the transplant list at two of his local hospitals, allegedly largely because of his medical marijuana use, Shortly afterward, Tim Garon died.

The Associated Press reported onMay 3, 2008 ("IsMedical-Marijuana Use Reason to Deny Someone an Organ Tranplant?") that "Timothy Garon, 56, used marijuana to ease the symptoms of advanced hepatitis C. Dr. Brad Roter, the physician who authorized Garon to smoke pot to alleviate nausea and abdominal pain and to stimulate his appetite -- a use authorized under a Washington state law approved by voters in 1998 -- said he had not known it would be such a hurdle if Garon were to need a transplant.Garon died Thursday, one week after he said he learned from his doctor that a University of Washington Medical Center committee had again denied him a spot on the liver-transplant list. 'He said I'm going to die, with such conviction,' Garon said then. 'I'm not angry, I'm not mad, I'm just confused.' His death at Bailey-Boushay House, an intensive-care nursing center, was confirmed Friday by his lawyer, Douglas Hiatt, and Alisha Mark, a spokeswoman for Virginia Mason Medical Center,which operates Bailey-Boushay." The Associated Press reported on April 27, 2008 ("PatientsUsing Medical Marijuana Can Be Denied Transplants") that "His liver, ravaged by hepatitis C, is failing. Without a new one, his doctors tell him, he will be dead in days. But Garon's been refused a spot on the transplant list, largely because he has used marijuana, even though it was legally approved for medical reasons."

According to AP, "Most transplant centers struggle with how to deal with people who have used marijuana, said Dr. Robert Sade, director of the Institute of Human Values in Health Care at the Medical University of South Carolina. 'Marijuana, unlike alcohol, has no direct effect on the liver. It is however a concern ... in that it's a potential indicator of an addictive personality,' Sade said. TheVirginia-based United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees the nation's transplant system, leaves it to individual hospitals to develop criteria for transplant candidates. At some, people who use 'illicit substances' --including medical marijuana, even in states that allow it -- are automatically rejected. At others, such as the UCLA Medical Center, patients are given a chance to reapply if they stay clean for six months. Marijuana is illegal under federal law."

AP noted that "Garon believes he got hepatitis by sharing needles with 'speedfreaks' as a teenager. In recent years, he said, pot has been the only drug he's used. In December, he was arrested for growing marijuana. Garon, who has been hospitalized or in hospice care for two months straight, said he turned to the university hospital after Seattle's Harborview Medical Center told him he needed six months of abstinence. The university also denied him but said it would reconsider if he enrolled in a 60-day drug-treatment program. Last week, at the urging of Garon's lawyer, the university's transplant team reconsidered anyway,but it stuck to its decision."

In Memory of Johnny's Father

This picture was taken in 1997, when I went to my father's 50 Year Medical Reunion and assisted him in all of his activities. A little background on my father...he was born on 9 July 1912 in Muncie, Indiana. He attended local schools and after graduating from Muncie Central High he attended Kenyon College in Ohio, Rollins College in South Florida, and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and became an engineer. Later in his career, he graduated from Tulane Medical School during World War II and as a Naval Reserve officer he taught anatomy at Tulane for the war effort to train more doctors. He was a specialist in Tropical diseases and worked with the Hanson's disease clinic near New Orleans. Due to this interest he was part of the consortium who was working to develop antibiotics such as sulfa and penicillin which would change the treatment of many infections as well as Hanson's disease. It was paramount to the treatment of the war wounded as well.

Going to his reunion and meeting his class mates, I was associating with such medical legends as Drs. Alton Oscher, Leon Meier, Flora Finch, Bob Brown, Michael DeBakey, Dr. Herbert, Dr. F. Marascalco and many others. Dr. Michael de Bakey you may remember is the famous Houston Heart Surgeon who operated on Boris Yelson's heart; which was a very successful operation. Bob Brown is not only an excellent Doctor, but he also was one of the New York Yankee's better baseball players during 1948 and 1949. All are Tulane graduates in my Dad's class or they had Interned with him.

After graduation he worked with Dr. Oscher in the Touro Infirmary and was recognized as intern of the year and later was offered a position in the clinic that Dr. Oscher was starting in New Orleans after the war. Instead my father chose to go to Fort Walton Beach in Northwest Florida and open a general practice as that area had no medical care at the time. This was front-line medicine dealing with all manner of treatment outside his office including house calls. Working with the local Congressman Bob Sikes they established a small hospital and attracted more doctors to the area. He was the doctor of record and call when US presidents came to visit the many armed forces bases in the area. He sat on the Florida medical exam board as well as being the head of the State Board of Health for some time. In the early 1970s he retired from medical practice.

In Memory of Johnny's Mother

This picture was taken in 1955 when my Mom (Eugenia) and I were at our Family Reunion. Eugenia Annie Mae Rudulph Maxon 1917- 1973 was born on the 9th of June 1917 in Selma, Alabama to Burwell Blount Rudulph and his 2nd wife, Caroline Caffey Rudulph. This was his 7th daughter and the first child of Caroline. Three of his daughters and his 1st wife died of scarlet fever during the epidemic that spread across the country.

Eugenia grew up at Cloverdale, the family place in Lowdnes county, near Hayneville Alabama that had been in the family since 1834. She was sent to De Funiak Springs to Palmer High school, a part of the Chataqua Movement at the time. She graduated from Wheaton College in Chicago in June of 1938 with a degree in British Literature. Her classmate and good friend was to become the famous Billy Graham. She married Robert von Purucker Maxon at the First Baptist Church In Montgomery Alabama on 25 June 1938.

For several years in the early 1970's she had been battling different cancers. We were together in London in 1973 and while going through the subway turn-style she hit her right side that released toxins in her liver that took her life very shortly within days. I loved my mother very much, but I must say over and over again I am reminded throughout my whole life of the importance of good liver health.