Anthony Stokes

Anthony Stokes, a previously healthy 15-year old boy, was denied a heart transplant by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston in 2013 causing a great deal of discussion and controversy. According to the hospital, they follow a strict set of guidelines in order to decide who in their care receives a transplant of any sort and Stokes did not fit those guidelines due to his history of noncompliance, although they did not specify further on their guidelines it seemed their main concern was that Stokes would not be through in taking his medicine, which he would have to to for the rest of his life in order for his body to not reject his heart, and go to his follow up appointments to ensure everything went and is going well in his body. However, according to Stokes’ mother her son was judged on “tattoos and an ankle bracelet” making it a case of prejudice instead of simply a sad outcome which any other patient could have also received. The story took to the internet, where we know a variety of uneducated and easily persuaded people often spend their time, and people were incredibly upset. The anger from the people was seemingly only because a young boy was being denied a heart, but there is more to it and we can’t deny it, and part of that would be race. At the top of each article written about Stokes and his a family a photo or video was placed, often involving Anthony, who is black, sitting in his hospital bed of course with a sad look on his face. What we don’t see are the many images of Antony which he puts online himself of …show more content…
Of course, there should be a universal system in place by which the most urgent patients receive hearts first as well as the patient who is most likely to recover with the transplanted