George Best

[stellaqueen]

I can't see any articles on this subject... although there may be a few further down the postings......

i feel very strongly about the George Best situation at the moment and thought i should say something to find out if i am the only one!

He has drunk for many many years now, not carefully but excessively. His liver packs in so he gets another, whether it be because he had the money for treatment or whether it was genuinely his turn to receive a transplant at the time i don't know, guess we never will. He then continues drinking and wrecks a vital organ which could have been used more effectively and would have been appreciated so much more by another person!

I think that is horrible as my mum needed a kidney transplant due to having renal failure brought about by an inheritable disease. My mum hardly drank, didnt smoke and generally looked after herself, she was not in control of the disease and apart from the dialysis she received and eating an healthy diet she was unable to stop the failure.
My mum died a year ago next week and i often think what it would have been like if she had received a transplant but one thing is for sure she would not have wasted the opportunity of an increased quality of life like Best has......

[Chessman]

I can see where your coming from, and I really feel for you, but its just possible, because he can afford it, that he went private, if it was on the NHS, then he's jumped the queue, and it shouldn't have happened.

[kags]

There has been a discussion here

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question169944.html

[darkstar]

Can I ask why are you called Stellaqueen

[galltin]

I agree with stellaqueen , totally.

I'm one of the lucky ones who got a kidney , but I saw many waiting for one die, and livers.He shouldn't have got one, and no , you can't jump the organ transplant list by going private.That's not to say he jumped the NHS list , it's not like that really as tissue typing and other factors have to be taken into consideration , you can wait a matter of weeks or a matter of years , it's not just a case of being "next in line".

[stevie_c2it]

Difficult question this one, especially as this week a health authority has announced its plans to refuse certain operations to obese patients, as they believe that there attitudes to diet and exercise may have contributed to there conditions. Therefore, the health authority concerned are, rightly or wrongly, reluctant to waste limited resources (and tax payers money) on treatments where the patients have demonstrated an unwillingness to accept some level of personal responsibility for there situations, past, present or future. With this in mind, I can understand entirely how people may consider the organ donated to George Best and his treatment to have been a waste of time and potentially depriving a more deserving case of an opportunity to live.
It�s an emotive subject, and likely to be �muddied� by his celebrity status (and by his football legacy), two further thoughts though, how would people feel if: a) he was just an ordinary member of the public? & b) they had to decide who gets treatment and who doesn�t?

[Haggisdj]

Reading George's Doctor's comments, anyone who has had a liver transplant could be suffering as George is now. It was the drinking that caused the need for a transplant but the medication he was given after the operation that affected his immune system...

[funnywebsite]

Getting a new kidney is a luxury not a right. I frankly don't believe in it. George Best was an alcoholic and there is not alot you can do to cure people of this. He wanted to stop drinking but there is something in your brain that makes you do it. I am sorry that his time is nearly over and it's a shame but the demons in him made him keep drinking.

[Gill 05]

Well George is dead now so. its irrelevant what we think of him, may he R.I.P and God Bless his family

[kick3m0n]

can I just point out that there are many alcholics in this world that have managed to stop drinking - I myself know several - and although it is a difficult, daily, lifelong struggle, they do it, and should be congratulated and supported for what is true courage. They will always be alcholics, never be cured, but they can take control of their lives again. To say that Best had an illness and so couldn't help it is ridiculous and sends out a very mixed messages to the younger generation - who look likely to grow up in a culture where drink is more readily available than ever. Haggisdj - you are right of course in what you say, but equally, how many times in recent months has the same doctor warned Best that his drinking will kill him? It is unfortunate that infection due to a necessarily suppressed immune system has led him on this fatal path, but it is also fact that if he had continued with his lifestyle as it was, he would have died prematurely from liver failure anyway, something which is not the case for most liver donors.

[kick3m0n]

Gill, crossed posts. Heartfelt sympathies to his family and friends. I hope they can be allowed to grieve in peace and privacy.

[kick3m0n]

sorry, 2nd from last post should have said, "most liver transplant recipients".

[Schlomo78]

I agree with Stella,I think it may be likely that he 'bought' a kidney though,not to say thats right.I know organ procurement is a big money maker in some countries.Whether he did or didn't,he was given a second chance and he should have given it his all if he wanted to live instead of going back on the booze.Alcoholics can recover so you would think with all his means and money he would have been in a better situation to do it than someone who has next to nothing.At the end of the day I think it was his own fault and I have no sympathy,I know it sounds harsh,but when people would have a new and as Stella says increased quality of life for themselves and those who love them then I'm afraid he wasted it.

[bernardo]

I doubt if it would be possible to "pay" for getting a liver earlier than would otherwise be the case. When someone gets a transplant, it has to be matched for tissue and blood types. Therefore whenever an organ becomes available, there is only a small number of people who might be suitable for getting it.

[gary baldy]

George Best was a pathetic drunk who constantly let people down,broke the law on several occasions and was always blaming everyone (except himself) for his shortcomings - yet was revered. He was given umpteen chances to turn his life around and squandered them. if it was only his own life he affected so be it but he was given organ transplants - depriving people who were perhaps more willing to lead a better life.

[surfer mike]

Nice charactor assasination that baldy...

where has best ever blamed anyone but himself for his illness..and why the fuss about best receiving organ transplants, right this minute there are dozens of people who are receiving liver organs who happen to be alcoholics the likelyhood of which is that many of them will return to abusing their bodies with alchohol, yet there is no outcry about these cases and rightly so because who is for us to judge who should and shouldn't get liver and other organ transplants.

[gary baldy]

i read Best's autobiography and he blames every bad thing that has happened to him on other people and never (like other alcholics) took responsibility for his drinking and hence his own ill health and mis-fortune. I also happen to think that other people who do not take responsibilty for their own well being after illness (smokers especially) should be denied NHS treatment and be put right at the bottom of the transplant list. The NHS is a luxury not a right (i know Best was in private care but the NHS is clogged with people like him)
My daughter was born with one kidney and i feel very strongly about the fact that people like Best could possibly deprive my daughter of a transplant (should she need it).

[Gef]

I wish people would get their facts right. George Best had a liver transplant not a kidney transplant.

I tend to agree with surfer mike's views.

[gary baldy]

Liver - kidney - whatever.
My point was that he has deprived someone else of that organ - whatever it was.
I should point out that i believe George Best to be the most talented footballer ever to grace the football pitch. He but the beautiful in the Beautiful Game - his skill was mesmerising.
That is the reason that his latter years were all the more heartbreaking - the Marlon Brando of football.

[stellaqueen]

Just to answer darkstars question.... i am named stellaqueen because i couldn't use my own name as there was already users. therefore i asked a few mates who were here for suggestions.... as my first car was named stella (at the time was the first name i thought of, for no apparent reason) and one of my mates suggested that i called myself stellaqueen. nothing to do with the drink - as that is what i think your suggesting. As with my mum inheriting the disease i also have inherited it. im not stupid enuff to drink loads, as george best did.

i am not for one minute saying he wasnt a good footballer, there is no argument there i am merely commenting on his lifestyle which i will argue did not help his situation at all.

[Goddess]

I agree with a lot of the views regarding George and his continued drinking after receiving his transplant.

Gary Baldy, the NHS is not a luxury, it is a right!! The Government does not provide this service free of charge. The public pay for it including those who smoke, drink and whatever else you may not agree with and therefore have the right to receive whatever treatment may be necessary.

The NHS is not clogged with people like him, it is clogged with people who have the same right to treatment as anyone else whatever their vices, having spent their working lifes contributing to the system.

The NHS puts us all on the same playing field, pardon the pun. Which is how it should be.

We may not always agree with decisions that are made but where would we be without the NHS?

Perhaps you would prefer that though as you seem to think people who smoke/drink are not worth very much anyway because in doing so they are unwilling to live "better" lives.