Black Market Trade of Human Body Parts

This week my debut novel, Proof, releases!

To celebrate, anyone who leaves a comment on my blog during this weeks posts will be eligible to win a free copy! I'll also be drawing from my followers/subscribers lists as well. So, plenty of places for you to win. Drawing cutoff will be Sunday, June 3rd. Winners announced Tuesday, June 5th. To claim, you must e-mail me with your info so definitely check the June 5th post. Must live in the USA.

Welcome back , Bette!

It’s RN Gina Mazzio’s wedding eve. She answers the week’s final OB/Gyn advice call and a deadly serious voice says, “She’s all cut up.”

That single telephone call ignites a series of irreversible events, and instead of marriage and a honeymoon, Gina is plunged into the dangerous, illicit trade in human body parts.

Illicit trade in human body parts?

Gimme a break! That could only happen in fiction. Right?

Although the new medical thriller, Sin & Bone, by J. J. Lamb & Bette Golden Lamb, is fiction, this second book in the RN Gina Mazzio series, is steeped in a reality that most of us never think about.

Can some black-market creep (or shall I say entrepreneur?) steal your body and make an unbelievable profit in untraceable cash?  They can and they do. It’s all a matter of supply and demand. When it comes to body parts, the demand is sky-rocketing. A lot of people are stepping up to the plate and they’re out for the money. Legal or not.

So, yes, there’s a huge black market trade in human body parts.

Who are these people who work in this international illegal industry?  The ones who obtain, prepare, carve up, and sell bodies for profit?

Unethical doctors, dentists, drop-out medical students, funeral parlor owners and/or employees, and, of course, the mafia probably has a hand in it, too. But really anyone with a decent knowledge of anatomy can figure out how to take advantage of this dubious opportunity. After all, it’s easier to cut and paste without a live patient screaming at you to stop.

Most of us think of heart or vital organ transplants when we talk about harvesting the human body. But the black market makes your whole body even more valuable when it’s picked apart and divided into many pieces. Corpses are disjointed, dissected, sold, and distributed from the US and other countries around the globe.

Did I say there was money in it?  It’s huge. Teeth, nails, eyes, connective tissue, bone of every variety – leg, arm , knee cap -- and there’re fingers and toes, ligaments, heart values – and on and on. They’re all valuable and vital even though illegal replacements are implanted without ruling out any of the dangerous diseases they might carry with them. Bacteria and viruses will be passed on to the receiver without a second thought.

Our brave new world, with its medical and pharmaceutical advances, has now created an environment where it’s possible to replace sick or dying organs. Though it’s still a dangerous experience we have learned how to do it -- and so have the body-snatchers.

Living forever?

Does all this replacement of body parts take us down the road to immortality? Well, yes. The only fly in the ointment? We are short of all the viscera to replace all that we need to keep going.

Will there ever be enough affordable replacements to go around?  I don’t think so. And what kind of money are we talking about anyway? How much does it cost to save someone’s life?

It varies from place to place, but here are some ballpark figures: Lung, $50,000, liver, $40,000, heart, $60,000, kidney, $20,000.

Why not go the legal route? Use your insurance company to pay for the procedure, that is, if you have insurance. After all, it’s the safest, most ethical, disease-free way to go

Watch a few TV medical dramas, or listen to the news, or read your newspaper, or tap into your I Pad media app and it won’t take long to find an answer: You could die long before you even got near to the top of the waiting list. Also, I’m a cynic, but I think people with money and influence will get to the top of those critical lists while you hover somewhere around the bottom.

So without being one to throw the first stone, I understand those who investigate illegal pathways to stay alive. I really get it!

 Few of us are ever ready for that final void.

Here are some real life links of current instances:

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/faithbased/2009/07/organ_failure.html

http://www.usatoday.com/money/2006-04-26-body-parts-cover-usat_x.htm

http://www.unicef.org/mozambique/pt/Liga_Mocambicana_dos_Direitos_Humanos_Trafficking_Body_Parts_in_Mozambique_and_South_Africa__2008.pdf

***********************************************************************

Bette Golden Lamb is unmistakably from the Bronx – probably why she likes to write thrillers. When she isn’t writing crime novels, you can find her in her studio playing with clay. Her artistic creations appear in juried regional, national, and international exhibitions. She sells through galleries, associations, and stores. She’s also an RN, which explains, Bone Dry, a medical thriller, and Heir Today, an adventure/thriller which also has a medical aspect to it. And just released at Amazon .com, Sister in Silence, a medical thriller about barren women -- available as an ebook or trade paperback. Both books were co-authored with husband J.J. Lamb. You can learn more about Bette here:

http://www.twoblacksheep.us/ and http://www.bettegoldenlamb.com/.

Puncture: Medically Accurate or Not?

This week my debut novel, Proof, releases!

To celebrate, anyone who leaves a comment on my blog during this weeks posts will be eligible to win a free copy! I'll also be drawing from my followers/subscribers lists as well. So, plenty of places for you to win. Drawing cutoff will be Sunday, June 3rd. Winners announced Tuesday, June 5th. To claim, you must e-mail me with your info so definitely check the June 5th post. Must live in the USA.

Back to business...

When you author a medical blog on medical accuracy in fiction-- people will start to flag you when they are outraged over a certain movie, book, experience (you get the picture.) I love getting these alerts because, of course, it helps me write blog posts for you.

My interest was piqued after I got several "Hey, have you seen the movie Puncture?" and lamentations over how inaccurate the film was.

Off to Netflix to reserve a copy. Over the last weekend, I watched the film.

Spoiler Alert!

Puncture is "based on the true story" of two lawyers, Mike Weiss and Paul Danziger, litigating in the 1990s to get the use of safety needles into hospitals on behalf of a nurse who was stuck with a contaminated needle, contracted HIV, and subsequently died. During discovery for the lawsuit, there seemed to be a concentrated effort to keep these types of needles out of the hospitals due to how expensive they are.

So far-- nothing is too hard for me to believe. I first started nursing in 1993 and at that time, use of safety needles and needleless systems were not used at every hospital. One unit I interviewed for often took care of AIDS patients. When I asked if they used needleless systems-- the answer was "no".

I didn't work there.

Now, in the US, I don't know of anyone not using needleless systems. This is a good thing.

The one claim in the movie that seemed to be getting everyone's ire up was the statement that the re-use of needles in Africa and Asia could have been more responsible for the transmission of the HIV virus amongst those populations than sexual transmission. In the movie, it was also claimed that children were paid money to dumpster dive in search of used needles to bring back to the hospital for use.

Hmmm--well, it might be true (maybe not the dumpster part.)

I started to do a little research of my own and within the last couple of years, a few studies have shown that the estimated 90% transmission rate of the HIV virus related to sexual transmission may not be that high--- that perhaps the re-use of needles was more of a contributing factor.

Why would a government want to hide this truth? Well, for a practical reason as quoted in some of my reading. If people feared getting HIV and other viruses from re-used needles-- they might not want to receive a regular immunization for say--- tetanus. Lower immunization rates are problematic for everyone.

You can read my immunization series here:
http://jordynredwood.blogspot.com/2011/11/pediatric-controversies-immunizations.html
http://jordynredwood.blogspot.com/2011/11/pediatric-controversies-immunizations_30.html
http://jordynredwood.blogspot.com/2011/12/pediatric-controversies-immunizations.html

So--I'm going to give Puncture a pass for medical accuracy. I think their theory is plausible and backed up by some credible resources-- which is more than I can say for a lot of other movies.

If you're interested in reading some of the resources I found-- here they are:

http://protectthepope.com/?p=1821: This post has lots of additional links.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/12/01/MN334.DTL&ao=all
http://thebovine.wordpress.com/2011/04/25/aids-in-africa-more-from-medical-re-use-of-needles-than-sexual-transmission/

What are your thoughts?

Contest and Preview

Hello Redwood's FANS!!

How are you? I am ecstatic! This week, my dream comes true. My debut novel, Proof, officially releases June 1. To get a preview, you can find free Chapters over at my website.

To celebrate, anyone who leaves a comment on my blog during this weeks posts will be eligible to win a free copy! I'll also be drawing from my followers/subscribers lists as well. So, plenty of places for you to win. Drawing cutoff will be Sunday, June 3rd. Winners announced Tuesday, June 5th. To claim, you must e-mail me with your info so definitely check the June 5th post. Must live in the USA.

Not only is there a fabulous contest but great content as well.

This week is controversy week.

Monday: The movie Puncture. Is it medically accurate or not? I'll be delving in.

Wednesday: Bette Lamb returns to discuss the black market trade of human body parts.

Friday: The Rogue Medical Character. How do you handle medical people doing bad things in your novel without offending doctors and nurses. I'll take on the issue.

Hope everyone has a fantastic week and don't forget to comment, follow and subscribe!!

Jordyn

Cujo Gave Me Rabies

I remember working in the Pediatric ICU taking care of a boy who was from another country. His symptoms were strange neurological symptoms. The intensivists were concerned when they began to hear reports that he may have been in contact with bat feces in his home country. They began to discuss the possibility of active rabies infection. One thing that struck with me was the mortality rate of nearly 100%. I don't exactly remember what happened to that boy but I do remember that.



This is going to be a very bad day if you have your character contract rabies. Rabies infection is almost 100% fatal even with treatment. Did you know that? Once you're past the point of no return, it's time to buy your coffin.

I thought I'd follow up last post by talking about rabies infection. As previously stated, rabies infection related to dog bites is rare in the USA due to widespread vaccination of the mangy mutt population (I own a dog so I can say this.)

Rabies infection occurs through the saliva of an infected animal when a bite breaks the skin. The incubation period is anywhere from 10 days to seven years (yes, I really typed years!) Though the average is 2-7 weeks. Still a long time if you thought the bite was fairly inconsequential. Incubation period is from the time of infection to the time symptoms are exhibited. During the incubation period, you can feel fine. This is the trouble with rabies infection. Treatment needs to be started before the symptoms start. However, in a person that feels fine, they may not seek treatment.

That's the crux of the issue. Anyone else have plots developing in their mind?

Once symptoms appear, death usually ensues within seven days from respiratory failure.

Here are some further resources that discuss rabies infection.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002310/

http://www.cdc.gov/rabies/

http://www.emedicinehealth.com/rabies/article_em.htm

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/rabies/DS00484

How about you? Ever written a scene that involved the transmission of rabies?