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| Transplant Board: Ore. Death Row Inmate Not Eligible |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 06/11/2003 |
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A death row inmate will not receive a taxpayer-funded kidney transplant, said a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections. Perrin Damon said a medical review panel concluded Tuesday that the inmate, Horacio Alberto Reyes-Camarena, failed to meet two criteria for transplant eligibility. The reasons will not be disclosed because of laws regarding medical confidentiality, she said. The case was scheduled to be explored Wednesday night on the ABC television program 'Nightline.' But Damon denied that the national attention had anything to do with the timing of the decision. Reyes-Camarena, 47, was sent to death row six years ago for stabbing to death an 18-year-old girl and dumping her body near the Oregon Coast. Taxpayers now are paying more than $120,000 per year to provide life-saving dialysis for him at the Two Rivers Correctional Institution near Umatilla. In a recent interview with the Statesman Journal, the condemned killer said he wanted the organ transplant. 'It's much better for me, and them, too,' Reyes-Camarena said, referring to medical reports indicating that a successful transplant could allow him to live longer and prove to be cheaper than dialysis in the long run. Damon said the inmate's eligibility for a transplant was evaluated by a panel of prison doctors who applied criteria used by the transplant team at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. The number of transplants performed across the country is limited by a scarcity of available organs. As of Tuesday, 54,888 Americans, including 203 Oregonians, were waiting for kidney transplants, according to the Virginia-based United Network for Organ Sharing, which maintains the nation's waiting list for organs. The cost for transplant surgery ranges from $80,000 to $120,000, plus lifelong drugs to keep the recipient from rejecting the new organ. Spending on inmate medical care in Oregon will total about $60 million in the current two-year budget period. |
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