This thread is actually a spinoff of my CANCER SUCKS thread. It concerns something that happened at the hospital, following the unexpected death of my sister. She died five days after becoming ill with what turned out to be a fast growing brain tumor.
Sis was an organ donor. Since she was only sixty, and had been healthy, he organs were in good shape and at least six or seven people will have better lives because of her.
The Walk of Honor, at this hospital, occurs when the donor is wheeled, in their bed, to the elevator leading to the surgery floor. An announcement is made, day or night, that the walk is being conducted , and how important donation is. All available, close by staff comes and lines, the hallway, showing respect for the donor. A handmade quilt that was placed over the donor is given to the family, in this case my BIL I’d never heard of this until the day before. Maybe not enough people are donors, although not necessarily by choice.
Is this a regular practise in other hospitals? I can see how it would be good for the family.
Vermont University Medical Center got the idea for honor walks from Jennifer DeMaroney, an organ donation coordinator, who saw a photograph of another hospital performing the ritual. When DeMaroney asked Eileen Whalen, president of the hospital, if the hospital staff could start doing the same thing, Whalen approved it “on the spot,” Lahey writes.
Missy Holliday—organ operations director at LifeCenter in Cincinnati, which staged an honor walk that went viral on social media—said LifeCenter began the ritual in December 2017, in part to help ICU nurses who were seeking a way to honor patients who’d donated after death.
The ritual has since even entered into popular culture: It was portrayed in a recent Grey’s Anatomy episode for “a powerful scene involving a victim of sexual assault,” Lahey writes.
I’ve seen a number of references on Reddit. I’ve also seen a picture of a room full of medical personnel bowing to the donor. Here’s an example from China.
As long as the subject has come up, I want to mention something that not many people realize: almost anyone can donate corneas. People who die from metastatic cancer or infectious diseases that make them unsuitable as organ donors can usually still donate corneas.
When I was in college, I had a friend very tragically die of meningitis just a few years before the vaccine was developed. At his memorial, his mother mentioned that they were able to donate his corneas, even though he was not able to generally be an organ donor (something he’d mentioned to his parents he wanted if he died suddenly).
I filed away this piece of knowledge, and so when my father died of metastatic, pancreatic cancer, I asked whether he could be a cornea donor. He could, so we authorized that.
Granted, corneas are not life-saving, like heart or kidney donations, but I’d think the cornea recipients are still pretty grateful, and it is nothing to the donor, who does not need them anymore.
So, if you have a relative die of something that makes them otherwise an unsuitable donor, still, ask about this, and if you are ever making an advance directive, think of this.
RivkahChaya, the doctors did not take my sister’s heart or lungs, because of caution regarding her tumor, but they did take heart valves, her corneas, ligaments for rotator cup inhuries, her kidneys and her liver. The latter organ, we were informed, was “perfect”
It’s always worth asking. What happens? They say no, and you go on as before. My father had such metastases that they couldn’t use anything else, but corneas were still good, and like I said, my friend in college died of an infection, so he was probably septic, but they could still use his corneas.
My mother died of cancer, albeit, technically, she died of dehydration, because in the end, she couldn’t eat or drink (and high as a kite, so, not suffering-- my stepfather made sure of that). She refused IV fluids, because all that would have done was delayed her death by a week or so. As a result, in her case, they couldn’t use her corneas, so even in some cases, they can’t use anything, but we did ask.
I’m pretty sure I first heard of this on the public radio program Reveal, although there was also an episode of Nova recently about organ donations that showed an Honor Walk.
I work in a hospital but am non clinical. I have never heard of this ceremony. We are a small hospital though, only 157 beds. We might send donors to our larger, more sophisticated sister hospital which is 13 miles away.