Are you an organ donor?
 

Just curious. If you are not and you don't mind explaining with a few words why you chose not to be. I was a bit surprised to find a few of my immediate family members were not, and their explanations as to why just did not satisfy me.

For me, yes, absolutely. If I have a shot of saving a life from the grave, by all means, take anything that might give someone else a shot at living.

Yes. I've seen too many people continue living nice lives from someone else's "left overs" not to do it.

It's dumb not to donate.

Corneas, liver, kidneys, heart. Take them, there all good, except for perhaps the liver :beer:

If I'm dead take everything that can be used to help another. I think the main reason some do not donate is religious.

Take it. I'm dead.

Take them all because I just don't care.

Well so far it is very one sided. I was somehow expecting a more even spread. Glad to see I'm seemingly in the majority on this one.

They'd change their minds quickly if someone they loved needed a heart and couldn't get it because the person laying dead on the stretcher wanted to stay whole in the casket.

Take what you need and throw the rest of me in the trash.

I thought I was but after checking my DL I see I am not. OOPS...

I am a full body donor. Since there is a major medical school (University of Rochester) and teaching hospital (Strong Memorial) here in Rochester, they need cadavers for disection and study. They cremate afterwards. I don't belive the family gets any ashes, but there may be a provision.

I think the law should be opposite of what it is now. Unless you signed the card and have witnesses, they get to take anything they want. Relatives have no say in the matter.

Maybe all welfare recipients should automatically be registered as organ donors as a requirement to receiving public aid--that is after they pass a drug test. Heck, take it further, why not everyone with a state issued DL or ID card. Probably the best way to accomplish it without major uproar is to make it an opt-out system, instead of an opt-in system. Meaning you must jump through extra hoops to not be an organ donor. The option's there, and you can excuse yourself if you wish. Right now, you have to jump through hoops to be a donor, and well... people are lazy.

PS, not a hypocrite and not picking on a certain group. I signed up as an organ donor when I got my DL at 16.

I am not an organ donor and have no desire to become one.

I like how you want to say that you own my body and can decide what happens with it. I am 100% against having to opt out of being an organ donor. It is your body and it YOUR choice to if you want someone else to profit off your body, not the governments.

I am also 100% for legalized organ selling.

i'm an organ donor, 100% for it here.

but my whole family is tottally/strongly against it, because they fear that if something happens,medical staff may ''not do everything'' to save you if you have multiple viable organs.

+1^

I'd totally be an organ donor if I (really my family) was paid for the organs. But otherwise, I'm greedy. Its my shit, and even if I'm dead, that doesn't mean its up for grabs. Ya'll are just too damn nice.

I figured they can have whatever is good when im gone.

I am, but have issues with the processors/distributors making serious money off my donated organs - same with blood. I know there's always processing costs - but a single tendon costs you/insurance several thousand. Can't imagine what an organ would go for...

I'm not an organ donor because I want EM teams to work as hard as they can on reviving me. I also agree 100% the sale of organs should be legal...it would same numerous lives.

I have heard that in China they harvest organs from dissidents and discard the remains.

Possible future of Obamacare? Soylent Green?

On another note:You would think the Chinese could use the remains to make us dog food that would be of a higher caliber than what they sent us earlier. Just sayin'

I've seen dozens of codes, believe me, we never give up until the end. At least that's been my experience. Is there some fox news article you're basing your opinion on?

no. but im still not taking the risk, that theyll see im an organ donor and decide not to do everything they can to revive me, but instead focus on harvesting me.

I signed up as one because I'd hope there's someone somewhere to donate for my family or myself in that situation.

Thinking that your chance of survival is less than that of someone that's a donor is just crazy. If anything, I'd assume when they see you ARE a donor they think "geez wow, this guy has a good heart, lets try extra hard". They open your wallet and dont see the heart symbol so they go have a cigarette before they get started. Thats what I'd think at least.

I would be a donor, if I could somehow approve the people that would receive the organs. I don't think all people are equal, and I do in fact believe that some do deserve to live while others don't. The first-in first-out waiting list is not for me. Do I want to do donate organs to criminals, fanatics, wall street protesters, and anyone that doesn't deserve to live by my own standards? No, these are my organs anyway, so I should get to decide who gets them.

no cause when they figure out how to bring me back from the dead, i want all my fucking organs!

You do realize unless you are maintained in a suspended, frozen state, there will be nothing to bring back. Not like they are doing to dig you up 50 years from now and reanimate you.

Like Curly, I've been in on numerous codes and unless you have a strict DNR, we will do everything in our power to keep you alive.

There are people that have a harder time getting approved to receive a donated organ b/c of there lifestyle, ie criminals, (real) sex offenders, drug users etc.

...

and then keep me stable, in coma, to harvest me.

I also thought to be a donor but after checking my DL its not listed. Guess when I renew my DL I'll have to update that.

Father had a friend change to donor, a month later after few xrays he was found dead with his truck boned down a hill with few organs missing. I don't feel so safe with who can look at those donor lists.

If I'm dead or brain dead ie gone, take what you can. Well except kidneys cos they'r sold :lol: , no not really so go ahead and please save some one else's life.

Here they don't do business with organs as whole hospital system is almost free, payment for major operation is something like 150€, if I remember right, I paid 300€ for 3 weeks hospital holiday with lung operation.

We dont have donor list's, just card in your wallet that states that one is donor.

If that's the best we can get you recovered to, yes. We'll have you on the vent till your able to supply your own body oxygen or your POA calls it quits. Harvesting is something of an after thought, at least in Saints ICU where I'm at.

Selling organs will be something of a Pandora's box, but I do agree with criteria for recipient donors. I don't like the thought of a con who I and my family is paying for getting an organ when a child or hard working adult citizen has to die because of the diagnoses date.

And what would be wrong with that? If you are legally brain dead and there is nothing anyone can do to bring you back, why not save another life?

Better get off the list so I'm not killed for my organs... seriously though, anybody could be targeted. Not like you have to undergo testing to be listed as a donor. Someone who isn't a donor could be a better candidate for donation. I don't see how this means anything.

Will no one is just going to give up an organ and go under surgery from a stranger otherwise, and we all know the waiting list is crazy. I almost did a live donation of my liver to my father, it was the last resort, but luckily a donation came through. My and family knwos that if I do die, I will gladly donate my organs, I just don't want doctors to know this first.

I bet there's a reducing in con jobs for organs if it's legalized.

Not everything fits in everyone.

I'm not listed as an organ donor on my license. I'm an RN and both my Parents are healthcare providers as well and *none* of us want to have it on our licenses that we're donors. This doesn't mean that we won't donate our organs, we just don't want it to affect the decision making process of the people working on us in the heat of the moment...

exactly.

Of course, but I still don't quite get what you are trying to say with your first post.

After looking at my license, I guess I am... Although I feel sorry for the poor SOB that takes my organs. I abuse the shit out of them.

lol^

I realize that should probably be in sarcasm brackets, but there are dozens of labs done to insure your organs are good for donation at the time of donation.

Scott, sounds like you have a good plan, I'm glad you're not completely dead inside ;) There are numerous levels of consciousness that I could be in where I'd like to be killed. I HATE the families that say "do everything" when it's a lost cause. It's disgusting.

Sorry y'all, the organ donation industry just doesn't allow for this. I was an EMT for 6 years and my wife is an emergency room nurse and has worked Lvl-1 trauma for years. I can promise you that nobody in emergency medicine "doesn't do everything they can" because somebody might be a donor. The way the system works doesn't allow for this.

First, the harvesting of organs from dead bodies doesn't happen all that often. It depends on the age of the body and what might still be viable. Corneas and skin and come other things... but "organs" just aren't viable shortly after the heart stops beating.

So... organs are almost always harvested from a functioning body. You are in the ER or some other medical establishment, and you are extremely fucked up... massive head injury or extreme bodily trauma that makes it a certainty that you're fucked. YOU of course are unconscious, which means that a family member or your living will determines the extent to which the medical teams will go to keep properly oxygenated blood flowing through your body. At the end, after you are good and truly brain-dead, a hospital representative may approach the decision-making family member about the possibility of organ donation. At this point, it's a virtual certainty that the patient is on very borrowed time or is permanently brain-dead. All options will be put on the table and somebody YOU TRUST or what is specifically written in your living will is the final call.

If somebody does make the call, then an organ donation company that is contracted with the hospital will be called and the process begins.

But the tabloid headline or some random soap opera episode about a doctor choosing not to save a person he knew he could save or who weighed the odds and chose to "kill" you so that 5 others could live is a fantasy.

I have heard this argument a lot, and I have yet to see any documented case of this happening.

Bravo sir. Absolutely correct, and why I don't understand the argument. Even if the donation process didn't work, I can't see what a doctor would have in the deal to let you die for someone else, and some other company get your organs. Or why he would fail to go through every measure to try and save you.

Same here. Even if there were a chance I would come out of a coma in several years, and there was only a small chance of permanent brain damage, I think I would still rather be let go. Not worth all of the extended suffering, and the mental, physical, emotional and monetary cost. I would especially hope they pull the plug if I were in a good condition for organ donation. So that while I lay in a bed drooling, pissing and shitting on myself, with a very small chance of a recovery, someone else could have my organs and have a genuine chance to return to a normal life. I've let everyone in my immediate family know my wishes on this. If they get a call that I am in the hospital, and they find me a vegetable, in a coma with a slight chance of recovery, to just let me go. I hope if the time every comes, they can fulfill my wish.

Of course if the doctors say I may come around in a few weeks, give me a little time to see what happens. But if it's one of those "he could wake up tomorrow, or never" situations... so long.

Actually you'd probably have a foley cath, so you wouldn't be pissing on yourself. And we shove a suction tube down your vent every ~30 minutes and suction out your lung gunk, so you wouldn't be drolling on yourself either. And if you had loose stools, you'd be at risk for skin break down and we'd shove what's called a dignicare up your ass:
http://www.crbard.com/uploadedImages...-dignicare.jpg

That green thing is inflated with 100cc of water to plug your anus. There's a hole in the middle to let your stools out. So there ya go, you wouldn't droll, pee, or poo on yourself, what a life!

im assuming the new guy gets the pleasure of installing that fine piece of hardware.

RNs are very controlling and protective of their patients. It's both good and bad, but they do everything they can themselves. I'm an aide, so what I can do is fairly limited, but I'm completely capable of cleaning any bodily liquids, yet I hardly do, they take pride in doing everything themselves. Most of them actually have issues delegating tasks when they're too busy.

i give you mad props for going into that career field. its a tough one that i know i personally couldnt do it

Love suctioning vented patients in front of family... They always look like they're going to flip for the 3 seconds grandmas choking, yet they don't care when her sp02's only 82%. Remember good oral hygiene cuts VAP in half.

I second Curly's comments on the RN's. If I wasn't a few months away from being an RN, I'd basically be stuck as a runner boy or unit clerk. They are super protective of their patients and for good reason.

I ride a sport bike and I'm a donor. I will NOT be a vegi tale in a bed. If I'm un-savable and can be a benefit for another then go crazy. Just freeze my head so I can maybe be a head in a jar Futurama style or plugged into a giant robot in the future.

Oh well fuck! Sign me up! Lets hope for an on the job accident today!!!

I just don't want it to be part of the decision making process. I understand what sam and others in the field are saying, but you can't unlearn the fact if operators know im a donor. I want to be brought back, not just stablized. Call it paranora, but that just makes me fele more comfortable. If that's the best they can do, and i still end up a vegetable, my family knows to donate everything; even my huge johnson.

and you all called me crazy:

Organs taken from patients that doctors were pressured to declare brain dead, suit charges - NYPOST.com

I wish I could say this is not surprising.

this is why my family knows Im a donor, but doctors dont.

I donate blood, and I actually never thought about registering as an organ donor. I might just do that once I get back to Iceland.

Smartest thing you can do.