Kin speak out on organ-harvest suit

New York Post |  FRANK ROSARIO and LORENA MONGELLI
Photo James Messerschmidt. TRAGIC: Charles Cheng yesterday holds a photo of son Clifford, who was named in a lawsuit as a hospital patient taken off life support too soon.

Relatives of two organ donors who were taken off life support at city hospitals said yesterday they believe their loved ones could not have been saved â€" and they were happy to help others live.

The families of Clifford Cheng and Carolyn Kelly insist they were not pressured by the New York Organ Donor Network to pull the plug, although their cases were cited in a lawsuit filed against the group.

“There was no sign that he was alive. He was completely brain-dead,” said Norman Cheng, whose brother died at Kings County Hospital in October after suffering a seizure and choking on his own vomit. “Since he lost his life, why not save someone else’s life?”

The lawsuit â€" filed by former network transplant coordinator Patrick McMahon â€" charged that the network pressured doctors to declare patients brain-dead so their organs could be transplanted.

McMahon, 50, also claimed network staffers were trained by marketing gurus how to pressure grieving families to sign consent forms to allow the body parts to be harvested.

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