Are You an Organ Donor?
Lane Regional’s First Hero
Gives “Gift of Life” to Five
By: Bob Mathews
Right now, while you are thinking about it, check your driver’s license. Is there a little red heart on it just above the word DONOR?
If it is there then CONGRATULATIONS! You have made one of the most important decisions of your life - the decision to become an organ donor when you die.
Last month Lane Regional Medical Center honored 23-year-old Gerald Parker who was the first hero from Lane to give the Gift of Life. An injury to his brain rendered him brain dead and on October 21, 2008 his pancreas, intestines, liver and two kidneys were recovered. His gift resulted in life-saving organ transplants for five people who were listed on the transplant waiting list.
Sandra Parker
Parker’s mother Sandra Parker, an organ donor herself, said she felt she made the right decision when her young son was declared brain dead.
“First of all I wanted to do what Gerald wanted me to do, and he told me what he wanted right there on his driver’s license,” she said. “Just as important - it was the right thing to do. If you can do something to help someone who is still living, you should definitely do it. You are not going to need your organs any more, so if you can save someone who is still living on earth you should do it.”
Parker said she understands that all five people who received her son’s organs are doing fine. Interestingly, she received a cornea transplant over 20 years ago in an effort to save the sight in her left eye. “My cornea transplant worked very well for a while, but it finally stopped working and I am legally blind in my left eye,” she said. “But I would certainly do it again for the gift of sight and I want to give the Gift of Life to others.”
Alyson Bennett
Another perspective on organ donation is Alyson Bennett of Lane’s Staff Development Department. Bennett has a good friend whose son received a kidney from the friend’s mother. This has driven Bennett to become an organ donor herself.
“A part of my job is getting people to become organ donors,” she explained. “One of the most frustrating objections I hear over and over is that the doctors might not try as hard to save someone if they need their organs.”
Bennett explained that her hospital does not even do the very complex transplant-type surgery. Such challenging, highly specialized work is always done only at the larger medical centers, she said. That means the hospital where an organ is gathered may be hundreds or even thousands of miles from the place where they will be transplanted into a patient.
Despite what the public may think, there is no such thing as hurrying to gather an organ to get it to a patient waiting in the next room.
“We really do have to get past that kind of thinking,” said Bennett. “No doctor is going to try less hard to save someone just because they are an organ donor. It simply does not work like that.”
Belinda Allemond
Nurse Belinda Allemond is Hospital Resource Coordinator for the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency (LOPA).
“The law in Louisiana is that every death must be called into the referral center and the family must be given the opportunity for organ donation,” explained Allemond. “It is my job to educate nurses so they know what to do and when to do it.”
Basically there are two kinds of donations. The first, for example, may involve a car accident which could leave the patient relying on a ventilator so live. If the test shows no brain activity after a few days, the patient may be declared officially brain dead. Then over the next couple of days the family is told that the patient is not coming off the ventilator. Trained people are brought in to talk with the family and to test their interest in organ donation.
Dead on Arrival
“If it is on your driver’s license at that point that you wish to be an organ donor it takes a lot of pressure off the family,” said Allemond. “The other situation is when the patient is dead on arrival at the hospital and the hospital must call it in. At that point, based on certain criteria, tissue can be donated. Bones in the legs, tendons, the heart for the valves all can be taken.”
Allemond explained that it all depends on circumstances, but that age is seldom a factor.
So, organ donation is important, necessary and right. Lane Regional Medical Center is doing its part. If your driver’s license does not name you as an organ donor that can be changed very easily the next time you apply for a new license. Then you too can give the Gift of Life.
And life is good! Make sure you pass it on!