# Organ donation.



## cc84 (Aug 6, 2010)

I was just wondering what people's thoughts were on this. I don't know how it works elsewhere, but here in the UK you can join a register to become an organ donor in the event of your death. It's something i've considered for a while. I keep visiting the website to sign up but then i end up not doing it. I know it's a good thing but i think it's just the thought of dying and my organs been in somebody else's body that i find strange. Although i realise they are no good to me when i'm dead. 

If anyone here is a donor or recieved an organ before i'd like to know your thoughts on it


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## Daniel Arenson (Apr 11, 2010)

Never got em, never gave em, but I'm registered as a donor.  I reckon I won't need the stuff when I'm dead, so might as well let somebody else enjoy them.


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## Stephen_Melling (Jun 26, 2011)

I'm keeping hold of my organs just in case...actually I'm a donor.


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## dpinmd (Dec 30, 2009)

In Maryland, you can register as an organ donor, and there's a notation made on your driver's license.  I've been a registered donor ever since they offered this option.  As has already been said, I won't need them when I'm dead.  Plus I actually think there's something nice about the thought that a part of me will "live on" and help someone else.


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## Linjeakel (Mar 17, 2010)

I'm not officially registered, but I do carry a donor card. I suppose I should make it official, but frankly, the older I get, the less I think any of my bits will be of any use!


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## SOHKat7 (Jul 11, 2011)

As far as I understand it, here in the US, even if you are a registered donor and its listed on your ID/License, your next of kin is the one to make the final say in the matter. So if you die in a horrible accident, they don't want to give your organs they won't. Of course if there was no next of kin or they couldn't find any, but they had your ID saying you were a donor they'd take the organs. 

I'm actually facing the possibility of maybe having to be a living donor for part of my liver. My sister has been sick with liver failure the last month or so. They aren't talking transplant yet, but my family will all be tested eventually just in case we have to give her part of it.


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## ◄ Jess ► (Apr 21, 2010)

I've told my family to donate my organs if I die, so hopefully I can be of some use, even if I'm dead. 

I met a guy once, who received a heart (I think?) from a girl who died. In honor of her, he does a fund-raising marathon every year with her friends. It was a really neat story.


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## Coral Moore (Nov 29, 2009)

I used to be very pro organ donation but as I started to find out more about certain situations I grew a bit more cautious. The thing is, you don't actually have to be dead before they start promising your organs to people and that scares me a little. In fact, in an ideal situation they don't want you to be dead when you hit their door. It just creeps me out a little that they are going to start pulling things out when I'm not really dead.


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

SOHKat7 said:


> As far as I understand it, here in the US, even if you are a registered donor and its listed on your ID/License, your next of kin is the one to make the final say in the matter. ...


I am registered as an organ donor and so is DH. I also donate blood to the Red Cross as often as they will let me.


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## Vegas_Asian (Nov 2, 2008)

Everyone in my family are organ donors. 

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk


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## Lisa Scott (Apr 4, 2011)

I have a few relatives who are actually donating their bodies to science when they die.  (for medical students etc.)  Not sure I could do that.


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## scl (Feb 19, 2011)

I'm registered with it on my driver's license I think, but it's up to your next of kin.  There is apparently a real shortage of corneas to transplant now since if you've had lasik surgery to correct your vision they aren't usable.  I know of a case where a man died in a plane crash and his wife found out he was dead when they contacted he to get permission to use his eyes for cornea transplants.  I always thought that was a really lousy way to find out your  loved one was dead.


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## Daniel Arenson (Apr 11, 2010)

Lisa Scott said:


> I have a few relatives who are actually donating their bodies to science when they die. (for medical students etc.) Not sure I could do that.


"With the shape I'm in, you could donate my body to science fiction." -- Rodney Dangerfield


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## _Sheila_ (Jan 4, 2011)

I am registered as an organ donor, my family knows my wishes, and I am also signed up to donate while still alive if the opportunity presents itself (marrow, blood, etc)

My nephew was fine one day, 12 hours later they had him in a helicopter being life flighted to a transplant facility, after the surgery they told my sister he was within an hour or two of death.

His liver transplant behind him, he is a happy and healthy kid.

Sheila


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## anne_holly (Jun 5, 2011)

Since becoming a parent, I have come to feel reluctance to donate anything that I can only donate once while I am still alive, in case my son ever needs anything. I know that sounds really selfish, but the "what if" factor bothers me. 

However, once I am dead, have at it. I currently have my corneas bequeathed to a friend in my will, should I die before she gets her transplant. Other than that, they are all fair game. 

I like the idea of donating my body to science, but my vanity precludes me allowing my whole body to lie around getting yukked at by med students. So, I might want my skeleton to go to a forensic anthropology lab, where the flab is no longer around to be seen. I studied in a foranth lab long ago, and I know the poorer schools can have major trouble getting skeletons these days.


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## Carrien (Jan 30, 2011)

I have been listed on drivers licenses since my first one as a organ donor and felt strongly about giving back.

  When one thinks about donation we think heart, lungs, liver etc but 4 yes ago I found myself on the list awaiting an ankle transplant!  Months on the list and then surgery.....scary...... But today I walk without pain and my ankle moves with a smoothness that I never recall.....there are no words to describe the graditude I have for my donor and the family who so generously gave me the gift of walking.

This reinforced my belief in donation and my desire to give back so I registered with bone marrow to be a donor.  Just in January this year they released my name into their System as a potential  donor.   (I had to wait 3 yr to insure the transplant I had was ok to become a donor myself). If that call ever comes in I will be happy to proceed to pay it forward for the amazing gift I received.


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## Bob Mayer (Feb 20, 2011)

It might be controversial, but I kind of feel that one shouldn't receive an organ unless they are listed as a donor.  Just seems to make sense to me.


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## Tippy (Dec 8, 2008)

I have a corneal disease called Fuchs Dystrophy.  It is not particularly uncommon, but the end result is blindness UNLESS you are given a cornea transplant.  

I have had cornea transplant in both eyes and am so incredibly grateful for the gift of sight my donors shared with me.  As a result I registered to be an organ donor.

Here is an aside about corneal transplants.  It is the oldest transplant, the earliest being performed in the late 1800s.  At that time you had to lay flat on your back for weeks before you could get up and move around.  

My first corneal transplant was about 10 years ago, involving stitching the new cornea in.  Weird. The surgery was less than an hour and I wasn't completely out, but pretty darned relaxed thanks to a wonderful drug called Versed.  The transplant on the other eye was even more simple.  It was not complete transplant, rather they simply removed the diseased portion of my cornea, replacing it with donor tissue.  No stitches, somehow it was held in place with a puff of air.

My eyesight was not perfect afterwards and is still not perfect, although my eyesight is still improving.  While going through the process of diagnosis and treatment, I found it extremely difficult to read.  I was so glad when the Kindle came out.  It made a world of difference to me.


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## Tara Maya (Nov 4, 2010)

Studies have shown that where agreement to donate organs is opt in (you have to sign up) only three percent of the population agrees to it. Where agreement to donate organs opt out (you have check a box saying you *don't* want your organs donated after death)  then 97% of the population agrees to donate.

In other words, for 97% of the population (either way), the decision to save another person's life is based on pure laziness.


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## Val2 (Mar 9, 2011)

My parents just recently informed me that they were giving their bodies to research when they die and what did I think of that? I said that if they were happy with the decision then so was I. Their thoughts are that there will be no funeral, just a service. I don't know that I would go that way, I don't have a donar card as I sometimes wonder if you might be left to die because someone younger could use a piece of you.


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## Lisa Scott (Apr 4, 2011)

anne_holly said:


> Since becoming a parent, I have come to feel reluctance to donate anything that I can only donate once while I am still alive, in case my son ever needs anything. I know that sounds really selfish, but the "what if" factor bothers me.
> 
> However, once I am dead, have at it. I currently have my corneas bequeathed to a friend in my will, should I die before she gets her transplant. Other than that, they are all fair game.
> 
> I like the idea of donating my body to science, but my vanity precludes me allowing my whole body to lie around getting yukked at by med students. So, I might want my skeleton to go to a forensic anthropology lab, where the flab is no longer around to be seen. I studied in a foranth lab long ago, and I know the poorer schools can have major trouble getting skeletons these days.


That makes total sense about your kids. And the yukking it up part, I think doesn't happen. I hope. My brother is a doctor and told me when he was in Med school, they were told they had to be respectful and appropriate when dealing with the bodies. The day they rolled those out, would be the day I dropped out of med school.


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## swolf (Jun 21, 2010)

Coral said:


> I used to be very pro organ donation but as I started to find out more about certain situations I grew a bit more cautious. The thing is, you don't actually have to be dead before they start promising your organs to people and that scares me a little. In fact, in an ideal situation they don't want you to be dead when you hit their door. It just creeps me out a little that they are going to start pulling things out when I'm not really dead.


I think about this sometimes. If they see you're an organ donor, and you're close to death, are they really going to go that extra mile to try to save you, or do they figure, "why try to save him when his death will benefit others?"

Probably just my overactive imagination.


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## Val2 (Mar 9, 2011)

swolf said:


> I think about this sometimes. If they see you're an organ donor, and you're close to death, are they really going to go that extra mile to try to save you, or do they figure, "why try to save him when his death will benefit others?"
> 
> Probably just my overactive imagination.


I so agree with you about this one. That's why I am not a donor.


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## momilp (Jan 11, 2010)

Organ donor, here. My husband knows it, and it is specified on my driver licence.


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## Tippy (Dec 8, 2008)

If one is that close to death. . .how much more can doctors do?  I have gone through this with my parents and a friend.  There comes a point where the most the medical profession can do is keep you comfortable.  Perhaps at that point it is best to gather your courage and faith, acknowledge death and life after death.  Another reason why I am an organ donor.


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## Vet (Apr 25, 2010)

My husband received a kidney from a close friend. We are forever gratefule!


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## Alle Meine Entchen (Dec 6, 2009)

I am an organ donor and have told DH that I want to donate my organs.  That being said, I have an aunt who has 3 kidneys (yes, that's 1 extra) and a brother who had to have a kidney removed when he was 10 months old (an artery had wrapped around it when he was in utero so it was the size of the 1st joint of your pinky finger).  My aunt has always said she's saving her extra kidney for my bro.  I also have an aunt who is on the kidney transplant list (diabetes).  I just realized that's a lot of kidney stuff in one family.  I would have myself tested to help out my aunt who needs one, but I figure I won't even qualify since I'm preggers.  

As for bone marrow, my mom was on the list, had a match, but for some reason was never needed (I don't know if he went into remission or passed away).  She knew that it would be a painful surgery (@ the time they would have to remove the marrow from her hip bone), but she also knew it would be a chance to help someone in a way that only she could do.


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

scl said:


> I'm registered with it on my driver's license I think, but it's up to your next of kin. There is apparently a real shortage of corneas to transplant now since if you've had lasik surgery to correct your vision they aren't usable. I know of a case where a man died in a plane crash and his wife found out he was dead when they contacted he to get permission to use his eyes for cornea transplants. I always thought that was a really lousy way to find out your loved one was dead.


One more reason why I should not have lasik surgery.  (The main reasons are: I am nearsighted and like being able to see close up when I take my glasses off. I did not want to risk seeing halos around stars at night. I love how lights look like fuzzy balls when I take my glasses off. )


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## Coral Moore (Nov 29, 2009)

swolf said:


> I think about this sometimes. If they see you're an organ donor, and you're close to death, are they really going to go that extra mile to try to save you, or do they figure, "why try to save him when his death will benefit others?"
> 
> Probably just my overactive imagination.


I'm sure that's what it is in my case too, but I can't get over the feeling of wrongness about it. If there is a chance that if they did just one more thing you might survive but it might damage the organs, how is that decision made?


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## julieannfelicity (Jun 28, 2010)

I am a donor and have a little heart on my license to show that. 

Ideally the hospitals want fresh organs, but they won't start pulling things out of your body while you're still breathing. They DO have to get the stuff out before the blood and oxygen drains from them though, otherwise the organ would be no good (or so my adopted mother told me and she's a nurse so I kind of believe her). They will attempt to resuscitate you three times and if they fail, they will then remove organs with the individual's family consent (or donor confirmation).

My adopted father died when I was 17, of a heart attack. They tried to resuscitate him in the ambulance (I'm the one that found him unconscious on the floor), but were unable to. Within three hours of his noted death (no pulse), his organs were donated to 10 people. A 5 or 6 year old boy can now see because of my father's corneas. A woman received my father's lung (following cancer in her own). Another gentleman received my father's kidney (only one that I'm aware of). And a little girl received non-damaged heart tissue used to save her life.

Because of my father's death, 10 people lived! He was type 'O' blood, which is universal and was VITAL for those people to live. At his wake (he was atheist and refused a funeral), we received flowers on behalf of the little girl's family, and within a few months my mother received several thank you cards and notes, thanking her for donating my father's organs so that they could live. *happy tears at the memory*


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## *DrDLN* (dr.s.dhillon) (Jan 19, 2011)

cc84 said:


> It's something i've considered for a while. I keep visiting the website to sign up but then i end up not doing it. I know it's a good thing but i think it's just the thought of dying and my organs been in somebody else's body that i find strange. Although i realise they are no good to me when i'm dead.


It's a good thing to do. Imagine if some one can have eye sight because of your donation. I am seriously considering but have not done it yet. Some cultures believe in reincarnation and it's impossible for them to leave this world with a missing organ. It's tougher decision than we think.


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## caseyf6 (Mar 28, 2010)

I'm an organ donor.  Honestly, there was no question for me.  Once I'm gone, I won't need any of that and the recipients desperately will.  Hubby knows, parents know, and it's in my living will.

BTW, willing ANYTHING is not going to help when it's something time-sensitive.  Wills take too long.  You'll want a living will or some sort of document like that, specifying all the information.


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

dpinmd said:


> In Maryland, you can register as an organ donor, and there's a notation made on your driver's license.


It works the same way here in Oklahoma. All you have to do is tell them when you get your driver's license you want to be an organ donor and it'll show that on your license.


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## _Sheila_ (Jan 4, 2011)

I guess when I was much younger, I worried about the 'what if they take the parts too soon' fantasy.

I'm older now, my kids are grown, and I have no fantasy that my body is in good enough shape to bounce back from something so extreme that they would be considering harvesting my organs.  If I survived, I would have no quality of life.  I'd rather not live that way.

I am blessed to be in very good health, I don't plan on kicking the bucket any time soon, and hope that I live long enough that what is left (body parts) has been used and abused to the point it can't really help (I don't drink, smoke or do drugs, so the abuse will come from good old fashioned living) -- but if I'm dead, or close to it, and I can help someone else have the blessed life I've had.... I'm all for it.

Sheila


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## Christopher Bunn (Oct 26, 2010)

I'm an organ donor, as mine would totally not fit in my coffin. I'm also going to donate my piano, but not my guitars, as both my kids seem to be turning into little Nuno Bettencourts.


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## Brem (Jun 29, 2011)

I've been meaning to register myself. All I need to do is check mark my ID for me to be a registered organ donor. I should probably get on to that. 

Anyways I think everyone should do it. Your organs can save people.


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## SOHKat7 (Jul 11, 2011)

I think I would be okay with donating SOME parts, but not all. I mean its creepy to think I'd be a shell of a person with no eyes or organs or skin...


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## cc84 (Aug 6, 2010)

Thanks for all the replies guys, i wasn't expecting it. 

With regards to the last comment, yes i can agree. I picture myself there on the table, with no organs and it's weird! But then i'm probably gonna get cremated anyway (i don't want to be buried with the bugs!) so all my organs will be burnt to ashes so you know, why bother when they could help someone. Or 10 people like Julieann's father! That's amazing  

I think i started thinking about it when i had to recieve a blood transfusion (my recent one been only last week). Someone donates that blood to help us who need it. I have told my parents anyway that i want to donate organs when i die. So i just have to get my donor card now. I think when you register you can pick which organs to donate. I'm a bit weird about eyes, so the thought of them been cut and stuff makes me queasy, but i have to keep reminding myself i'll be dead so it won't matter. 

Edited to say that i took the plunge and registered. It says you can remove yourself at any point if you change your mind. So at least that's there, but i'm hoping i wont change my mind


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## SOHKat7 (Jul 11, 2011)

cc84 said:


> Thanks for all the replies guys, i wasn't expecting it.
> 
> With regards to the last comment, yes i can agree. I picture myself there on the table, with no organs and it's weird! But then i'm probably gonna get cremated anyway (i don't want to be buried with the bugs!) so all my organs will be burnt to ashes so you know, why bother when they could help someone. Or 10 people like Julieann's father! That's amazing
> 
> ...


I feel exactly the same way about being cremated. I might change my mind when I'm older about donating. Who knows. I think its awesome and amazing that so many do donate.


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## lazyjayn (May 18, 2011)

swolf said:


> I think about this sometimes. If they see you're an organ donor, and you're close to death, are they really going to go that extra mile to try to save you, or do they figure, "why try to save him when his death will benefit others?"
> 
> Probably just my overactive imagination.


I actually have an uncle who's an ER doc, who says not to sign up as a donor for that very reason. They're hesitant to use treatments that *might* save a donor at the cost of organs.

Now live donation? I'd be all for it, but between living outside the States for a number of years, malaria, and who knows what else I'm not eligible. Oops.


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## AnnetteL (Jul 14, 2010)

Definitely a donor. My nephew was one of the first few hundred ever to receive an infant liver transplant (late 80s). Back then, the doctors had no idea what to expect as a prognosis. It was "well, you tell us." Most of the babies who received transplants from that period didn't make it. He did.

He was diagnosed at just a few months of age with a rare disease. Doctors kept him alive with various surgeries and hospitalizations until he was old enough to maybe, just maybe, handle a transplant. He received his liver within days of his first birthday in 1989. More than 20 years later, he's finishing up college and is one of the most inspiring young men you'll ever meet. And he absolutely wouldn't be alive w/out organ donation.

When I took my son to get his learner's permit, he almost checked "no" in the organ donor box because he didn't really get it. I realized then I hadn't explained his cousin's history to him. I told him in no uncertain terms that he WAS going to check YES, and that I'd explain when we got home. 

When he realized what organ donation meant to him personally--without it, he wouldn't have his oldest cousin at all--his eyes went wide, and he was all for it.

We'll be forever grateful for the family who lost a baby more than 20 years ago and who allowed my nephew a chance to live by donating their baby's organs.

I'm a donor. Definitely.


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## Dawn McCullough White (Feb 24, 2010)

I'm a registered donor.  I like to think my eventual death might give someone else a chance at life.

Dawn


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## Tam (Jan 7, 2010)

I am registered for organ donation, and on the national Bone Marrow Registry as well.  I was blessed to be a match for a man with a blood cell disorder, and donated stem cells in March. It was a virtually painless procedure and caused me absolutely no problems. 

It is easy to register - just go to www.bethematch.org


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## mom2karen (Aug 15, 2009)

I'm signed up to be a donor and am on the bone marrow registry.  My dad got a heart transplant over 10 years ago and if my dead body can help someone else, it will.


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## cc84 (Aug 6, 2010)

It has been suggested to me that i could sign up for the bone marrow register, but the problem with that is i'm a huge wimp and i'd rather be dead when they take stuff. But it is amazing that you live donors are out there. I wish i wasn't a wimp lol. 

Also, AnnetteL, that's a great story, i'm glad your nephew has grown into a fine young man. It's stuff like this that makes me realise it's a great thing to do.

On the UK register website there was info from a doctor who stated that they do absolutely everything they can to save someone before they finally declare death and take the organs so i'm just gonna believe that and hope he's telling the truth.


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## anne_holly (Jun 5, 2011)

Lisa Scott said:


> That makes total sense about your kids. And the yukking it up part, I think doesn't happen. I hope. My brother is a doctor and told me when he was in Med school, they were told they had to be respectful and appropriate when dealing with the bodies. The day they rolled those out, would be the day I dropped out of med school.


I've had friends in med school who tell a very different story. 

In any case, even I feel resentful of having to see myself naked, so I think I'll leave that slab for a more beautiful corpse.


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## Tam (Jan 7, 2010)

My daughter had to do some cadaver studies while in school for occupational therapy - not like a med student by any means. They were lectured prior to seeing the cadavers on proper respectful behavior and no joking around was tolerated.


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## nomesque (Apr 12, 2010)

I've seen the dedication of medical personnel up close. I would've died as a baby without major and (for the time) radical heart surgery. Every time I have surgery, I get blood from donors which, because of my heart condition, I can never - well, medical advances notwithstanding - donate back. While I owe my single existing 'foreign part' to a cow, not a person (preserved heart valve), I still owe my life to the dedication of medical personnel. I'm willing to trust that they might kill me with a stupid mistake or out of over-tiredness, but that they wouldn't hesitate to save my life again in any situation where I'd want them to try. Yes, I'm registered as an organ donor, and I've made my preference very clear to hubby.


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## B. Justin Shier (Apr 1, 2011)

swolf said:


> I think about this sometimes. If they see you're an organ donor, and you're close to death, are they really going to go that extra mile to try to save you, or do they figure, "why try to save him when his death will benefit others?"
> 
> Probably just my overactive imagination.


Do we go the extra mile? Heck yes. And we kick trash cans and scream at God when we fail. I've watched over 40 units dumped into a "hopeless" case. The OR was literally awash with blood, but the surgeons were still fighting to save that guy. They acted all gruff during the dying process, but I caught one crying in the stairwell at the end of it.

The circumstances required to save organs are so rare that of the 2.5 million deaths in America each year, only 10,000 to 12,000 people, less than half a percent, are able to become donors. In your standard medium sized city, there are usually only 50 to 60 deaths per year in which solid organs can be saved. For tissues, the number is between 200 and 300. And the process is not a hasty one conducted in secret. The donor must be declared brain dead by a medical team distinct from the transplant team. The family must be brought in. Consent must be acquired. A single relative's objection will usually "doom" the organs. It often doesn't even matter if the designated power of attorney authorizes it. We're not running some little shop of horrors...unless you consider the three foot stack of papers that needs to be filled out terrifying.

I'd carefully weigh your fears that doctors are trying to murder you against the sixteen year old child your heart could send to college. They might get to experience the act of running for the very first time. They might discover the cure for the cancer that eventually plans to kill your own kinsman. Or they might 



.

Aside from child birth, organ donation is the only time you'll ever be able to breath life into this world. If I was a religious person, I'd call the decision Christ-like. The process seems pretty tightly aligned with his mission.

B.


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## anne_holly (Jun 5, 2011)

B. Justin Shier said:


> Aside from child birth, organ donation is the only time you'll ever be able to breath life into this world. If I was a religious person, I'd call the decision Christ-like. The process seems pretty tightly aligned with his mission.
> 
> B.


Have you seen the movie _Jesus of Montreal_? (Sorry, OT, but that's one of the motifs there.)


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## B. Justin Shier (Apr 1, 2011)

anne_holly said:


> Have you seen the movie _Jesus of Montreal_? (Sorry, OT, but that's one of the motifs there.)


Never have. I'll add it to the queue, though.


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## swolf (Jun 21, 2010)

B. Justin Shier said:


> I'd carefully weigh your fears that doctors are trying to murder you...


Never made that claim. Perhaps you should read what you're responding to.


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## nomesque (Apr 12, 2010)

swolf said:


> Never made that claim. Perhaps you should read what you're responding to.


Isn't deliberate failure of duty-of-care considered murder in some jurisdictions?


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## swolf (Jun 21, 2010)

nomesque said:


> Isn't deliberate failure of duty-of-care considered murder in some jurisdictions?


The statement by the poster was an attempt to hyperbolize what I said, which, I assume, was an admittance that his own argument was weak, and needed the help.


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## nomesque (Apr 12, 2010)

swolf said:


> The statement by the poster was an attempt to hyperbolize what I said, which, I assume, was an admittance that his own argument was weak, and needed the help.


'Was an attempt to hyperbolize'? Really? We're mind-reading now?


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## swolf (Jun 21, 2010)

nomesque said:


> 'Was an attempt to hyperbolize'? Really? We're mind-reading now?


What I said:



swolf said:


> I think about this sometimes. If they see you're an organ donor, and you're close to death, are they really going to go that extra mile to try to save you, or do they figure, "why try to save him when his death will benefit others?"
> 
> Probably just my overactive imagination.


His interpretation of what I said:



B. Justin Shier said:


> I'd carefully weigh your fears that doctors are trying to murder you...


Definition of hyperbole:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hyperbole



> obvious and intentional exaggeration.


It's not a case of mind reading. It's a statement of fact. I wasn't discussing murder, and he exaggerated to make it seem like I had.


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## nomesque (Apr 12, 2010)

swolf said:


> It's not a case of mind reading. It's a statement of fact. I wasn't discussing murder, and he exaggerated to make it seem like I had.


No, you've interpreted his comments as having a specific motivation, and that's opinion, not fact.

Can we get the discussion back on topic now?


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## swolf (Jun 21, 2010)

nomesque said:


> No, you've interpreted his comments as having a specific motivation, and that's opinion, not fact.


Here is what I said:



swolf said:


> The statement by the poster was an attempt to hyperbolize what I said, which, I assume, was an admittance that his own argument was weak, and needed the help.


The fact that he was hyperbolizing isn't an opinion. It's a fact. I wasn't discussing murder and he exaggerated to claim I had.

Now, the second half of my statement discusses his motivation for hyperbolizing, and I specifically prefaced that with "I assume", letting everyone know it was an assumption on my part.

Like him, you need to read what I write before responding to it.



nomesque said:


> Can we get the discussion back on topic now?


Anytime you want.


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## AnnetteL (Jul 14, 2010)

B. Justin, Thanks for sharing your experiences on the other side of the fence.

Couldn't agree more.


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## Zarcero (May 14, 2011)

Not a donor and won't be unless I can sell the organs and have the proceeds go to my heirs.  You see as the system is set up right now everybody benefits but the dead dude's family.  The recipient gets to live via the transplanted organ, the hospital gets rich, the doctor gets richer, and in many cases the dead dude's family gets the deceased's hospital bill.  In fact there is a whole industry making a profit out what someone is giving away for free.  Go figure.  If they want the organ for free, then they can do the operation for free, and those employed in this vulture industry can do their work for free.


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## tsilver (Aug 9, 2010)

Hmmmm  That's something to think about


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## nomesque (Apr 12, 2010)

Regarding compensation for organ donations - I'm fairly sure that the barrier to this in most western countries is actually laws against the sale of human organs. Historically, the lack of such a law seems to have led to a number of dodgy situations.

Hmmm... Zarcero, are you saying that in the US, the deceased's family would be charged for the organ-removal operation? Seriously?


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## jason10mm (Apr 7, 2009)

Dang swolf, time for a chill pill!

I agree with Shier though, in all the operations and organ harvesting procedures I've been involved in, not once has the donor status of the patient EVER been called into question while there was any hope for recovery. The "we'll keep them alive" for donation is only in the cases of brain injury or the like where the family has already decided to "pull the plug" and end life support, so ONLY AT THAT TIME does organ donation go into effect to try to find a donor. Extending the organic tissue oxygen system just makes sense to the donated organs will be the best match. Most folks needing radical life saving operations are already way too sick to ever be a practical donation candidate.

In probably every hospital outside of organ transplant major medical centers the transplant guys are in no way connected to the docs doing the life saving surgeries on the donor. Keeping the system compensation free is what makes it work. If you wife was told she would get 150K for your heart, how would that affect her decison making process for you? Would she neglect to mention that you are Hep B positive (which MIGHT slip by on testing) or some other disqualifier? Would she be less likely to agree to a radical surgery that might save you but ruin the heart for donation? This is the same rationale behind not paying for blood donation, incentivizing it means folks will not be honest in the questioning.

Sure, someone out there is making money, but someone out there is also ALIVE. 

Anyway, if you don't agree with organ donation, don't be one and tell your next of kin you don't want it. Easy as that. And not to worry, someone else will still donate their organs to you.


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## swolf (Jun 21, 2010)

jason10mm said:


> Dang swolf, time for a chill pill!


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## Annalog (Dec 28, 2008)

swolf said:


>


I suspect that there has been some confusion between your earlier post and the recent post by Zarcero.

I also suspect that Zarcero has confused hospital bills for life saving efforts with those for organ donations. My understanding is that the donor family does not get the bills for the organ donation activities but would get the bills for the life saving efforts.


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