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Are you an organ donor?
As many know, I am a music publisher, holding the copyrights for many popular songs from the early 1960s. Several of my songs were recorded by Bobby Rydell -- Bobby is a rare person: a truly nice & humble guy in the music business. He might be best known as Ann Margaret's boyfriend from the original "Bye Bye Birdie" film. Bobby married his high school sweetheart, and when she died, he took it very hard. He drank a lot. Eventually, he needed an organ transplant. He got it through the generosity of his "angle", Julia. This is her...  She sadly lost her life in a car accident at the age of 21, but it doing so, she saved Bobby's life. He expresses his gratitude every day. So, are you an organ donor, and if not, why not? (I'm not, but I'm old and in questionable health -- my organs wouldn't be of much help to anyone). Oct 07 13 07:56 am Link Looknsee Photography wrote: No, I still have all of mine... Oct 07 13 08:07 am Link My Mom received a Kidney in the mid 1980's. The donor's info was confidential, so we were told it came from an 18 year old male who had died in a motorcycle crash in Mississippi. My Mom lived until 1991. My Mom's younger sister was a member of the welcoming committee at her church in Dallas. One of the things the church did for new guests is take them out to lunch after church. So one Sunday in 2000, while at lunch with one of these new guests, the woman, from Mississippi, tells about losing her only child, a teenage boy, in a motorcycle accident 15 years ago. My Mom's sister inquires about the date of the accident. It was the day before my Mom had received the kidney. Oct 07 13 08:16 am Link my daughter was lost at the age of 5 and a half. She donated both kidneys and a liver to three different recipients. Oct 07 13 08:17 am Link I have been since I got my driver's license in 1978. But it hit home in 2005. When I got my license, I was dating a girl named Chere. Ever since we broke up, about once a year, my mother would say "I wonder whatever became of Chere?" So without telling anyone, in 2005 I decided to try to find out. I went to Canada 411 on the internet and found three people with her last name in the town she was from. I figured she'd have been married so looking for her name wasn't going to work. I wrote a short letter to each of the three people, asking if they knew Chere and if they did, could they pass my name, address and email address to her. I just wanted to know how she was. I thought I'd hear from her, telling me she was married with five kids, 4 dogs and a gerbil. Instead, I got a letter (I still have it) "Hi Rick, you reached the right person. I'm Chere's mom. I am so sorry to tell you that Chere passed away in October, 1994 while waiting for a kidney transplant. It was a shock to all of us. Your letter brought back memories and I thank you for that. I am sending along a copy of her obituary as well as a photo of you and Chere." It bothered me a great deal. I wish I was there. Would my kidney have been a match? Probably not. But I'd have tried. Or I'd have made a trade with someone who needed mine and who knew someone who matched her. Whatever it takes. I have no religious reasons for being an organ donor. Religion has nothing to do with it. I think its rude and completely irresponsible to be cremated or buried with something you will never use again, but that could save someone's life. Oct 07 13 08:21 am Link V Jeero wrote: Thank you thank you thank you. Oct 07 13 08:23 am Link I am an organ donor. In addition, I have put into my advanced directive that I want what's left of my body to be used for medical education. There are some unique things about me that I am told would make me a great medical cadaver. I was burned badly when I was young so they can study scar tissue and vascular problems. I have end stage osteoarthritis in my knees so they can study the bone degeneration. I also have severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder so they can study my brain and see if its different from a normal brain. Oct 07 13 08:23 am Link Looknsee Photography wrote: I have to wonder about that. If I'm dying of kidney failure, or heart failure, I think I'd rather have an old slightly worn out one, than none. I'd take my chances. Oct 07 13 08:25 am Link V Jeero wrote: I am so sorry for your loss. I can't begin to understand how hard it must be. But now she lives on in the lives of others. Oct 07 13 08:25 am Link Blood is an organ, and I am a blood donor. I've given 66 times to the local blood bank. They can have the rest of my organs when I die, I've got the special stamp on my drivers license authorizing that. Oct 07 13 09:03 am Link Yes. Oct 07 13 09:06 am Link Yes, I am. BTW, my penis is the most sought after body parts  Hey.... it is Monday. We need to wake up.Oct 07 13 09:28 am Link I've had the organ-donor tag on my driver's license since the early '70s. I started donating blood regularly in '74, but switched to donating platelets via apheresis (twice a month, two hours each time) about four years ago. A unit of platelets can help up to 20-24 patients and since I can donate four times as often as with whole blood, it's a much more efficient use of my time and blood (roughly eighty times more efficient). Plus, I'm AB+, which limits my usefulness as a whole-blood donor. AB+ makes me a universal platelet/plasma donor. A friend of mine received cadaver tissue in a major knee reconstruction. Oct 07 13 02:48 pm Link Our local blood bank has been posting pictures and profiles of blood recipients on FB and in the blood centers. It's a very effective marketing technique, to show who's getting to use our donations. Oct 07 13 02:53 pm Link I have on the back of my state ID that I will donate all my organs except for my eyes. They aren't suitable for many reasons. I used to work in a hospital and they had a bone marrow drive to take blood samples to be put in the bone marrow registry. I have been in that for 2 decades. My half-sister is also on the list to be a bone marrow donor. My aunt raised me and she died at 55 needing a heart transplant. She had a couple of initial matches but none that matched past the first screening. She donated blood until she had her first heart attack at 45. Oct 07 13 03:06 pm Link That's what my license says. I told my folks, that if my organs are harvestable and that they let me go to waste - I'll haunt them.. Oct 07 13 03:16 pm Link My American drivers license has me as an organ donor. Im not exactly sure what happens if I were to accidentally die in canada, since I dont have an ID here yet, but I would hope theyd figure it out before I was dead too long and my organs were worthless. If someone in my close friends or family needed something they couldnt get from the organ bank (I think bone marrow and a couple other things have to come from family, or something like that?) and I were a match, and donating wouldnt put me at risk, then I suppose I would do it. Luckily, I dont think anyone in my family have any kinds of current issues that could lead to something like that. Im fucking terrified of surgery. Id donate blood but the last I heard you had to be 110-115 pounds for it. Ive tried a few times before and they turned me away. I havent gained any weight so I quit trying  One of my best friends had to have double knee surgery, shes got some dead persons ligaments inside her legs. Creeps me the fuck out thinking about it, but Im glad she can walk. Oct 07 13 04:12 pm Link I marked it down on my license, though having about it I probably shouldn't have. When I've had surgery, I've always signed the refusal form for blood. I also don't give blood. That stuff is creepy. I'm certain I'd rather than die than take someone else's organs. So I sort of feel like I shouldn't try to donate mine. But I'm probably not going to change it. Oct 07 13 04:22 pm Link Laura UnBound wrote: You are right Laura, in the U.S. there is a weight minimum to donate blood and I think it's 110 pounds. On the other hand you can be a bone marrow donor and not be related to the recipient. Most of the time you have to pay to be on the list but I was lucky enough to not have to pay. Oct 07 13 04:37 pm Link Dream-foto wrote: That ROCKS!! and you remind me that I need to re-up as it has been a while. Oct 07 13 04:51 pm Link Looknsee Photography wrote: Yes. My husband and I both are organ donors. Oct 07 13 05:03 pm Link Yep. 100%. And I have some really, really good organs. Oct 08 13 08:29 pm Link Yes, I am. Oct 08 13 09:00 pm Link I've donated a kidney. Since I only had one kidney, I was unable to re-enlist in the Marines, and am now in the Army. I donate blood and plasma when they have the blood drives on base, but don't go out of my way to do it otherwise. Oct 09 13 04:22 pm Link I do but I like the other way round as Belgium have it : you are an organ donor unless you stated otherwise. Donor by default. And you can donate your bones, skin and corneas too by the way. Oct 09 13 05:30 pm Link Migtek wrote: Have they recently changed the rules on having one kidney and being in the Army? My ex-husband had a kidney removed due to cancer and was forced to take an honorable discharge because of it. My OB even told me that you cannot be in the Army if you don't have your ovaries. Oct 09 13 05:33 pm Link scrymettet wrote: David Mitchell has a similar mentality: Oct 09 13 05:37 pm Link Isis22 wrote: I can't speak on the nature of your ex-husband's discharge. It may have had something to due with his kidney loss being due to an illness, or perhaps he was unable to pass an APFT after the surgery, or he may have even requested a medical discharge. I don't know. Oct 09 13 06:10 pm Link Migtek wrote: He is a police officer and is in better shape now than before his cancer and his surgery. The cancer had not spread. He did not take the discharge willingly. I didn't know until after the fact or I would have raised Hell myself. The media would have been contacted. He was ROTC, then Army, then a captain in the Army Reserves. I am still mad about it and it's been a decade ago. Oct 09 13 06:22 pm Link Isis22 wrote: I'm sorry to hear about how your husband was treated. I know how it feels to be shown the door and forced from a job I love. It sucks to be put out to pasture. Medical officers do not answer to the chain of command, and doctors are reluctant to go counter to another's recommendation. They err on the side of caution when it comes to a service person's health and their career. Hopefully he gets satisfaction from his career as a LEO. Oct 09 13 06:44 pm Link Migtek wrote: I want to personally thank you and your family members who have sacrificed in service to our country. God bless you and yours. Oct 09 13 11:11 pm Link Isis22 wrote: Please extend my thanks to your husband for his service to our country. I wish him the best of health and all great things for the both of you. Oct 09 13 11:12 pm Link in Belgium, you're automatically considered an organ donor, unless you arrange the paperwork that you really don't want to be one. They do need someone to sign off on it, like a parent or a husband. Of course a lot of the people that die aren't suitable to donate organs anyway. And the ones that are... Well those are really very hard to approach the family for. It's often young people, who were in some sort of accident (so not a long illness, so the family is completely in shock) and are braindead but kept alive by machines. I wouldn't mind being a donor, but I know my mom doesn't like the idea. So I have told her specifically that if anything happens to me and they can use something, please please please let the doctors take what they need. It's what I want. I also got my bonemarrow (spelling?) tested, to see if maybe I'm a match, but I wasn't. I'm in a database though, so hopefully one day... Oct 09 13 11:16 pm Link Yes, I am registered as an organ donor. I wish I could donate blood, but I am under the minimum weight to do so  Oct 09 13 11:23 pm Link I have a D on my license, and my family knows if there are any usable parts left over to make sure they find a good home before I am turned to dust and scattered. Oct 09 13 11:28 pm Link Schlake wrote: If you don't want to donate your organs, you could donate your body here... Oct 10 13 07:05 pm Link No - I'm not. In Canada I'm seen as falling into a high risk group (on a few categories) for cross contamination not least for prion based infections. I'd give if anyone wanted - but no one does. I quite simply dont see why anyone would not want to be. Oct 10 13 07:12 pm Link Sure. What do I need that stuff for after I'm gone? And every now and then, someone sticks a needle into my arm, and I squeeze the little bar to pump out a pint. I hope it does someone some good. I can replace it quickly, and they need it more than I. Oct 10 13 07:58 pm Link Yes I'm an organ donor...have been since I first got my license at 16. I would donate blood and bone marrow if I could, but unfortunately I've always been "underweight." I think the better question is: why wouldn't you be an organ donor? Oct 11 13 02:07 am Link I am not an organ donor. I do not choose to be an organ donor after I die. If they choose to make me an organ donor after I die, there isn't anything I can do about it and I won't know because I'll be dead. Reason? Most people don't want anything to do with me now so they shouldn't want a piece of me after I'm gone, either. Oct 11 13 02:15 pm Link |
