Ok, I know that organ donation has been discussed here more than once, but I couldn't find anything that addressed my particular question/issue........so here goes.
In this year's presidential election, many of the exit polls showed that people voted based on their "family/moral values." It seems they (not me!) voted for Bush because they felt he stood for those values, especially in regards to gay marriage, abortion, etc. I was very distraught after the election because I hear these people talking but I don't see these people taking moral action! Organ donation is just one of the areas that angers me.
How can the majority of this country stand on such moral high-ground and then show such PATHETIC organ donation numbers? People are dying because they can't get an organ when there are plenty available, but they get buried with the patient! How can you proclaim to be such a good person with such high moral values when you aren't even willing to donate your or your family's organs in the event of their death? I really don't see that as being a whole lot less than murder.
I'm not even a nurse yet, so I'm not right in the middle of this yet, but I do dread it! Anyway, this is just something that disturbs me deeply and I wanted to get your take on it, especially those of you, if any, that are not willing to donate. I'd like an explanation!
Any decision a person and/or family makes in regard to organ donation is the right decision for them and should be accepted with unconditional respect.
Just out of curiosity...is the recipient of a transplanted organ eligible to donate an organ themself? Like say, someone has a heart transplant. Something goes wrong on down the road. Are the kidneys, liver, lungs, corneas, skins, etc, etc eligible for donation?
I work in a tranplant unit (heart, lung, heart/lung). I've never heard of a recipient donating upon their death. I suppose they could? I don't know about the life-long immunosuppressants, and other drugs and what those do to the eligibility of donating. I also can't remember ever seeing a fresh post-op transplant who didn't make it, donate. I suppose it's because in this case it's not a brain death.
So hypothectically and by your standards, who donates for me as the recipient of an organ if I'm unable to follow through with donating myself?
To those who refuse to donate on moral, ethical or religious grounds, are you bound by those same beliefs not to RECEIVE, either? Truly curious.
I work with patients receiving chemotherapy and many of the Jehovahs Witnesses refuse blood transfusions. I only knew one who accepted it, but I dont think his religious convictions were as strong as his wife... we could only give him the blood at night when she wasn't visiting and therefore didn't know!
Just out of curiosity...is the recipient of a transplanted organ eligible to donate an organ themself? Like say, someone has a heart transplant. Something goes wrong on down the road. Are the kidneys, liver, lungs, corneas, skins, etc, etc eligible for donation?
I have it in the back of my head somewhere, that they cant donate because of all the drugs they have been given following a transplant to prevent Graft V Host disease... I may be wrong though
I have it in the back of my head somewhere, that they cant donate because of all the drugs they have been given following a transplant to prevent Graft V Host disease... I may be wrong though
So, someone who wants to receive a donation is also supposed to be willing to donate but can't . . . that is interesting. How does that work with the requirement to get a donation you have to be willing to donate?
Complicated ... . makes me even more sure that donation needs to be "blind".
Here's a bib I wrote on "brain death" for one of my graduate courses this semester. It is a very difficult concept to understand, even for the experienced health care professional:
That's excellent, Vicki. I hope everyone reads it in full, especially those confused about death criteria.
It's the law in North Carolina, too. Regardless of the inconvenience involved, I think it is a good thing.
It is a very short step from being a good thing, to being the right thing, to being the law. In our society it will be law one day that the state has the "right" to harvest your organs without your ok. I believe 100% that this will be wrong.
since your organs are taken out of your body after death...who knows what really happens to them anyway! you never know. i believe in organ donation. it is important because my child may need a new heart by her early teens or before if she is not a canidate for the fontan next fall depending on her heart function which is fair as of now. i know that for an onfant to recieve a heart another parent has to lose their child and it tears me apart but i would rejoice at the same time. my baby is 2 and would have died waiting on a heart after birth so there for we choose the norwood procedure. anyhow people really need to consider how they can take their greif and turn someone elses life around give them a fresh start...and for a child give them a chance to grow up and oh at the joy for the parents! who know all too well how their child will go on living.
It is a very short step from being a good thing, to being the right thing, to being the law. In our society it will be law one day that the state has the "right" to harvest your organs without your ok. I believe 100% that this will be wrong.
I really don't understand this comment. It is highly unlikely that harvesting organs without consent will ever become mandatory. Are you even aware how few deaths actually result in viable donors? It seems to me you are under the impression that every person who dies in a hospital family is approached about organ donation and that's not even close to reality. Most of the time the call to the OPA is very brief because the majority of patients are ruled out almost immediately.
I really don't understand this comment. It is highly unlikely that harvesting organs without consent will ever become mandatory. Are you even aware how few deaths actually result in viable donors? It seems to me you are under the impression that every person who dies in a hospital family is approached about organ donation and that's not even close to reality. Most of the time the call to the OPA is very brief because the majority of patients are ruled out almost immediately.
What do you not understand about it? We are a nation governed by non-medical people. It does not have to make medical sense to become law. In Georgia when our former governor heard that babies could become smarter by listening to classical music he made it a requirement that all new mothers received a cd of classical music to play at home. It did not matter to him that it was just a theory. It was highly unlikely in our parent's day (some 30-40 years ago) that God would be kicked out of school, that 2 men or 2 women would go to court to allow them to legally marry, that putting on a seat belt would be a requirement to drive, etc. Just curious: of those who read this how many of you would be ok with a mandatory organ donation law?
At the end of June this year, my VERY close friend had a horrible motorcycle accident at 0830 a.m. By 9pm, all reflexes ( cough, gag, response to pain) were gone. Jason was a LPN to RN student and had been an Army medic for over 10 yrs. He was only 29 yrs. old. Jason wanted his organs donated. They were. His heart, lungs, kidneys,liver, small bowel and long bones were taken. This is what I know for sure, others may have been taken also.
This made a HUGE change in my personal opinion on organ donation. I will donate my organs if possible. The person who had to sign consent for him was his wife whom he had been separated from for over 2 yrs. She made the right decision, even tho she did not want to. When Jason died, all I could think of was "WHY??" When I found out that his organs were donated, it helped me to let go and realize that even though someone I loved was dead, others would live because of him. Until you have a personal experience with organ donation, I don't believe you really know what you will do or how you will feel. I am going to work in a Adult Critical Care unit where we will see trauma cases all the time, and I belive that all pts. regardless of their organ donation status will be cared for equally. I hope when you all read this, you will say a prayer for my Jason.
begalli
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Any decision a person and/or family makes in regard to organ donation is the right decision for them and should be accepted with unconditional respect.
I do believe the question should be asked.