to ask your thoughts on organ denation

[UnicornShapedCloud]

I have been thinking alot recently about organ donation after watching a programme about it.

I have really mixed feelings about it,

Whats your views on donating your own or your DC organs after death?

@QueenOfMyWorld that's sweet but you know you can only love with your brain? heart nothing to do with it!

I cant donate anything not even blood because of an autoimmune disease but Ive opted for the next best thing. Ive donated my body to medical science. Students will use me to learn and in turn someday they will go on to improve and/or save lives.

I don't understand why people wouldn't do this. once I am dead my body is just]organic matter. I would be happy for any part of it be reused and recycled for any reason.

If there's any truth in reincarnation I am as likely to come back as an animal as a human being. If I come back as a worm or a bird or a spider my current eyes and heart will not be helpful to me.

That sounds flippant , my true belief is that if their are spiritual forces strong enough to restore a body to my spirit one day, they will be powerful enough to work around any missing organs. Just as they will be able to work around the billions of bodies that have rotted in the earth for millennia.

@siwel123 it was a general question not aimed at anyone specific. i wondered was all whether this was wording which the professionals used and if so what their benchmark was for that wording iyswim. It was by no means any slight on individuals who have chosen that wording for themselves.

@LondonJax would your DS not be eligible for a pig valve transplant? I will be needing a valve replacement at some point in the not too distant future and have been told that it will be a pig valve. Similarly I know others who have had valve replacements who have all received pig valves, although you’re right re drugs if titanium valves are used, that being said I am on warferin already as I have AF so will need to stay on that but apparently titanium vs pig makes a difference to which blood thinner you can be given as well....

I think this video of a young woman with cystic fibrosis breathing unaided for the first time since her double lung transplant says it all.

Anyone can have any part of me they need after I die, the rest is getting cremated anyway!

@fruitcider that's made me cry - it's so wonderful to see. To give that gift is just such an incredible thing to do.

Ok @Diamond. I may have over reacted but this topic is upsetting

@headstone "I’m not happy with the process and Brain stem dead is not actually dead."

I think anyone has the right to say they are unhappy with the process. However, I have to challenge the second part of your sentence. Brain stem dead categorically is actually dead. Legally, and practically. For a patient to be declared dead after Brain Stem Testing, they must have failed several tests. Their pupils must be unresponsive to light, with no corneal reflex, they must have no cough or gag reflex, no reaction to ice water in their ears, no reaction to physical stimuli, and, finally, no respiratoty response to HyperCarbia (in other words, they don't breathe when their CO2 rises). Failure of these tests confirms that the patient is dead.

There are other conditions where some brain stem function is preserved, but no higher brain activity remains, and in those cases, the patient would not be legally or practically dead, because they would exhibit respiratory effort, for example (even if that respiratory effort wasn't sufficient on its own to preserve life), or reflexes.

If you are prepared to accept, you should donate. I don't like the opt-out scheme though. There is something about the state taking my organs without my consent - even if I am dead - that leaves me feeling uncomfortable.

For 25 years I have held a donor card. My dad had a liver transplant 16 years ago and would donate dh's organs as he has said yes. I need to speak to my teens for their wishes.

My Mum would be blind if it weren't for Cornea Transplants. Absolutely vital

I don't know if this will clear up anything re being brain dead and organ donation. My nan was technically brain dead, when we made the decision to pull the life support she was taken up to a room right by theatre. We were told there is a 4 hour window when you die and they take the organs. She unfortunately passed away naturally after 5 hours and so they couldn't take any organs apart from her eyes.

Afterwards I was talking to someone from the organ donation team who said that out of the hundreds of people who die daily, only 5 will be able to have their organs donated due to the small timescale, he said 99% will be from brain dead patients who can immediately go to theatre after they die. If the entire country was to sign up to organ donation, how many lives could be saved? I don't need them & if it could save a sick child or someone who has no chance of living without it, why would I prevent that when I'm already gone?

I think anyone has the right to say they are unhappy with the process. However, I have to challenge the second part of your sentence. Brain stem dead categorically is actually dead. Legally, and practically.

So why do donors need to be anaesthetised when the organs are taken?

So why do donors need to be anaesthetised when the organs are taken?

Who on earth has told you this happens? They aren't.

I registered as a donor but declined to give my eyes. For me, personally, I think the eyes are such a huge part of who you are, I, selfishly, didn't want them to be looking out of someone else.
They don't use the whole eye, it's just the cornea - the clear part of the front of the eye. It can give the gift of sight to up to 2 people.
Despite being legally blind, my corneas work perfectly so will very likely be able to help someone see better than I ever have after my death.
The window for donating corneas is much wider than for other organs.

So why do donors need to be anaesthetised when the organs are taken?

Upthread there are other people complaining that brain dead people aren't anaesthetised when their organs are retrieved!

Brain death is the irreversible cessation of brain activity. It is not the same as a coma or vegetative state. It is a stage where the heart is kept beating by machines pumping oxygen, that's all. Medically and legally, brain death = death.

"So why do donors need to be anaesthetised when the organs are taken?"

The spine has its own reflexes which are independent of the brain. They will continue to act, despite the brain ceasing to function. In order to stop the reflexes firing, neuromuscular blockers are administered. Anaesthetic agents protect some organ function before the organs are donated, so as the patient is transferred from the ICU ventilator to the anaesthetic machine anyway, they are administered as gases alongside the ventilation that preserves lung function until the team is ready to start the process of organ retrieval.

@fruitcider if you read my post upthread, it explains that some patients are anaesthetised for organ retrieval and why.

@MimpiDreams while the brainstem is dead (and therefore the patient is dead) parts of the nervous system and spinal reflexes that don’t go via the brain are still functional. An anaesthetic is given until the heart and lungs are isolated purely to block these systems as otherwise there can be issues with retrieval.

The bottom line is, that in this country, there are incredibly rigorous ethics, and nobody is interested in the organs of living, breathing people. All the time you can use your organs to keep you alive, that's a complete win as far as the organ donation teams are concerned. Their goal in life is that alive people stay alive. The only time they are interested in organs, is if dead people, or very nearly dead people, might not need them any more, and might want to let someone else use them. Even then, they aren't going to shove your arm up behind your back and push your face against the wall! It's a gentle, polite enquiry. Have you thought about this? Have you considered it? Would you like to? If so, let's help make it happen, if we can.

The way I see it is your dead it’s not like your gonna need it so instead of cremating or burying it might aswell put it to good use and save someone’s life 😊

@ProfSteve absolute nonsense. It isn't the same doctors treating you as treating patients in need of organ donations. Donated organs are flown all over the country to the locations of the recipients. There is no connection between donor and recipient in terms of the medical teams treating each.

I have been a blood donor for 48 years and signed up to the donor organ database donkey's years ago. I couldn't imagine not wanting to do this and have consented to any part of me being donated. I actually agree with the opt out system , as I feel that the people who disagree with it probably feel strong enough about it to object, whereas there could be thousands of people who would donate but just never get round to it.

I was always squeamish about eyes, so opted out of donating them. However, since January, I have had 4 eye operations. The last one only yesterday.
I removed my opt out, as I realised just how devastaing sight loss is.