Brest resident: Doctors wanted to take my deceased uncle's heart for transplantation

A family from Brest refused to donate their relative's organs for transplantation and passed through a nightmare after he died.

Inna Shykula from Brest wrote to charter97.org what her family passed through last April.

“It happened on April 7, 2014. My unconscious uncle, 44, was taken hospital No.1 in Brest (the former railway hospital).

He died in the intensive care unit of a cerebral hemorrhage. Doctors didn't say anything for a day, though his state was hopeless from the very beginning. For example, they told his wife to buy expensive heart medicines. We later refused to donate his organs. The doctors were pressing psychologically and humiliating his grieving wife and son, making them give their consent for organ donation. They also talked to other family members.

Doctors from Minsk, who came for the heart transplant, were waiting in the neighbouring room. By the way, they said a heart transplant costs $70,000, but relatives don't get anything. They said 'You are responsible for a human death', 'You are ignorant people' and so on. We had to struggle for my uncle's body! I am not against organ donation, but it should be voluntary. Doctors should not do it in secret as they've used to. Even a nurse in the morgue asked us: 'How did you manage to bring him here with all organs?'

I'd like to send my greetings to the monsters from the former railway hospital in Brest. It's temporary, remember it! You will answer for your crimes! Unfortunately, I don't know the names of the doctors, and my aunt doesn't want to recall it. It's wild. Healthcare employees know the situation. Let's your readers know it, too. It is a barbarity,” the reader wrote.

Another reader of charter97.org recently wrote about Belarusian maternity hospitals and how Belarusian doctors turned the birth of a child into a nightmare.