HomeMy WebLinkAboutIR 8130 INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 8130
r N To the Mayor and Members of the City Council May 19, 1998
Pax Subject: TRAFFIC INVESTIGATION PROCEDURES RELATING TO ORGAN DONORS
This informal report is in response to a question by Councilmember Picht during the Pre-Council
worksession of April 21, 1998. The question related to an incident in which a person who died as a
result of injuries sustained in a traffic accident was not identified as being an organ donor at the
time of his death, and because of the amount of time the body remained undisturbed at the
accident scene,the deceased person's organs did not meet acceptable medical criteria for
donation.
The policies and procedures of the Fort Worth Police Department as they pertain to deceased
persons are in direct compliance with Article 49.25, Sections 6 and 8, of the Texas Code of
Criminal Procedure. It is the policy of the department that any officer on the scene of a deceased
person call will not search or distrurb the body, nor will an officer remove any wallet or search the
body for identification. In situations where the decedent appears to have died of natural causes,
the Medical Examinees investigator is notified and has the option to respond to the scene. In
situations where the individual has died from unknown causes,trauma or unnatural means such as
possible homicide,suicide or traffic incident the body is the responsibility and under the legal
jurisdiction of the Tarrant County Medical Examinees Office. The Medical Examinees Office must
investigate and rule on the cause of death in all such cases, and the law prohibits anyone outside
of the Medical Examinees Office from disturbing the scene regardless of whether the decedent is
an organ donor. The Medical Examinees Office responds to traffic fatalities within 30 to 45 minutes
on average. In the specific case that was the basis for this report, the response time was 33
minutes.
According to Ms. Jamie Mozella of the LifeGift Donor Network,organ donor programs are primarily
designed for persons who die in a hospital setting because vital organs need a virtually
uninterrupted bloodflow to be useable for transplantation. Persons who die by other than natural
means are not generally candidates for organ donation even if they have previously agreed to be
included in the program, although each case is unique and the circumstances surrounding a
particular death are the deciding factor of whether or not organ donation can occur.
Furth information will be provided upon request
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