Organ Donation

There's a box you can tick on the back of your driving licence too.

I have been privileged to see letters written from organ receivers after my cousin died.

Our loss was the gain of 6 different people. 6 people and their families/friends/lives were completely and irrevocably changed by an organ donation card.

It didn't make our loss any easier to bear but it thrilled and enriched us in other ways.

Please tick the box!

Miss Lockhart wrote: »

That is something that really boils my blood. It's an absolute disgrace. I have polar opposite views on most things to my next of kin and the thought they could overrule my wishes angers me greatly.

You can nominate anyone as your next-of-kin through your will as long as they agree. Your next of kin is typically assumed to be your closest living relative but thats not a legal requirement in Ireland and you can decide for yourself.

You can also inform your doctor of who you'd wish to act as your next of kin in the event of an emergency.

Medusa22 wrote: »

I understand that people wouldn't want their organs to go to someone who got themselves into that situation and then repeated the same behaviour after getting a new organ. However, this is a rare occurrence and I don't think that people who have done nothing wrong and are desperate for a second chance to live - through no fault of their own - should be punished for the mistakes of others.

I only wish it was. Unfortunately I've witnessed rich folk jumping the queue with my own eyes.

I'm still 100% for organ donation, but don't kid yourself that people with money don't skip to the top of the queue without fulfilling all the criteria. Like in George Best's case, he should have been sober for 2 years before being considered for transplant. He was sober for 3 months.

Seachmall wrote: »

But even then it takes him off the transplant list giving someone else an opportunity to get a liver.

He took a liver that a grieving family selflessly donated, he took someones charity in heartbreak and someone else's opportunity at life and he shit on it.

It disgusts and infuriates me. Not that rich people can buy better care, but that rich people can buy donated organs.


Ugh. Like whoopsadaisydoodles, this is also a very emotive and deeply personal subject for me and I should quit because I'm shaking with rage and close to tears.

Lingua Franca wrote: »

He took a liver that a grieving family selflessly donated, he took someones charity in heartbreak and someone else's opportunity at life and he shit on it.

The system is corrupt or incompetent, but not donating does nothing but punish those in need of transplants.

He got that liver even if he didn't deserve it. But it meant the next in line was closer to getting what they needed.

I donated my organ to many a lucky lady already, I dont think they'll want it after I'm dead though.

rednik wrote: »

I have always carried a donor card and since my wife is awaiting a kidney transplant I would ask other people to do the same.

As whoopsa has already mentioned, it doesn't really make much of a difference, your next of kin make the decision.
I'd encourage everyone to sit down and have a discussion about it with their next of kin. That's what I did.

They can take anything they want from me. I've made sure my nearest and dearest are all aware of my wishes too.

I donate blood regularly too, and am about to go into donating platelets too. My cousins 11 year old girl has leukemia and has had several transfusions. Feel like I should be helping restore the balance

ManMade wrote: »

What age do you have to be to get a donor card? And where can one get one?

http://www.ika.ie/organ-donor-card

Not sure about the age.

This has been on my mind all day. I've calmed down a bit now, though.

Seachmall wrote: »

The system is corrupt or incompetent, but not donating does nothing but punish those in need of transplants.

He got that liver even if he didn't deserve it. But it meant the next in line was closer to getting what they needed.

Eh, I don't think it is. I suspect, although I can't confirm, that the rich folk leaping the queue are bringing much needed funds into the transplant hospitals.

I spent 22 hours watching my father die in the transplant wing of Kings College hospital in 2010. In the end he developed a fungal infection that meant that he couldn't have a transplant even if they'd found a matching organ, so I had to give permission for them to turn off life support. His care, the hospital staff, the hospital itself were all top notch and I have no complaints about that.

The ward was filled with the most desperately ill people I've ever seen in my life. It's an incredibly intense place. Everyone in there is at death's door. Every patient was comatose or close to it so the ward was almost silent apart from the sobs of family members, the whirrs of dialysis machines and the occasional moans and cries from a guy at the very end.

The woman in the bed facing my dad had tried one of those cry-for-help suicide attempts with paracetemol and vodka and had gone into liver failure. Her family had all come down from Liverpool to keep vigil at her bedside and were visibly devastated.

I'm sure I was too, my heart was breaking.

While I was trying to nap in the family room another young man was brought in for something, I don't know what was wrong with him but his entire family had come in with him too. Shortly after my dad had died his nurse was walking me up the ward to get the paperwork and the young man's mother collapsed in the corridor with a heart attack from the stress.

During my vigil there I was outside having a smoke (yes, I know, but cut me some slack) when an ambulance pulled up. There was an extremely wealthy couple from somewhere in the middle east, Saudi Arabia or the UAE or somewhere like that, inside it. Although the man could walk it's hospital procedure for patients to be wheeled in so the paramedics were sorting that out. The whole time they were trying to get him organised his wife was thrusting her mobile phone in their faces going "I'm supposed to be in a five star hotel! We don't even have a view! Does this look like a five star hotel to you?!" - she was upset with the quality of the hotel she was staying in and expected sympathy from a couple of paramedics. I rolled my eyes and went back upstairs.

He was put in the next bay up from my dad. Now, how it works there is that the bays have sliding doors for complete privacy, or can be opened to the corridor. Each patient has their own nurse just for them who stays there in the bay almost all the time (they will occasionally watch the opposite bay so that someone can go to the toilet or get a cup of tea). As this guy was getting moved in and was quite well in general his nurse was running back and forward setting things up for him. I was annoyed with the hustle and bustle so I slid the door closed. Almost immediately it was thrown back open again and this woman marched in and snapped her fingers at my dad's nurse and said "My husband must have his clothes unpacked, and we want some drinks!" My dad's nurse bundled her out and I heard him ask where her husband was. "He has gone to look around the hospital!"

I was too distressed to let any of this annoy me at the time. I'm not even sure that it should now. As I said, I think they bring massive amounts of funds into the hospitals because I know that transplants don't come cheap.

It just really, really bugs me that foreigners can come in and jump the queue and buy donated organs.

Incidentally, George Best didn't "buy" his donor liver. He got that on the NHS. I do not understand how or why he was allowed to jump the queue without fulfilling any of the criteria, which exists to prove that the candidate is worthy and commited to a healthy sober lifestyle and to prevent... well, what George did.

Please, please do not let the above story put you off donating your organs. Remember that there was still a ward full of desperately ill mothers, fathers, sons and daughters awaiting life saving (or in the case of CF and kidney disease and those requiring corneas, life changing) transplants.

There is NEVER enough organs to go around. Even when they come in they need to be closely matched to people and that in itself takes a miracle. Talking to the transplant coordinator after my dad passed she said that 7 organs had come up overnight but couldn't be matched to any of her patients, and she looked so sad and weary about that.

Please, please please consider donating and let your family know your wishes.


(and please excuse any incoherence in this post, this a deeply upsetting subject for me)