Monday, February 02, 2009

life and death

I have a friend who's teenage nephew was in a serious accident over the weekend. His body is fine, but his brain is not. The family has decided to shut off the machine that is keeping him alive, and to donate his organs.

Before any of this can happen, the organ recipients need to be lined up. Therefore the boy is being kept alive for a couple of more days until everything has been arranged.

While his family sit in the hospital room waiting for the inevitable, other families are looking forward to surgeries that will save someone's life.

Here is info on how to register as an organ donor.

3 comments:

cecilia said...

my deepest condolences to your friends, it is a horrible thing to loose someone, especially when it is so premature,

lot's of love

xxxx

Lotta K said...

Thank you Cecilia. Appreciate life while we have it, that;s all we can do, right?

Unknown said...

If more people were as generous as your friend, there wouldn't be such a large shortage of human organs for transplant operations.

Over half of the 100,000 Americans on the national transplant waiting list will die before they get a transplant. Most of these deaths are needless. Americans bury or cremate about 20,000 transplantable organs every year. Over 6,000 of our neighbors suffer and die needlessly every year as a result.

There is a simple way to put a big dent in the organ shortage -- give organs first to people who have agreed to donate their own organs when they die.

Giving organs first to organ donors will convince more people to register as organ donors. It will also make the organ allocation system fairer. People who aren't willing to share the gift of life should go to the back of the waiting list as long as there is a shortage of organs.

Anyone who wants to donate their organs to others who have agreed to donate theirs can join LifeSharers. LifeSharers is a non-profit network of organ donors who agree to offer their organs first to other organ donors when they die. Membership is free at www.lifesharers.org or by calling 1-888-ORGAN88. There is no age limit, parents can enroll their minor children, and no one is excluded due to any pre-existing medical condition.