Shortly following the untimely passing of drumming legend Sean Reinert on January 24th, his name is now back in the news and the topic is bullshit. Sean identified himself as an organ donor, but his request was denied due to government guidelines. This from Sean’s husband, Tom Snyder, in a message posted yesterday on Sean Reinert’s official Facebook page.
Tom talks about how he received a phone call shortly after Sean’s passing asking about his organ donor status. When the caller learned that Sean was a “sexually active homosexual male,” Tom was informed that Sean’s organs were unable to be utilized.
“After the first few standard questions she asked if Sean was a sexually active homosexual male,” Snyder remembered. “Without thinking I said ‘yes’ and almost without missing a beat the hospital associate said ‘well, unfortunately, that means…’ and I went numb because I knew what she was about to say. She said a few more words and then I interrupted her, said some words back and hung up the phone.”
The reason for the denial comes from the 2013 guidelines set by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services for organ transplantation. One of the “12 medical or social history criteria” that results in an “increased-risk donor” (IRD) status is listed as “Men who have had sex with men (MSM)” within the 12 months prior to organ recovery.
Tom continued to say, “Sean did not have HIV or any other STDs for that matter. But because he was a gay man living in America in 2020 he was not allowed one of his final wishes of donating his organs to help save another person’s life. The government would rather let people waiting for a transplant die than give them one of Sean’s organs. As his husband, it makes me sick to my stomach and incredibly angry.”
Tom’s official statement:
My husband Sean was an organ donor. He believed that when he passed on if his organs could go to someone in need that it would be a great thing. He was incredibly kind and giving in every way imaginable as many of his closest friends are well aware.
After I got home from the hospital the night Sean passed I received a phone call about 1 in the morning. It was from a person who works with the organ donor program at the hospital where Sean passed. They notified me that Sean was identified as an organ donor in their database and wanted to ask me some questions about him to proceed. I could not deal with the stress of this at the time and asked if I could wait to talk to them the next morning and they said although time was of the essence that would be fine as there’s a 24-hour window to harvest organs.
The next morning when Sean’s sister Patti arrived from Miami I explained the situation to her and we agreed that if Sean wanted his organs donated that we would honor his wishes. I called the organ donation people back and said I was ready to proceed. The lady on the phone said that was great and began the questionnaire. After the first few standard questions, she asked if Sean was a sexually active homosexual male. Without thinking I said “yes” and almost without missing a beat she said “well, unfortunately, that means….” and I went numb because I knew what she was about to say. She said a few more words and then I interrupted her, said some words back and hung up the phone.
Sean did not have HIV, or any other STDs for that matter. But because he was a gay man living in America in 2020 he was not allowed one of his final wishes of donating his organs to help save another person’s life. The government would rather let people waiting for a transplant die than give them one of Sean’s organs. As his husband, it makes me sick to my stomach and incredibly angry.
-Tom
EDIT: Quick comment for those of you looking up organ donation websites and thinking something went wrong here. The specific guidelines are for men who have had male to male sexual contact in the last 12 months. It’s regulated by the FDA and those guidelines are still in place. So while websites may say it’s a ‘myth’ that LGBTQ+ people can’t donate, that is not true of sexually active men. ~ Tom
Statement Update 2/15/2020
Updated statement regarding organ donation. In the days since that post, I’ve been in contact with an organ transplant surgeon from Johns Hopkins who helped write the HOPE act, which Obama signed into law in 2013. We had a lengthy discussion, he’s actually a fan of Sean’s and reached out directly to the CEO of the organ donation company I spoke to the night of and the morning after Sean’s passing. From the time Sean had passed to the time he arrived at the hospital was too long for him, or any other person to have donated any organs regardless of sexual orientation or male to male contact.
What it turns out they were actually trying to do, although it was never explained to me until a couple of days ago. Was to screen him for a tissue donation. Tissue can be taken up to about 24 hours after a person has passed. Tissue includes things like skin, heart valves, ligaments, bones, veins, corneas, etc.
Different government entities control who can or cannot donate Organs, Tissue or Blood. Organs are regulated by the PHS (public health service) There is a large shortage of organs and the PHS has made the rules for organ donation much more lenient in the past years to include people from the LGBTQ+ community. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) regulates Tissue donation. Unlike organs, there is not a huge shortage of tissue so the rules are more strict and in my opinion, archaic and bigoted. As stated in my previous post, Sean did not have HIV or any other STD’s for that matter and the only reason he could not donate tissue was due to having male to male sexual contact in the last 12 months.
I hope this clears things up for people and we can put the issue to bed.
-Tom
Leave a Reply