Re: Organ Donations
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
If you die in a car wreck and don't make it to the hospital, you cannot be a donor.
If you die in a hospital but are not on a ventilator, you cannot be a donor.
[/ QUOTE ]Why is this? It seems like changing these two rules might cause a significant increase in available organs.
Also, I've always wondered why my next of kin can overrule me. I'm a donor, but if my NoK declines, then you're not able to take my organs? What's the origin of this rule/law? Is it just an attempt to be sensitive to the feelings of loved ones at a difficult time?
What if I put it in my (living) will. Can my NoK still overrule me?
[/ QUOTE ]
For the first part, it's not a rule so much as a process issue. For donation to happen it takes some time. Your organs need to stay functioning long enough for all the ducks to get lined up. So what I meant is if you died in a car wreck at the scene your organs won't be transplantable. As for being on a ventilator this is kind of the same thing... the ventilator is keeping your body alive long enough for all the different steps in the process to be completed. The vast vast vast majority of people who die cannot be candidates for donation because the sun and moon and planets sort of all need to be aligned. Aside from donation after cardiac death (not nearly as prevalent as donation after brain death), you basically need to suffer a traumatic brain injury that doesn't kill you right away. So these can be strokes, blunt force trauma, gun shot wounds, etc. But you can't die right then and there you have to make it to a hospital and then wind up brain dead. I hope that makes sense.
If you are a designated donor on your license or through a state registry (hell i bet even if you draw up and sign your own document it would count) then your family cannot legally stop donation from happening. We just inform them of your wishes and do not actually get consent. The practical reality is that they CAN stop it from happening by becoming hostile towards the recovery coordinators or refusing to complete the medical/social history questionaire (no transplant center would accept an organ without a completed med/soc history).
The only time we need the family's permission is when the patient is not donor-designated. Unfortunately this is about 65% of the time.
|