Gee, thanks. :rolleyes: Remind me never to offer my opinion in IMHO ever again.
I’m an organ donor, and my mom has been reminded many times that if the situation arises, she had damn well better respect my wishes and donate my organs. I want to be cremated anyway, so it really doesn’t matter if I’m all there. I want no part whatsoever in living as a vegetable, so she knows to pull the plug; once I’m brain dread, what do I need my heart or my kidney for?
Meanwhile, Mom and Step-Dad have donated their bodies to science. I’m not so sure about that (saving lives vs. chilling on a slab with med students poking at me), but I may one day. I come from laid-back folks. I donate blood every two months, too.
I don’t really care what other people decide to do with their organs; I don’t think anyone is disgusting for not donating. I just don’t understand what the point is in hanging onto your heart when it’s not helping you anymore. It seems completely nonsensical to me. I had an uncle who died soon after he was moved to #1 to recieve a heart. Thinking about other families being relieved from the pain we felt makes me glad about my decision every day.
Also, I believe donating my organs will majorly balance my karmic debt and guarantee that my spirit will re-enter the world as a human, instead of a baboon or a three-legged, blind chihuahua.
Can you show me studies that PROVE this?
I’m an organ donor - I’ve had the discussion with ma and pa and they both agree.
Incidentally, I’m also an Unrelated Bone Marrow donor. This is something you can do while you’re still alive, and you can do it more than once.
Thank you, tinkertoy, now I can go back and reread all the posts I was rushing through because I couldn’t wait to get to the end so I could post and knock some sense into a few heads…
I truly can’t decide where I stand on the whole issue. I get conflicting information on whether my organs are even usable, I get sick at my stomach when I think of donating my son’s organs should he predecease me, and the thought of someone else’s body part in me sounds unnatural (unless, of course, the parts are appropriate ;)). However, when the small remaining part of my kidney function goes and I am facing life on a machine12-18 hours per week (or death) or someone else’s kidney sewn onto mine, I really don’t know if it would sound so creepy then.
I just don’t know.
Yes, I am. I know all the logical reasons for donating organs, and that my body is dead and I probably won’t miraculously recover and how would I feel if I or one of my relatives needed an organ. I know all this, but these reasons still aren’t powerful enough to overcome my discomfort at the idea of having my body cut open and having my organs remove. The feeling of disgust at that idea is visceral, and since it’s MY BODY, I have the right of refusal. The reason, be it religious or whatever, doesn’t matter.
Another organ donor/blood donor here. I got a separate card to put in my wallet noting that fact, signed by myself and my parents (they were handy). I’m just paranoid enough to make sure it’s not at the front of my wallet - you’ll have to dig behind the blood donor card to get to it. But am I really concerned that the docs won’t try as hard to save my life because I’m a donor? Hell, no.
That’s just silly paranoia, IMHO. And guys, you’re just not so special that they’ll take notice of your innards when you’re in ER.
I feel the same way. It creeps me out. And most importantly I don’t trust death. And stories like this are part of the reason why. And since I have to live with myself for the next … 50 or 60 years I choose not to anguish about it. Maybe someday I’ll change my mind, but for now I feel better the way things are.
(Geez, I just posted about this at the Pizza Parlor…)
I hate to mess with the paranoid conspiracy theorists’ wet dreams, but…why would the ER doctor treating you know you were an organ donor? It isn’t like the paramedic gives that sort of info on the way in. (“Motorcycle vs. tree, no helmet, positive LOC, signed donor card.”) Is the doctor going to stop and check? (“Charge to 200, stand by with 1mg epinephrine–but before that, dig out his driver’s license.”)
Sure, you could wreck your bike outside an ER where a rich hospital benefactor of exactly your HLA type is in end-stage renal failure and the world’s most corrupt doctor and nurses are on duty.
Or, you could be in that same ER dying of renal failure yourself, while unequivocally dead people of exactly your HLA type are being thrown into the ground intact because they were afraid of ridiculous situations like the above.
Which do you think is more likely?
Dr. J
smilla, I just wanted to say, you put that a lot better than I’ve done so far. I’m glad someone is expressing a similar sentiment to mine with a lot more clarity.
Now that’s what I was trying to say!
Thanks, DoctorJ.
Thank you, Doctor J–those were exactly my thoughts. Does an ER doc go through my wallet looking for my donor car before deciding how hard to try to save me? That’d be a new one on me.
Of course Doctors are human, and I think this works in the organ donors favor–not the other way around. Doctors want to save the patient they have right in front of them, right now. That’s you, the (potential) organ donor. The ER doctor doesn’t have another patient somewhere who would get an organ; s/he’s not a transplant doctor. What the hell would s/he be doing in trauma? You are his or her focus, and s/he wants to save YOU, not some nameless, faceless stranger far away. The fact that if he or she is not able to save you might be somewhat less hurtful if they later learn your organs can go save strangers somewhere, but it doesn’t make up for it, and I cannot imagine it would ever be motivation for “letting one slip away.”
Besides which, any doctor worth his salt knows that the organs have their best chance to do their work inside of YOU. Given rejection rates and the like, letting you die so another person can live is an iffy proposition and not a good trade. They only want your organs after they know they are of no use to you (because you’re utterly unsalvagable).
I used to not want to donate corneas (everything else was fair game). Something about having my eyes sliced freaked me out. Decided that was silly. They can have me, whatever they need.
This whole “doctor will do less to save you” assumes that the doctor even knows you’re an organ donor. It’s not like you go in for a broken leg, and when you show the nurse your ID with the donor box checked, they press a button on their desk that lets a doctor know to kill the patient for his precious, precious organs. Isn’t it the families and the doctors that are notified when the patient is on life support and nearing the end? Are the docs even told? Seems to me like we’re doing a hell of a lot of assuming here.
I would rather not have my driver’s license say “organ donor”. If I somehow was involved in an accident, I am not taking the chance that the paramedics or doctors do less to save me so they can harvest my organs. If it ever came to that point, I have told my parents to tell the doctors that it’s ok. That way I know that it would only happen if I was really past the point of any medicinal help.
I don’t see what your point is, DoctorJ (who’s NOT a doctor but he plays one on the internet).
All that information does is shift the crucial decision from the doctors to the EMT’s.
Let’s say you have 2 people laying in the street with the exact same injuries. One is a donor, the other is not. When the EMT’s are trying to revive them, for the non-donor they are thinking ‘If this guy dies, that’s it, he’s dead!’. For the donor, they are thinking ‘If this guy dies, we can harvest both of his kidneys, his heart, and his liver and save four people’s lives!’
Who gets better care?
They get the same care.
If you can back up your assertions in any way, Surreal, please do so. I’ll give it a look, I promise. Otherwise, I’ll just consider your position ridiculous. Any stats about death rates in ER for donors vs non-donors? C’mon, man, you’ve got to come up with something!
Again, why would the EMTs know you’re an organ donor? They’re not going to dig out your driver’s license and check before they start treating you.
And for the record, I will be a doctor three weeks from today.
Dr. J
I haven’t even read all the posts yet, but doctors in the ER are not the same doctors treating the people on kidney or heart transplant lists. It’s not like the ER doc says, “Hey wait a second, I happen to have a patient up in Cardiac Care who needs a heart. Let’s see if this guy’s a match.”
The ER docs are trying to save you.
The people on transplant lists have different doctors.
Oops, I see Cranky beat me to it.
Doesn’t really matter, we’ve already had someone ignore her.