Have a heart…a kidney…a liver…
One of the main arguments being thrown around during the reporting of Gareth Anderson’s ‘campaign‘ to get a new liver, has been directed at Health Minister Michael McGimpsey and his failure to speak out or really doing anything about the dying 19 year-old’s plight.
Stephen Nolan has been one of the most vocal, pretty much leading the media campaign through his Radio Ulster and 5Live radio shows. Since Thursday, the boy’s (or young man – he is 19) story has been given almost start to finish coverage on both his popular phone-ins.
He called on McGimpsey to explain why nothing had been done to bump Gareth on to the transplant list – failing to understand that a Northern Irish health minister is completely powerless to intervene in the UK-wide transplant scheme.
Why has this been completely missed? A mixture of the local media blindly following Nolan’s lead and general thoughtless knee-jerk reactions by all involved? Or more likely just confusion as to where the powers of the Northern Ireland Executive extend to…and sometimes abruptly stop short of. Add organ transplants to a list that currently includes policing & justice (but not for long!), civil aviation, broadcasting, postage, taxes etc etc etc.
Of course it’s a horrible story, the family and the lad must be going through absolute hell now. Getting the media involved surely seemed like a good idea to a father desperate not to watch his young son die. But a news story like this always needs a fresh angle every day and sadly some of what has come out will no doubt disturb the family even more. Stories about his excessive drinking, a bebo site filled with pictures of Gareth downing litre bottles of vodka and now The Sun’s story about him even trying to go for a pint during his stay at the Ulster Hospital last week.
It highlights the double-edged nature of these types of stories, but also the willingness by some to blindly take them at face value. It was boiled down to – “19 year-old denied new liver after old one failed during one weekend of heavy drinking.” – but as it turns out, it’s a lot more complicated than that.
Stephen Nolan tries hard to push the issues like Gareth’s without getting his hands too dirty. He’s a master of the precursor “Some people would say” which he thinks allows him to keep the middle ground needed to be a presenter. He treads it very well too. It’s obvious that without his coverage, the story wouldn’t have been picked up by Sky News, and The Sun definitely wouldn’t have been sniffing around the Old Moat Inn, in Dundonald.
The Sunday Times’ Liam Clarke called out Nolan as a hypocrite for “lambasting politicians for failing to intervene and grilling medical teams” whilst admitting that he himself was not an organ donor – maybe an attempt by Nolan to tread his middle ground.
In the article, Clarke urged Nolan to declare where he stood on organ donations live on air – but the way the Radio Ulster Shock-Jock dealt with this public call had the hallmarks of a complete self-indulgent ego trip.
During Monday’s show, Nolan interviewed the frail sounding Gareth from his bed in Kings Hospital, London. He gave Gareth the opportunity to appeal for more organ donors…
Nolan: “And to those people who are thinking of getting a card – Tell them how important it is, tell them how it much means to you.”
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…yet less than 15 minutes later claimed he was still undecided as to whether he would be a donor himself.
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Gareth and his fight for a new liver will understandably now have to take a back seat this week as we find out if Stephen will make the terribly hard decision to sign up as an organ donor. I just hope it doesn’t cause him too much stress and anguish.
I’ll leave the words of Liam Clarke to finish off my post, because I feel they need repeated.
There is also a challenge to every citizen to show practical concern for cases such as Gareth Anderson’s by carrying an organ-donor card. My new one is in the post. I hope to hear Nolan, arguably Northern Ireland’s most influential broadcaster, giving an example to his listeners by saying the same when I tune into his show tomorrow morning. There is a link on his own website where he can register online.
My card is in the post, by the way. Easy-peasy.
Comments ( 1 Comment )
Alan Law added these insightful comments on Aug 31 09 at 8:05 amOne of the deterents to organ donation, is the feeling amongst some that their donated organs (or those of a loved one) will be given to people who they feel don’t deserve that organ.
It’s hard to see how a precious resource could be given to someone who has destroyed their own liver. Even George Best managed a year off the booze prior to his transplant.
Nolan’s decision to make Anderson a cause célèbre is sickening, exploiting a family who are in the depths of despair, who have not yet woken up to the possibility that their son is a chronic alcoholic.
For organ donation to work, next of kin must be informed, and accept your wishes.
If they don’t…the card is a waste of time.
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