Weddingbee boards

So the thread about your after-life plans surprised me with how many people are actually donors. So I just thought I would start a post to talk about it! As someone with a very vested interest in donors and organ transplants (My dad has needed one for 3 years!) I am so happy to see how many bees are on the lists or expressed that they plan to be.

So tell us, are you a donor? Are you not? Do you have a specific reason why or why not? Does your family/SO/POA know what you want? Do tell! :)

Also, I wonder if there is any corilation to those who also donate blood/blood products regularly. 

@chasesgirl: I am a donor, I always have been. I remember in elementary school health class learning about organ donation and I went home and told my mom that if I died she should save people with my body. I also donate blood.

I really think that unless someone has a religious/cultural/medical reason for not donating, everyone should.

@sugarxcoated Amen. My dad is in a region for the transplant lists where there is a seriously high need do to the dominate ethnic groups pre-disposition for certain types of diseases and a serious lack of willing donors due to the major relgious belief as well. 

Just some stats for those who are interested: As of October 2011 there are (In the US):

112,178 Patients Waiting*

61,767 Multicultural Patients*

1,746 Pediatric Patients*

28,665 Organ Transplants Performed in 2010

14,510 Organ Donors in 2010

• More than 100,000 men, women and children currently need life-saving organ transplants.
• Every 10 minutes another name is added to the national organ transplant waiting list.
• An average of 18 people die each day from the lack of available organs for transplant.
• In 2009, there were 8,021 deceased organ donors and 6,610 living organ donors resulting in 28,465 organ transplants.
• Last year, more than 42,000 grafts were made available for transplant by eye banks within the United States.
• According to research, 98% of all adults have heard about organ donation and 86% have heard of tissue donation.
• 90% of Americans say they support donation, but only 30% know the essential steps to take to be a donor.

@eloping: Any particular reason your FI is so against it? Is it the whole being cut up part or what?

Oh and what are other peoples thoughts on an "Opt Out" program for organ donation? Like where if you die and your organs can be used, they would be, unless you have specifcally stated that you would not like them to be harvested.

@Mrs.Estep: I am pretty sure if you keep it well controlled and avoid the damage (which I would advise anyway :) ) then you can still be a donor, just not a live donor because there is too much risk of some complication and you needing both of whatever you donated. 

Absolutely.  I'm also an avid blood donor.  Personally, I'm of the school of thought that ALL people should automatically be organ donors unless they go through a concerted effort to register for a card stating that they do NOT want to be a donor.  If someone feels that strongly about not donating their organs, they should be the ones who have to jump through hoops to make sure it doesn't happen, not the other way around for us who do want to be donors.

Sidenote:  I know signing the back of your license is not that big of a deal but it's still not a legally binding document and if your next of kin doesn't want your organs donated, they won't be donated, regardless of your wishes.  

@chasesgirl:   Those statistics make me incredibly sad - only 8000 deceased organ donors in 2009?!  What on earth!?  That is an appallingly low number and absolutely shocks me.   With so many healthy people dying in accidents (which is tragic and sad, I agree), I can't believe we don't have a much, much higher number of donors. 

@eloping: Interesting! Glad you are a donor still though! 

@Ree723: Because it takes a little effort to decide to be a donor and people just don't. No one LIKES to think about death. Most of the people who die and have organs used for donation die suddenly. This may sound extra morbid, but of the 6 near-miss calls my dad has had in the last 3 years, 1 was a gun shot wound to the head, one was a motorcycle crash, one a car wreck, one some kind of cerebral accident where the patient was already in the hospital and went brain dead so the organs were donated, and two I don't know. They weren't people ready to die so they hadn't thought about things that had to do with death! 

@tea: If you don't mind, what kind of transplant did you dad get? 

@Aure: Myth! Total and completely. :) The transplant team is a seperate thing entirely from the medical staff working on you to save your life. The only time being a donor comes up is if you are already dead or brain dead with no chance of recovery and your will or family decide to take you off life support. Then, and only then is the donor question asked. :) Sorry, this is just near and dear to me so I have lots to say! 

@Aure: Hmm... In all the research I have done, I have found it to be utterly false. No offense to your ex at all! I just think he is mis-informed.

And it is things like that, paranoid untruths that let 18 people a day die without transplants. Again, especially in an ER or critical care situation, the doctors, nurses and techs there are not in any way involved with transplants. There is a very specific team that works on removal and transplants but this is not done or discussed until all measures to save and preserve life are taken. They cannot and will not discuss your status or lack there of for organ donation until you are profoundly and completely dead.

The only thing I can think of that might spark that sort of rumor is that it is possible for patients that are brain dead and only function through artifical life support to stay on the machines so they are still physically "alive" in the sense there is still blood and oxygen flowing to their organs to preserve them, but no organs will be taken from a body that has the chance of neurological recovery on life support. 

I've heard that rumor that they won't try as hard to save you if you have donor marked on your license as well, from many different people that have never met each other. I'm not saying that this makes it true, but yeah....

I don't have the donor dot on my license, but my FI does know my wishes to donate once the time comes. We're both going to be cremated after death, why waste any healthy organs that could save or positively impact somebody's life?

And I agree with a PP, those that do NOT want to be organ donors should be the ones that have to sign something saying they do not want to be, not the other way around.

Aso-freaking-lutely!  I have no need for my organs once I'm gone.  FI and I have had extensive talks about this.  He is also a donor.  IMO it's very selfish not to donate.  You never know if you might need a donor organ, so you should be willing to donate as well. 

@Ree723: In my state when you sign your license at the DMV it a legal binding agreement and they can take your organs even without consent. This changed 2 years a go so definately somehting everyone should ask when the renew their license.

I would want to be a donor and my family know this. I won't join the registry because if something happened and my family honnestly felt they couldn't stand the thought of me having my body cut apart and no longer being me (which is a common feeling), I wouldn't want them to suffer any more then they would have to.

I work in a cardiac ICU, and I can guarantee you people work as hard as they can to save anyone regardless of if they are organ donators or not. It is a very complicating process of keeping the organs alive long enough to do the matching and tests. To be eligible to donate the organs you have to be able to keep them in a usable condition, which is actually very difficult once the body starts to shut down.

I didn't realize there was an actual registry!  Thanks for that.  I'm now signed up. 

I'm also on the registry to donate bone marrow if needed, but I don't know if I can.  I have thalassemia, so I'm not sure if my marrow would be any good.

I am not an organ donor and my reason is a selfless reason. It's for my mom, she's very against it and believes that in order to pass into the next realm you need your body in one piece. Not necessarily what I believe but I know if people were to cut up my body after I am gone it will give her too much added pain. I do not want to do that to her.

If my family needed my organs while I am alive, that is a totally different story. Take everything they need that my body does not.

@MrsSl82be:

You are absolutely right! People don't like to talk about death. It's inevitable and we all will die. While we are alive we need to make sure things are in order so it's easier on our loved ones when we pass.