Organ Donation (1738 words)
Organ DonationIn March of 1999, I was given a gift from a person I never knew; a person I’ll never get to know. This gift cost the person who gave it to me, no money, but it was the most valuable gift I’ll ever receive. The gift was a piece of life from another person.
At the age of twenty-four, I broke my hip. After three unsuccessful surgical attempts to heal it, my doctors performed a total hip replacement. The top four inches of my femur were sawed off, and the inside of my bone was hollowed out. A steel rod, nine inches long, was ?pressed fit? into my bone. I was on crutches for over a year, but I really believed I would be able to walk on my own again. Less than one year after the surgery, I was back on crutches and in terrible pain. I had developed stress fractures in several places along my femur. For nearly one year I walked only when it was necessary and ate painkillers as though they were candy. Finally, my doctors decided to try something new. On March 9, 1999, my doctors took a rib bone, donated from a cadaver, split it in half, and wired it around my broken femur. Less than two months later, I was off crutches and walking normally for the first time in almost five years. I could actually enjoy life.
I was lucky. I wasn’t going to die if I had no donor, donated bone is easier to acquire that a heart, lung or kidney. Other people are not as lucky. Patients waiting for one of those life-sustaining organs must rely on the generosity of others, and the misfortune of that generous person. Someone must die, in order for that person to live.
No one likes to talk about death, but let’s face it, we all die. Dying is a part of life. Many people don’t talk about organ donation because it involves talking about death. But, what if, from our death, we could give another person a chance to live, or merely improve the quality of his or her life?
As of September 1999, over 65,000 people wait, with their name on a list, for a life saving organ. Only a fraction of those will live long enough to receive that organ.
Many people are not aware of what it actually means to be an organ donor. An organ donor is someone who has previously consented to donate his or her organs after death. Organ donations are usually taken from victims of motor vehicle accidents, gun shot wounds, strokes or major head injury. Organs that can be donated are heart, kidney, liver, lung, pancreas and intestines, also tissues such as skin, bone, and ligaments can be donated.
According to the Center for Organ Recovery and Education (CORE), ?between 10,000 and 12,000 people die annually who are considered medically suitable for organ donations, yet, only an estimated 5,200 donate?(www.core.org 11 Nov 99).
One of the most common reasons for objecting to organ donation is a belief that doctors will not try to save one’s life if they are aware he or she is an organ donor. The only way to completely convince someone that this would never happen is to explain the whole process of organ donation.
First, and most important, if a person is ?dead?, he or she can not be an organ donor. ?If someone dies outside the hospital setting or in the emergency room of a cardiac death, he would be able to donate tissues and corneas, not organs?(www.core.org 11 Nov 99). Organ donations are taken from people who have been pronounced brain dead. Extensive tests are done on the donor to determine that the brain has stopped working. Lifesaving measures are taking place continuously throughout. When brain death occurs, blood is no longer flowing to the brain. The brain has ceased functioning. The victim can not breathe on his own. When a person suffers from a brain injury, the brain swells and creates pressure. Sometimes this pressure is so great it prevents blood flow to the brain, the result being brain death.
After brain death is determined the potential donor is sent to intensive
