DONATE THE MOST PRECIOUS GIFT ~ Be an Organ Donor

Organ Donation:


In the United States and around the globe, a shortage is growing. This shortage is not of doctors or of medical facilities.
* More than 101,000 people are waiting today for transplant surgeries, according to the official U.S. government Web site for organ and tissue donation. Each is waiting for "the gift of life."
* The number of people who need a transplant continues to rise faster than the number of available donors. The waiting list for transplants grows by approximately 300 people each month.
* Each day, approximately 77 people receive some kind of an organ transplant.
* However, 19 people die each day waiting for transplants that can't take place because of the shortage of donated organs.
One donor can save up to eight lives and enhance the lives of 50 others. Organ donation gives life and costs nothing.

I received a lifesaving transplant in 2001 and my daughter received a lifesaving transplant last month on September 16th. You can read about her her journey at abbiespot.blogspot.com/ So obviously I am a big advocate for organ donation awareness.

My mom told me today that a grandson of a friend of hers died at the age of 45 and donated his organs. At his wake, there was a large poster that said-

Donated Heart- to a 32 year old mother of 3
Donated Liver- to a 45 year old father of 6
Donated Eyes- to a blind woman who was 23
Donated Kidneys- two two people ages 16 and 62
Donated skin- to countless people needing skin grafts
Donated bone- to countless people needing bone grafts
Donated lungs- to a grandfather of 7

If that won't make you consider donating your organs, what will?
Please consider donating your organs; don't send them to heaven, heaven knows we need them here!


Did you know that following 9/11 many people found out they had hepatitis C when they donated blood to help out the only way they could think of? As a result, there is a shortage of livers in particular as these people now find themselves in need of a lifesaving liver transplant. Approx 1700 people in the United States await a lifesaving liver transplant, and that number is growing more and more everyday.

How Can You Become an Organ Donor?

Becoming an organ donor is easy. Every adult can designate himself or herself as a donor by taking one of three actions:

* Registering with his or her state's donor registry,
* Signing and carrying a Uniform Donor Card, or by
* Indicating willingness to donate on his or her driver's license application.

However, these actions do not guarantee donation without a second critical step: at time of death, a designated donor's family or next-of-kin will be asked to sign an organ donation consent form. Therefore, it is vitally important for people to talk with their families about their wish to donate organs. One-third of consenting donors never realize their wish to donate because family members subsequently refuse permission — in many cases simply because they are unaware of their loved one's preference.


God Bless Organ Donors!


HippieChick
:cheers:

Great post!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you!!! :cheering:

One of the things I do is Organ Donation Awareness for my consortium. I am sure my daughter will get involved too. I spread the word about organ donation in many ways including the boards.
Mostly I give talks to people/ groups that are listed and awaiting their call to come and get their trasplant. Transplant patients have 1000 questions. There's alot of emotion goin' on with these people.
Sadly, some pass away before they get their transplant and they are all aware it could be them.
The rest of my time is husband, kids & grandkids, and my boards sleuthing and watching CSI on TV.
I occasionally pick up a homecare client, I am happiest when I am working.

I just signed up, even though I specified on my driver's license that I wanted to be a donor.
For California:https://www.donatelifecalifornia.org/register/

Thank you for the reminder, Hippie!

You're very much welcome.

Heres what's on my mind today: My daughter who had the liver transplant Sept 2010 has had to be put on Hep C "treatment" because the virus was invading her new liver badly. Treatment is very hard to tolerate, its 48 weeks of shots once a week (which leave you feeling like you have a bad case of the flu) and a pill 2 x a day that gives you the most Godawful headache. All this continiously for 48 weeks. If you don't show a drop in your viral load then they take you off of it (usually at 4 weeks they can tell) They call this "treatment" for lack of a better word. I have previously gone through it 4 times, never got to 48 weeks though.

They have come out with a new drug that's added to the Interferon and Ribavirin (described above) that the Hopkins docs are very excited about. They said for people like me, it can make the treatment successful. It won't be on the market until May. Waiting for FDA approval and already taking back-orders. So tomorrow Robbi has an appt. at Hopkins and they told her to bring me along because they think I should definately go back on the treatment and add this new drug. It would mean if I clear the virus I could live to be an old lady, see my grandkids graduate from high school, etc. I am anxious to try it but having been through it 4 times already, I dread it.

They started Robbi on half-dose for the interferon last Monday when she was hospitalized so they could observe her after treatment for 4 days. Robbi was started on 1/2 dose of the interferon (actually a cancer chemo drug) and will give herself another 1/2 dose this Monday night. After that she will be doing full doses and I think that's when she is going to start to feel it, at 1/2 dose so far shes been "fine" and no side effects. She is terrified her beautiful hair will fall out. When I was on it before my hair only thinned out. When I worked at the Hep clinic here, I saw nobody who lost their hair completely.

So I am asking for prayers and good thoughts to be sent up to Robbi while she is on treatment. Pray she is successful and clears the virus.
And please pray for me too come May or June, when I start on it.

Also while I am on the subject, if you are not an organ donor please consider being one.

Thanks for listening, my friends.

HippieChick

A very dear soul passed away this morning. Thanks to his kindness 5 others will live. I dont think when people talk of organ donation they realis how good the donors family feels.

Sly, I am so sorry you lost a dear soul but am happy his kindness saved 5 other lives. That is truly amazing!!!

I think we should ALL be organ donor's. It's easy enough to do when we apply or renew our driver's license.

I have a good friend who is alive today thanks to a generous Organ Donor. I am registered nationally as a donor and my family all knows of my wishes.

Sly I am sorry for your loss. It's hard losing somebody you love or care about. What a generous person to give in death.

Being an organ donor is something I have listed on my drivers license. At first I hesitated because who would want these old bones. But then I thought..hum..maybe they could help somebody. One never knows.

So I gave the ok and they make the decision.

Also don't forget to give blood to your local blood bank. If you are healthy..give a pint. That too saves lives.

God Bless Your Friend.

lindamarie wrote:I have a good friend who is alive today thanks to a generous Organ Donor. I am registered nationally as a donor and my family all knows of my wishes.

I am alive today thanks to the generous family that donated their loved ones organs.

My daughter is alive thanks to a generous person who was an organ donor.

I am a speaker for Donate Life America and not a day goes by I don't think of and give thanks for both my donor and most especially my daughters donor.

TR, I had absolutely NO idea that hospital's take your organs while attached to machines to keep them alive. That is horrible. I wonder if the family has a say so in that or not, if the person attached to machines already has it in writing that they are an organ donor. I hope I am making sense. What you said really rattled me.

If this is the case, I completely agree with you that this decision should be weighed out very carefully.

TR is correct, they do want the organs while the person is still attached to machines. I am not sure about the family having a say if the person has signed a donor card.

I do know that it is very, very hard for family members to have to make that decision, especially when the person has not made his/her feelings known. A group of doctors were standing by waiting to take my young brother's organs, attached to a machine, when we arrived at the trauma hospital after being notified of his horrid car accident. My father agreed to give the kidney's to a family member, but in the end it was not a match.

Make your feelings known one way or another. It is very hard on the family trying to accept the fact that they are losing someone they love and then not to know their wishes.

Charm, let your family know if you have not already done so.

PFF, I am so very sorry about your young brother.

Thanks Wrap, he had just turned 23 years old. It happened in 1986, so it is easier to accept, if that makes sense.

They know, and it is also on my donor card.
Hell, take me now!

It is never really yours until you give it away.

Praying For Faith wrote:Thanks Wrap, he had just turned 23 years old. It happened in 1986, so it is easier to accept, if that makes sense.

It makes perfect sense.

And, I do have the donor card. I agree, this is a decision we need to make so our loved ones don't have to. When I was married to my first husband, his nearly 21 year old brother was in a horrible motorcycle accident and as a result he died. It was a horrible time in all of our lives and PFF, I know too how hard it is when the question is presented to the family at the time they're losing their loved one. We buried him on his 21st birthday.

We are given a precious gift.
Why wouldn't anyone share it?

TerryRose wrote:Jeanne, you could wait for a sale at a Home Depot or Lowes also. The cheap stores often don't have professional installers, but employ their kids and their friends and call them pros. I got burned once this way.

Sorry for your loss, Slys. Putting in writing about donating organs is not to be taken lightly. It is quite a decision to make, and, forgive me please for being so insensitive as to point out that the deceased is often not totally dead when their organs are harvested. They might still be attached to machines to keep them alive so that the organs are fresh. This makes me hesitate to put it in writing previous to the time it might become an issue. We all think we would be killed suddenly in an accident and that that is when this agreement would be put into effect but it often happens differently than that. I hope you respect my views and the fact that I am writing this, but I just think people should weigh all scenarios before putting it in writing as with anything else in life.

BBM

Hi Terry, sorry to have to butt in but people on life support do NOT have the organs harvested while they are still alive. They do harvest them very quickly after death but NEVER when they are still alive, I promise you.

DONATE LIFE and UNOS say the person may have signed a donor card but if the family objects vehemently they do not go ahead against families wishes and take organs. That's why it's so important to tell your family of your decision. You can specify what organs you wish to donate, such as heart liver lungs kidneys. Some people donate skin and bone as well. My neighbor is donating his entire body to science. Those are the people who end up at Hopkins or some other teaching hospital for the medical students to learn from.

HippieChick

I have a signed donor card and my entire family knows my wishes. Just as my middle son has made it clear he wants to go in one piece. It is a very personal decision. I also didnt know after a certain age they wont take organs. We found this out when my mother passed. I agree with Hippie!! "All of me why not take all of me" :dancingbaby:

charminglane wrote:They know, and it is also on my donor card.
Hell, take me now!

It is never really yours until you give it away.

Oh no you don't Charm. Didn't you read my Robert Frost Poem. "And miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep".

You are going nowhere baby!

Slys Hunny wrote:I have a signed donor card and my entire family knows my wishes. Just as my middle son has made it clear he wants to go in one piece. It is a very personal decision. I also didnt know after a certain age they wont take organs. We found this out when my mother passed. I agree with Hippie!! "All of me why not take all of me" :dancingbaby:

I signed up to donate bone marrow when I was around 48. I was never contacted and now that I'm over 60 I never will be. Sad!

Of course they won't take my organs since I have hep C. I was a donor before my transplant, tho.
It IS such a personal decision. My husband is not a donor and never will be, and he's married to someone who received the Gift of Life. He just doesn't want to be. To each his own.
When speaking to groups about organ donation its just giving them facts, answering questions, explaining how organs are allocated, and leaving them the information in written form. Because you can't be there trying to convince people to donate. Its their own personal decision.
I have "donate life" license plates (just got them) which I just love.

HippieChick

HippieChick wrote:Of course they won't take my organs since I have hep C. I was a donor before my transplant, tho.
It IS such a personal decision. My husband is not a donor and never will be, and he's married to someone who received the Gift of Life. He just doesn't want to be. To each his own.When speaking to groups about organ donation its just giving them facts, answering questions, explaining how organs are allocated, and leaving them the information in written form. Because you can't be there trying to convince people to donate. Its their own personal decision.
I have "donate life" license plates (just got them) which I just love.

HippieChick

HippieChick I think a lot of men are like that. They just say no.

A lot of men won't get a vasectomy even though they know what their wives went through in childbirth and know they can't afford more children.

Just that "funny thing" about men.

It's great that you "allow" him his decision. Otherwise a lot of grief for both of you.

I could never put "organ donor" on my card until this last time. Now with the info above I might take it off. I don't want to have my kidneys removed while I am alive and hooked up. Scary.

I must add to what I have stated. I am totally in favor of donating my usable organs (if any are usable when the time comes that is). I just don't want to take the step of signing anything that will apply in any case scenario that I can think of happening. What has always troubled me is that, since our healthcare system is not based upon humanitarianism, but rather upon money, would they do their best to save and restore to health my loved one if my loved one is carrying a notice that he or she will donate his or her organs? Will this color their thinking in regard to how far they will go to save my loved one?

My friend lost her darling daughter to cancer at age 28. She wanted to fight the cancer and live for her 2 year old daughter. She planned to travel to try more efficient treatments. She was put on blood thinners to prevent a stroke and was hospitalized because she was bleeding from all body openings directly the result of the blood thinning medications prescribed. Upon entering the hospital she was asked if she would donate organs, the only organs that could be used in the case of cancer were her eyes. Her husband spent the night in her room and fell asleep, only to awaken and find her missing. He was then told that she had passed and was in surgery to harvest her eyes. We will forever wonder about their rush to surgery, not even taking the time to wake up the husband?
These things trouble me about signing a general agreement to donate. I would rather have my POA be there or consulted before such is done and sign on my behalf. If I was the POA of a loved one, I would say, prove it to me that my loved one is dead and that you cannot do anymore to save my loved one first. Then, having been satisfied that my loved one is gone and/or cannot be saved, I would sign the agreement. This is just how I think about this issue right now.

TR,

That is horrible what happened to your friend's daughter. I can't believe that they did not wake her husband. I and my brother's girlfriend slept in the chairs right outside his room 24 hours a day for 9-1/2 days. The nurses did come immediately and wake us. Yes, I am very thankful for MIL to take care of my children, 2 not even in school yet. I feel for that husband to be there and not to be gotten up. That is just horrible.

I did feel that they were very anxious to be able to acquire my brother's organs especially because he was young and was an accident victim.

HippieChick,

Thank you for all of the information on Organ Donations.

There's alot of things that happen when someone is identified or made known to be a potential donor. Before the machines are turned off, labs, and sonograms or similar tests are done. When time comes the UNOS representative will assess the patient-listen to lungs, heart, etc. Then the family is left to spend time with this BRAIN DEAD patient and when the family is ready the machines are turned off. Most organs like heart lungs liver are procured from accident victims (including gunshot wounds) or head trauma patients, nobody with brain waves is "turned off". If that woman's husband slept through all of that, well, I think that's incredible. Seems like they would have woke him up, especially given the lights and many hospital staff as well as representatives from UNOS that would be in the room. What they did was greviously wrong and that's not the way it's supposed to happen. In fact as a result of the story they have turned a potential donor or even donors against the donation process, which is counterproductive to the way UNOS conducts itself.

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I hope that he just didnt wake up...Ive worked in health care for 30 years and never saw this. If it did happen that way I have to believe it was a VERY isolated incident.

Good to know that this kind of thing is an "isolated incident". We also wonder why they were seemingly doing nothing for this frightened young woman who checked into hospital because of the bleeding. She was conscious in the evening and fully aware of everything, she was not brain dead a few hours before this happened when her parents left, not expecting her to die that night. Her mother said she just looked frightened, maybe because of all the bleeding. Maybe all they did for her was what you write of, evaluate whatever they needed to evaluate for the planned harvest of her eyes, IDK. What gets me is the timetable here. They certainly must designate an OR for this and must call in a surgical team, I would guess. Did they have this actually scheduled in at the time for her?---Is that why she was rushed into it? Again, IDK. This story will not deter potential donors, as you say. People will still donate or their families will donate on their behalf when their time comes. What may happen is that a few will give more thought to the "carte blanch" approach of signing something that will kick in automatically in any scenario, JMO.

I know that a surgical team was standing by waiting by the time that I got to the hospital, and I was the first one there.

TR, it should not have happened like that and hope it is just an isolated incident. Her poor family.