High school sophomore Eliot Abramson was struck in the back of the neck by a ball while playing lacrosse on June 1, 2026. A firefighter at the scene kept his heart beating until he could be taken to a hospital.
From the statements in the media reports, it appears that this unfortunate young man went on to become an organ donor under the controlled donation after circulatory death (DCD) protocol.
If this was the case, here’s how the DCD protocol works:
1. He signed up at the DMV with absolutely no informed consent process to become an organ donor.
2. He sustained a critical injury.
3. His heart was beating, and he apparently did not meet criteria for brain death. But his prognosis for recovery was poor.
4. His family decided to withdraw his medical support. But because he had registered as an organ donor, his support was mandated to be removed in such a way as to allow organ procurement.
5. He was given a do not resuscitate (DNR) order, because while he could have been resuscitated, a decision had been made not to do so.
6. His ventilator was withdrawn, and the stopwatches started ticking: hypoxia is very detrimental to organ viability. He needed to become pulseless fairly quickly so his organs would be viable for donation.
7. Once pulselessness was achieved, doctors observe a 2-5 minute stand-off period to be sure there is no spontaneous return of circulation before beginning organ procurement as quickly as possible.
The problem with the DCD protocol is that people are routinely able to be resuscitated after just 2-5 minutes of pulselessness, and if you could still be resuscitated, you are not dead.
This is why there have been cases of DCD donors who have resumed heartbeat and breathing during the removal of their organs.
The New York Times reported on multiple instances of problems with recovery during the DCD process in an article last year.
A 2-5 minute stand-off period is far too short to be sure death has occurred because people have been documented to have auto-resuscitated and made a full recovery after 10 minutes of pulselessness.
But waiting for more than 10 minutes is too hard on organ viability.
The DCD protocol is a concealed form of physician-assisted death for the sake of viable organs.