Suicidal 'killer' gets liver transplant

[jgb]

Suicidal 'killer' gets liver transplant

By CAROLYN SALAZAR, JOHN DOYLE and JEANE MacINTOSH

Last Updated: 10:15 AM, July 26, 2010

Posted: 2:49 AM, July 26, 2010

EXCLUSIVE

A confessed Bronx wife-killer who destroyed his liver in a half-****ed suicide attempt blew past nearly 2,000 New Yorkers on the state's transplant list to get a new organ, The Post has learned.

"It's an outrage -- a complete waste on a man who obviously had no regard for life," said a friend of Jordania Sarita, 36, who cops say was stabbed to death by husband Johnny Concepcion on July 5.

Concepcion, 43, left New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center with his brand-new liver on Friday -- and went straight to jail.

Jeff Warzer

SHOCK TREATMENT: Johnny Concepcion, who allegedly stabbed wife Jordania Sarita to death, is wheeled out of New York-Presbyterian and into a police van after getting a new liver.

Sarita's mother, Maria, told The Post: "There are people that wait years for a liver transplant. There are children on the waiting lists, people who work hard.

"And this guy who killed my daughter, who killed the mother of his children, then tried to take his life, gets priority over them? It doesn't seem fair."

Earlier this month, Sarita -- married to Concepcion for 18 years and described by friends and family as a vivacious, devoted mom of three -- was stabbed 15 times in her Needham Avenue home.

Witnesses said they saw Concepcion fleeing the scene on foot.

Police launched a manhunt for him, and two days later, family members and cops said, Concepcion sent a text message in Spanish from Dyckman Pier saying, "To the members of the family, I hope you can forgive me."

He then took rat poison, which destroyed his liver. A witness saw him collapse and called 911.

EMS brought him to the hospital, a police source said. Concepcion was arrested at the hospital and charged with murder and weapons possession, although it was unclear whether that was before or after his transplant.

Not that it would have mattered.

Social factors -- such as wealth, fame, arrest or criminal records -- do not figure into the decision on whether to give someone an organ. That includes someone like Concepcion, who investigators said confessed to killing his wife.

"The system is designed to save as many people as possible," said Anne Paschke, spokeswoman for the United Network of Organ Sharing, which is responsible for organ allocation in the United States.

There are 1,805 people at six different New York hospitals on the state's liver-transplant list. Of those, 309 are at New York-Presbyterian.

In New York, 485 hopefuls have been on the list more than five years.

A representative for New York Presbyterian/Columbia declined comment on Concepcion's case, citing patient privacy.

According to federal guidelines, a person can be placed on a transplant list only by a surgeon from a transplant center.

The hospital's transplant team then does an evaluation, based solely on medical criteria, to determine the patient's "status" or rank on the list.

Doctors do psychological, diagnostic and blood tests to determine list placement.

The most common reason for liver transplants is cirrhosis. Other reasons include hepatitis, some cancers and, as in Concepcion's case, damage from toxic overdoses.

Maria Sarita, Jordania's mother, told The Post that her daughter had been starting a new life without Concepcion after enduring years of his jealousy and abuse.

When Jordania was pregnant with her second child, her mom said, Johnny hit her after seeing her hug an old male friend.

"He would beat her and the next day bring her breakfast in bed and apologize," said Maria, who has temporary custody of the couple's children: two teenage boys and an 11-year-old girl.

"She never called police . . . She was afraid of what he'd do if she told."

In May 2009, Maria said, her daughter, who worked in insurance sales, separated from Concepcion and left home with the kids.

Jordania was in the process of moving back into the house, which Concepcion had vacated, over the Fourth of July weekend when she was killed.

Concepcion was arraigned in his fourth-floor hospital room Thursday. The next day, he was released from New York-Presbyterian and jailed. He is due in Bronx Criminal Court Aug 11.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bronx/thug_op_is_liver_worst_ZgPRPiFeY5mp1qcna0sn8O#ixzz0uo4gNC00

feel awful for the people he "jumped" over on the list - political correctness has destroyed our sense of right and wrong.

[CTM]

feel awful for the people he "jumped" over on the list - political correctness has destroyed our sense of right and wrong.

psychological factors should've ruled him out, someone is an idiot (unless there's more to this but i honestly don't care to read any further)

But i do agree with your main point, those of us with money should get priority over the poor people.

[slats]

But i do agree with your main point, those of us with money should get priority over the poor people.

Should the rich go to the top of the line, or the morally superior?

[Sperm Edwards]

Should the rich go to the top of the line, or the morally superior?

The rich, in order of greatest to lowest wealth. What a silly question. I thought you were smart, dude.

[JohnnyHector]

Should the rich go to the top of the line, or the morally superior?

You say that as if they're mutually exclusive...

[The Crusher]

psychological factors should've ruled him out, someone is an idiot (unless there's more to this but i honestly don't care to read any further)

But i do agree with your main point, those of us with money should get priority over the poor people.

Im an organ donor and Im insisting my liver go's to a wealthy fella. After years of Makers Mark and single malt scotch it would be a shame for it to get used to cheap whiskey.

[jgb]

psychological factors should've ruled him out, someone is an idiot (unless there's more to this but i honestly don't care to read any further)

But i do agree with your main point, those of us with money should get priority over the poor people.

yeah that's my point alright.

seriously though, does anyone agree that a guy who took rat poison to kill himself and ruined his own liver and has admitted murdering his wife should get a transplant at all much less moved up the list?

[JerryK]

seriously though, does anyone agree that a guy who took rat poison to kill himself and ruined his own liver and has admitted murdering his wife should get a transplant at all much less moved up the list?

Nope. Nobody thinks that. Not even the people who moved him up the list.

They moved him up because the criteria is 'nearest to death'. People in that area can take solace in the fact that they won't be judged either.

[dbatesman]

yeah that's my point alright.

seriously though, does anyone agree that a guy who took rat poison to kill himself and ruined his own liver and has admitted murdering his wife should get a transplant at all much less moved up the list?

How do you think all the law-abiding people got on the list? Bad luck?

[jgb]

Nope. Nobody thinks that. Not even the people who moved him up the list.

They moved him up because the criteria is 'nearest to death'. People in that area can take solace in the fact that they won't be judged either.

obviously the point is that the law is moronic and the idiots who follow it blindly have no conscience - no doubt some "activists" complained that it would be wrong to "discriminate" against criminals for transplants. why? they already discriminated against society by their actions - society doesn't owe them ****.

How do you think all the law-abiding people got on the list? Bad luck?

there is a difference between drinking too much booze and taking rat poison for the express purpose of committing suicide after admitting murdering your wife. although your post highlights the moral relativism that proves my point that political correctness has destroyed our sense of right and wrong

[Blackout]

WTF

[Sperm Edwards]

How do you think all the law-abiding people got on the list? Bad luck?

there is a difference between drinking too much booze and taking rat poison for the express purpose of committing suicide after admitting murdering your wife. although your post highlights the moral relativism that proves my point that political correctness has destroyed our sense of right and wrong

I thought it was pretty funny actually. Truth is among the patients in need of a liver transplant, a healthy percentage probably ruined their own livers. This is what he was joking on; it wasn't a serious diatribe on the moral relativism between good and evil in contemporary society.

It's a joke. And in this exchange you're the one who is attacking based on your sense of what you consider to be politically incorrect. The way this reads is this scumbag got a liver transplant over a supposedly-decent person and you're acting like a card-carrying member of the politically correct Thought Police and say thou shalt not make light of it for a cheap laugh.

Maybe you could submit a list of items you deem acceptable and unacceptable to poke fun of and we can deliberate on them. The betterment of civil society might begin here at JetNaton.

[slats]

obviously the point is that the law is moronic and the idiots who follow it blindly have no conscience - no doubt some "activists" complained that it would be wrong to "discriminate" against criminals for transplants. why? they already discriminated against society by their actions - society doesn't owe them ****.

This has nothing to do with political correctness -which you tried to say in your opening post- and everything to do with the Hippocratic Oath. Medical professionals treat the sick. There were no "activists" involved. In the case of transplants, there's a long list of factors that move someone up or down the list.

But Rupert Murdoch published the article to get his loyal idealogues' panties all in a bunch, and he seems to've succeeded.

[Sperm Edwards]

...aaaaaaaaaaaand that's all.