Organ Donations

[Klompy]

[ QUOTE ]
If they are not donor-designated (most aren't) then we must get permission from the legal next of kin.

[/ QUOTE ]

Doesn't everyone choose this when they renew their drivers license? Or are you saying that if I choose to not be an organ donor they can still do it if my family says they can?

Also, is your post implying that they keep the body alive on a ventilator while removing the organs?

[Bostaevski]

[ QUOTE ]

Doesn't everyone choose this when they renew their drivers license?


[/ QUOTE ]
It is an "opt-in" system. If you choose to put it on your license then this is a legal expression of your wish to become an organ donor, and an organization like mine will try and make that happen. On the other hand, if you do not put this on your driver's license it is NOT a legal expression of your wish not to donate. We would approach your family and ask them for permission to recover your organs. If your family knows you don't want to be an organ donor then they would obviously decline.

[ QUOTE ]

Also, is your post implying that they keep the body alive on a ventilator while removing the organs?

[/ QUOTE ]
Ok I'll give you the brain dead scenario since that is by far the most common. First you are declared brain dead. There are laws and regulations governing what it means to be brain dead in every state, and all hospitals have their own policies regarding how brain death is determined. Generally it is a series of tests done twice, at least 6 hours apart by two separate neurologists. When you are declared brain dead you are both clinically and legally dead. There is zero activity going on in your brain. And I don't mean like thoughts or dreams, I mean your brain is completely non functional and it is not regulating anything in your body. This means that when you're brain dead, you do not breathe by yourself.

So now through the wonder of modern medicine they can have you hooked to a ventilator that does all the breathing for you. As long as you are breathing your heart will keep trying to beat. Of course the brain is not regulating the heartbeat so it can get wildly fast or slow, but you can be given different drugs that will keep your heart beating at a regular pace, as well the function of all your organs.

Anyway what will happen in brain dead cases is your family is given time to say their goodbyes. You are then wheeled to an operating room. The recovery team will basically "open you up" (sorry I don't know a more PC way of saying that). They then turn off the ventilator and your heart stops. As soon as your heart stops they begin the recovery. You, of course, do not feel a thing because you are dead.

[Skipbidder]

[ QUOTE ]
there have been studies (and yes they were scientific)...and no im not gonna go find them for you right now because my life is consumed with other things and i frankly dont care if you believe me or not.

[/ QUOTE ]

Produce the study. How the hell hard can it be for you to get a citation for us?

[ QUOTE ]
Donate ur organs if u want...who cares...

[/ QUOTE ]

The people who need organs care. Their loved ones do too.
It's not enough for you to choose not to help someone else, even though it costs you nothing at all. Instead, you have to come on a public forum to make ridiculous claims that might scare away others from trying to help. Unless you can provide the study, then you fall squarely into one of my prior categories for non-donors, i.e. malicious jerk. You are spreading malicious lies. You've basically accused me of being a murderer. There is at least some irony here, since you are the one who is likely to be contributing to deaths here. If anybody actually believes you, it is likely that you've caused at least some of them to change their minds about donating.

[OutOfCrown]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
ya u can, when u get an drivers license (in the US) they ask u
if u wanna be an organ donor, I said yes I figure why not help someone else out if Im gonna die

[/ QUOTE ]

it also means when you are dying in the hospital...that they are less likely to try harder to save you --- bonus = they get your organs!!

(yes some of you hate me, but yes this is true, proceed with arguing with me)

[/ QUOTE ]

To an earlier poster with this point I simply responded with one word:

Ignorant.

This is the best possible response.

Others have pointed out why this opinion is ignorant. It's obviously ignorant on its face. Go spend some time in a hospital ICU (I have spent all too much of my life there with family members in the past few years) and you will see how stupid and ignorant this fear ("they won't try as hard to save a donor's life") is. For all the reasons given: they don't know you are a donor, they don't care, they are not even that organized (you'd be shocked at how badly essential facts are communicated in a hospital).

If you are just too damned selfish to donate your organs, or are afraid that the invisible meanie in the sky is going to punish you in the afterlife, or whatever insipid reason you have for not being a donor, that's fine. But don't try to dress it up in some sort of self-preservation "they'll kill me in the hospital" nonsense.

Or, as I said more succinctly before: Ignorant.

[DeuceKicker]

[ 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?

[Bostaevski]

[ 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.