Organ Procurement Organization

[bigtiller]

Have any of you signed up for this program? Every state has it's own Donor Network that is connected to the national organization.

It sounds like a good way to go out, and help save/improve someone else's life. I want to read and learn more about it before I put my name on the dotted line.

I have been donating blood for a number of years and this just seams like the next logical step.

 

[MossRoad]

It says DONOR on my driver's license. Says the same thing on my wife's. From my past experience, they still ask the next of kin before taking any organs. We don't have to sign up with any organization. It's all done through the license branch.

What's the point of burying or cremating if something is still usable to someone else? I told my wife to give anyone anything they can use if I croak.

She's giving the tractor to the neighbor....


In all seriousness, though, my mother in-law is a liver transplant recipient. It's been 14 years now. She got to watch her grand daughters grow up. She got to spend 13 more years with her husband and friends. They did a lot of traveling after the transplant as well. I have no idea how many years she has left in her, but she's 83 and still kicking!

We cannot thank the donor's family enough for that special gift.

 

[bigtiller]

My dad donated his body when he died at 75 and my wife has a vertebra from a donor in her back after an eruptive fracture.

I figure I owe a debt to someone.

 

[Wagtail]

Ours is a National system... and, yes, I signed up for them to use whatever they want/need. They can 'toast' the rest.

I used to give blood regularly, had to take a 5 year hiatus after a bout of kidney cancer, however Tassie only has donation centres in the 'big smokes' of Hobart and Launceston and no mobile units to collect around the State. It's just too far to travel to donate anymore.

 

[jyoutz]

It says DONOR on my driver's license. Says the same thing on my wife's. From my past experience, they still ask the next of kin before taking any organs. We don't have to sign up with any organization. It's all done through the license branch.

What's the point of burying or cremating if something is still usable to someone else? I told my wife to give anyone anything they can use if I croak.

She's giving the tractor to the neighbor....


In all seriousness, though, my mother in-law is a liver transplant recipient. It's been 14 years now. She got to watch her grand daughters grow up. She got to spend 13 more years with her husband and friends. They did a lot of traveling after the transplant as well. I have no idea how many years she has left in her, but she's 83 and still kicking!

We cannot thank the donor's family enough for that special gift.

We have the donor check off on our driver’s license registration also.

 

[sea2summit]

I don’t have it on my DL, it’s been my experience as moss pointed out they don’t do anything without NOK permission. If you go out while driving by the time they get you someplace and get permission most of the good parts aren’t viable. However everyone knows my wishes and it’s in my living will. Can’t take anything with you, so everyone should absolutely leave it for someone who needs it here.

 

[bigtiller]

I don’t have it on my DL, it’s been my experience as moss pointed out they don’t do anything without NOK permission. If you go out while driving by the time they get you someplace and get permission most of the good parts aren’t viable. However everyone knows my wishes and it’s in my living will. Can’t take anything with you, so everyone should absolutely leave it for someone who needs it here.

That is another thing I want to do this year. I keep forgetting to ask about it.

 

[MossRoad]

... If you go out while driving by the time they get you someplace and get permission most of the good parts aren’t viable. ....

Not to be argumentative, but I don't think that's the case. My mother in-law's liver came from a car accident victim. I think I recall his donations helping several people.

When I worked at the airport in the 80s we frequently serviced organ donor flights. We'd do a rush and get the plane fueled and ready to go ASAP, or turned around if they were coming in from somewhere else. A vehicle would pull up with a person or two and a cooler or two, and off they'd go. Sometimes there'd be two or three planes taking organs from one donor to different destinations. Some were car accident victims, I'm sure. The police would escort the organs out to the airport if needed and they'd stay around and talk afterwards. This happened multiple times per year for the 6 years I worked there.

Anyhow, our family is grateful for another family's decision. It saved my mother in-law's life.

 

[tallyho8]

My wife and I both have organ donor on our drivers licenses. When our son died of multiple sclerosis a few years ago, they said they couldn't use any of his organs because of his condition. If he had been able to help someone else live, it would have made his death a little less tragic for us.

 

[dougtrr2]

I fully support organ donation, my wife and I both have it on our driver's license and when my son was in a motorcycle accident we donated any viable organs.

Some of the realities of the process to be prepared for.

The organ donation people are very careful to not be vultures. So, they will not or cannot start any of their processes until the official pronouncement has been made. The blood tests are very extensive, taking over 12 hours to process. But they can't even draw blood and start that until the pronouncement has been made. Seems very inefficient, but that is the way they do it.

It can take several days to get everything coordinated after they start their processes. So your loved one has passed, but they are still kept alive while the donation machinery is kept in motion. One of the donor people we talked to said, that was the biggest reason people did not do the process. The heartache of waiting after the loved one has been declared is just too much to bear.

Our experience was very positive and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again. They people we were in contact with were very caring and understanding. We were given the opportunity to put together a bio of our son's life. That bio was read in his room before they took him away, and again in the operating room before the organ harvesting. We were told it was so everyone was reminded that this was a person.

We were in an unusual situation. We requested that they either harvested the organs on Sunday, or wait until Tuesday. My son had a son and his birthday was on Monday. We did not want my son to be declared on that day (but we would have let it happen if that was our only choice). They jumped through hoops to make Sunday happen.

Sorry for the long post, but later this year is the tenth anniversary of these events, and some parts are like it happened yesterday. Ironic that my son served two tours in Iraq as a blackhawk crew chief/ door gunner, and California traffic did him in.

Doug in SW IA

 

[MossRoad]

I can't thank you and your family enough for the gift of life that you provided. As I mentioned before, we've had my mother in-law for 14 years and counting more than we thought we would thanks to a generous caring family like yours. I hope that gives you some peace knowing how much it meant to others. Thank you.

 

[WM75Guy]

I dealt with this quite a bit during my time working in the ED. Texas has a donor database that does not require NOK approval, although they will still contact the NOK to let them know of the deceased person's wishes. Hospitals that accept Medicare are required to report all deaths to the local transplant organization, to see if the deceased is a candidate for donation. If you die a sudden death, they can harvest skin for grafts for burn victims, bone to be used as cadaver bone for orthopedic surgery, and corneas. All are important and very necessary. Organs such as heart and kidneys can only be obtained from someone that is on life support. The ICU would notify the transplant organization of an impending death and they took it from there to get consent from the family.

 

[bigtiller]

A friend was a donor but he died at home. I don't know what was harvested but he was sent to a teaching hospital. I was told that sometimes donors are used for teaching young surgeons.

 

[Jchonline]

Have any of you signed up for this program? Every state has it's own Donor Network that is connected to the national organization.

It sounds like a good way to go out, and help save/improve someone else's life. I want to read and learn more about it before I put my name on the dotted line.

I have been donating blood for a number of years and this just seams like the next logical step.

Yes I just sign up for it with my Drivers License.

 

[WM75Guy]

Those that will their bodies to science are a gift to medical education. They are used in cadaver labs for many different medical specialties. We treated those people with reverence and respect in the lab just as if they were alive. There is no comparison between that and practicing on a manikin in a skills lab.

 

[etpm]

I fully support organ donation, my wife and I both have it on our driver's license and when my son was in a motorcycle accident we donated any viable organs.

Some of the realities of the process to be prepared for.

The organ donation people are very careful to not be vultures. So, they will not or cannot start any of their processes until the official pronouncement has been made. The blood tests are very extensive, taking over 12 hours to process. But they can't even draw blood and start that until the pronouncement has been made. Seems very inefficient, but that is the way they do it.

It can take several days to get everything coordinated after they start their processes. So your loved one has passed, but they are still kept alive while the donation machinery is kept in motion. One of the donor people we talked to said, that was the biggest reason people did not do the process. The heartache of waiting after the loved one has been declared is just too much to bear.

Our experience was very positive and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again. They people we were in contact with were very caring and understanding. We were given the opportunity to put together a bio of our son's life. That bio was read in his room before they took him away, and again in the operating room before the organ harvesting. We were told it was so everyone was reminded that this was a person.

We were in an unusual situation. We requested that they either harvested the organs on Sunday, or wait until Tuesday. My son had a son and his birthday was on Monday. We did not want my son to be declared on that day (but we would have let it happen if that was our only choice). They jumped through hoops to make Sunday happen.

Sorry for the long post, but later this year is the tenth anniversary of these events, and some parts are like it happened yesterday. Ironic that my son served two tours in Iraq as a blackhawk crew chief/ door gunner, and California traffic did him in.

Doug in SW IA

A good friend of mine, more like a brother really, just got new lungs. He went from being on oxygen 24/7 and still feeling like he was drowning to breathing better than he has in years. And it is because of people like you and your family. thank you so very much. My whole family are organ donors but your family actually donated. I just can't thank you and other folks like you enough.
Eric