RantCrush Top 5: April 25, 2017

A 20-year-old man who was initially denied a lung transplant that could have saved his life passed away over the weekend. Riley Hancey suffered from pneumonia that turned into an unusual lung infection. When he was admitted to the University of Utah Hospital in December traces of marijuana were found in his system and the hospital denied him a lung transplant. According to his dad, Mark Hancey, Riley had smoked weed with friends on Thanksgiving after being drug-free for a year. And the hospital said it doesn’t grant transplants to anyone who has “active alcohol, tobacco, or illicit drug use or dependencies.” So the family went 2,000 miles away to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he received a double lung transplant. But it was too late, and now a lot of people are outraged that using marijuana recreationally could allow hospitals to deny you life-saving care.

Sad news: Riley Hancey, the young man in my @BuzzFeedNews feature on transplant policies and cannabis use, has died. https://t.co/Unr5IqvXiF

— Alyson Martin (@alysonrmartin) April 24, 2017

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.