[lettie]

Originally Posted by Doug

This might be an ideal time for one of the members form the Nursing Profession to intercede and prevent this emotive thread from being trashed like so many others. From my perspective:

Dear oh dear........ Sorry Doug but seeing as you asked for an opinion from a nursing professional, here's mine....

Firstly I would like to say that my sympathies go out to the family of George Best, who without a doubt must have suffered intensely watching their loved one drink himself to death. Sympathies also to his many friends and collegues who must have been so sad to watch a great footballing talent wasted.

Alcoholism is an illness but only relatively recently classed as one. It is more of a social illness really but an addiction none the less. It is no different than any other addiction so smoking and drug addiction are exactly the same but alcoholism often gets the most sympathy and is more socially acceptable these days.

A real disease is paedophilia, but I don't see anybody sympathising with Gary Glitter..... probably because paedos are seen to be hurting people, but alcoholics also hurt other people, as I'm sure that the husbands, wives, children and parents of an alcoholic will vouch.

Transplants are given to the best match and can be difficult to find if you are a rare blood group, was he a rare blood group? Many of my colleagues (including those with experience in the transplant units) agree that he should never have received that liver and that a more deserving candidate for transplant could have been found. It is a good job that relatives of organ donors don't get to know who receives the organs, because I bet the family of the donor would be gutted at the waste of a second chance. A colleague of mine claimed that the organ donation rate fell quite dramatically when they transplanted George Best (how true this is, I wouldn't like to say), but she worked in a transplant unit, so there you go... The question I would ask is would a surgeon transplant a liver to your everyday, run of the mill, street wino? The answer I feel would be no.... A very good friend of mine drank herself to death nearly a year ago, transplant was not an option....

Despite the transplant issues (and like it or not, there are issues). I think that Besty should be remembered and celebrated as a talent, a celebrity and from reports from people who met him, a genuinely nice fella....

Did you know that the old fella who played Mr Myagi in the film Karate Kid also died yesterday???? Aaaaah, Daniel San..........