Category: Let's talk
if you were killed tomorrow, and it was possible, an organ donation co-ordinator would approach your family and ask whether your organs could be donated to help save lives. Is there any reason why they couldn't donate your organs?
Someone I know from another site, sarah, will be on the news today talking about organ donation. Her husband Peter is currently connected to a mechanical device which keeps him alive. He needs a new heart, and time is running out. In three weeks his vad (ventricular assistance device) will have reached the end of its life, and Peter is so weak now that replacing the machine is no longer an option. His only chance is a new heart. And yet there is a huge shortage of doner organs.
If he doesn't get a new heart in three weeks, he will die. He has three daughters,7, 5, and 2.
Obviously none of us wants to die, but we all will one day.
would you give your organs?
I don't understand why people wouldn't give their organs. Regardless of religious disposition I think we all agree the body itself is useless to us once we're dead. If I can help someone else out by donating my organs, all the better.
I think there is just a lack of general awareness of organ donation, what needs to be done to get on a donor list etc. I almost think it shuld be something people who go for medical checks or some standard health related check should be presented with and even mark down their names then and there or at least persuaded to give it a second thought.
Even if I now say I want to donate my organs I have no idea what procedure is involved, what I have to do now etc. I mean I don't think medical staff can approach the family of any diseased person and ask if his/her organs can be used, although I may be wrong.
In this country you can register on the organ doner register, or you can carry a card. however even if you are on the register, should you be in a position where your organs are viable for donation, your family will still be approached, and they can still refuse to donate your organs, even if you have made that wish clear by registering/carrying a card.
But obviously it would make it easier for some families to decide if they were made aware that their loved one had gone to the effort of putting their name on the register - it must be a very difficult diecision to have to make with little time.
Donating mine or my children's organs if you have absolutely no more need of them if me or one of my children were to die, would be one of the first things on my family's list, even before the funeral arrangements. So many people, young and old, waiting for organs that just aren't available as and when they're most urgently needed, it's just so unfair when you hear or read these stories on the news, especially of parents who actually take certain hospitals to court in this country because their childrens' organs were taken after their deaths. Think about it now guys, the children had abbsolutely no further need of all these healthy organs that I'm sure, were still in perfect working order, that another child such as little 2-year-old Zoe Chambers, also on the news a month or so back, got after months of worry and waiting for a new heart so like you or I, she could be sitting on a PC or laptop in a few years time, frequenting teenage websites, fashion magazines, cycling, skateboarding or going off down town, round the shops by herself or with her mates, just being, well, a living person, thanks to the new heart some very kind and I'm sure, distraught parents decided to give to her after their child's death. Hands up to organ donation, I say. I'm all for it if it gives a very special person, especially a small child, the chance of simply, life.
i am an organ donor. and i am also a blood donor. i have in the past talked about being tested to donate a kidney and bone marrow while i am still alive. i look at it as so many people have given me so much while i've been on earth, i want to do what i can to give back to who i can.
Yeah, I've had a corneal graft when I was 6 months old, so I'm not sure I could give blood. That's one of the things I'm hoping to discuss at the appointment with my GP this coming Wednesday.
Jen.
jen the issue of those children's organs being taken is something totally different. Those organs weren't taken for transplantation, they were taken for science, and kept in jars ... etc, the parents had no idea that those children had bits of them removed and that, essentially, part of their child was still in a laboratory somewhere. While it's true to say those children didn't need the organs, I can understand the upset of the parents.
Also, as an organ doner, the organs would be harvested as soon as you were pronounced dead - in order for them to be viable for instance, consent has to be given almost at the point that death is pronounced.
I just read in the paper that there is a case in California right now concerning a transplant surgeon who is being accused of hastening the death of Ruben Navarro to harvest his organs. It's interesting. I'm not sure if Navarro was an organ donor, but if that is the way they're treated by some surgeons, then something needs to be done to keep this from happening again. Or maybe this happened because there aren't enough people listed as organ donors. Who knows?
I have no problem donating my organs after I'm dead, they're going to rot with my stinky corpse anyway. May as well take part in saving the life of another human being. I just hope some impatient bastard with a license to cut open my body isn't standing over me when I'm dying.
I'm here because some lad in england donated his bone marrow and it matched. 2 years ago the haematologist told me Stevie you had 2 weeks until you developed leukaemia.
Your giving life why in the name of all Ireland does it matter where this gift comes from. If the donor is healthy, then fair play to them and the families who agree to donate.
Sure there's no greater gift all right, than knowing you are not going to waste away and die.
I can't donate because of being nuked before the transplant and I'd give anything to be able to do so.
Stevie
Well, even if my own childrens' organs were harvested for scientific purposes, it could be because if it's going to help maybe lots of other people live, then, I'm all for the organs being harvested, for almost any reason, whether it's for medical science or to help somebody who's still living, someone who's a very special person, part of their whole family. I couldn't not consent to donate mine or my immediate family's organs if we were to die. My friend Suzannah could've received perhaps two new kidneys instead of dying as she did, two-and-a-half years ago, but because people aren't signing the consent papers, she died, because there was probably nothing to donate to her. Rant over, but that's why I feel this strongly about organ donation. Suzannah died 10 weeks after her 21st Birthday on February 27 2005.
If your under 18 when you die it should be the parrents choice to decide if your organs can be taken, if your over 18 you should decide and before your cold they should remove them.
If Suzannah had been under 18 her death would be ok so?
Your a feickin brutal eejit altogether.
Stevie
Here in Australia, it's indicated on each driver's lisence, whether the holder is willing to be an organ donor or not. As for the non-lisence holders, the question is put to the family. I've told my immediate relatives what I want, and I hope that most people would do the same, since I imagine being unsure of what your loved one would have wanted would be all sorts of unwanted trauma in an already difficult situation. Giving blood is easy, painless, and it baffles me why the percentage of blood-donors is as low as it is. Marrow-donors on the other hand... I'm looking into going on the register now, after a very good friend was diagnosed with luchemia and I had a good read through the donor registry literature. But donation is hardly painless or unintrusive, and I can understand why it's not the obvious choice for most people. A shame, yes, but a forgivable lack of risk taking, I think.
Well, my computer freaked out on me so I don't know if this post went through or not. I'll try it again.
I want to thank all of you who said you would donate organs. I cannot donate organs or blood as I was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 6. I am, however, a donated organ recipient. 10 years ago my husband (now ex husband) gave me a kidney and 9 years ago, someone much like yourselves, donated their organs and I was lucky enough to recieve a pancreas. Since the pancreas transplant, I have not had to take a single drop of insulin and the terrible things that diabetes can do to a person have, at least temporarily, been stopped. I thank you, my family thanks you, my friends thank you, my children thank you, and my grandchildren thank you.
I would definitely donate mine also.
further to monday's post, I am happy to report that Peter was called in for heart transplant last night.
he came out of theatre at about 09:00 this morning and as far as I am aware the operation went well.
It's of course also important to remember that Peter's transplant has been made possible only through the courage of another family, a family who will today be grieving the loss of a loved one, a loved whose heart has hopefully given new life to Peter, and returned a daddy to three little girls.
That is still tough...sacrifice yourself for another person.
I wouldn't ask my family to do anything less with my organs after I have passed on. It's quite litterally, the last selfless act anyone can do, with their family's help and support, unless their organs are not healthy to use in transplant operations.
Jello. Good luck so it's great that your cured.
I'd love to donate...maybe the corneas will be ok
Stevie.
Yes, I'd definitely donate, if they'd take mine. I know I can't give blood due to various medical things in the past, but I haven't heard any reason that my organs couldn't be taken. I should check on that though to make sure.
Yes you need to be careful.
no need to be careful. you can carry a doner card and your organs will be assessed for their suitability in the event of your untimely death.
No chances will be taken with regard to organ transplant, so if your medical history deems you unsuitable then your organs will not be harvested.
If I were to die tomorrow, and the opportunity became available to give another life, I’d be honored if my next of Kin decided to allow my organs to be given away in order to save a life.
However, the permition of my next of Kin is not necessary as I recently had it clearly stated on the back of my identification card that I did, infact wish to be a part of the organ donation program!!!!
It seems to me that the transplant list is nearly a thousand miles long, and there simply aren’t enough organs to go around.
Through death, there can be life, through life, there is always hope!!!!!
Erin, the aussie blood donors list in australia is so low because our standards are so high and because we don't pay people, lol. Giving blood shouldn't be about getting payed though, it's about doing something good for everyone else around you. By giving blood, you have the potential to save not 1 person, but 3 people, because of the way they seperate what's in the blood. Not only that, but they use the donated blood for lots and lots of important research. Recently, i found out that, because I am a blood donor, they have discovered that I haven't had a certain virus that often effects small children and can kill them. they take an extra test tube of my blood each donation to do research on it to possibly find out why exactly I haven't got this virus yet.
Organ donation is a fantastic thing, and it's not like we're using them is it? but I think we're forgetting the important issue here. In many countries round the world, people die every year from lack of blood. It's also very important for people of an O blood type to donate regularly, as those are the types that can be used by anyone, well, O+ can only be used for people with a + blood type whereas -o blood types can be given to anyone...i think... Anyway my point is, is that if you really want to help someone and you can do it, blood donation may actually save more lives than organ donation will, and you don't have to die to do it!.
I believe that blood type a-B negative is the universal donor.