Ontopic WTB, WTT: Organs. Fresh squeezed.

(NaturalNews) I've warned Natural News readers about this several times over the last decade: Do NOT become an organ donor! Although you may wish to help others out of the goodness of your (literal) heart, the sinister truth is that doctors routinely harvest organs from LIVING patients right here in the USA.

Yeah.... that sounds like a reliable source. Doctors ROUTINELY harvest living patients organ.

Then they eat them. All doctors are reptilians.
 
Yeah.... that sounds like a reliable source. Doctors ROUTINELY harvest living patients organ.

Then they eat them. All doctors are reptilians.

What's so far fetched about it? If someone is terminal and they won't miss their organs but the doc gets a fat payday.... Look at all the other scams happening in medicine.
 
There is so much misunderstanding and falsehoods in this thread I don't even know where to start.

There's about 120,000 people on the wait list for organs in the US alone.

It is not just a doctor's choice. People don't understand what a long and difficult process it is. I'm going to take a moment and tell you all the story of the day my dad died. My dad had a stroke, and then a brain aneurysm, and then another more massive stroke all within 24 hours. He wasn't waking up or responsive. After many scans and evaluations they informed us that at least 5mm of his brain had been destroyed in the second stroke and this wasn't taking into account the damage from the other two incidents. He was on a life support as his brain was not capable of keeping his heart beating on its own. The doctors sat us down and let us know that if he ever woke up, which there was almost no chance of, he would have absolutely no quality of life. He would not be able to walk, talk, work, feed himself, go to the bathroom on his own, or do any of the normal things you and I take for granted. They didn't think he would even be able to enjoy things anymore because of the part of his brain that had been destroyed. They told us that we could wait indefinitely and see if he would wake up or they could have another doctor come to evaluate him to declare him brain dead.

We chose the second one. AFTER we had made the decision ANOTHER social worker other than the one that had been working with us at the hospital came to speak to us to inquire if we were interested in organ donation. At no point did anyone look at my father's drivers license (we had it with us, it was not with my father) to see if he was a registered organ donor prior to this. The organ donation social worker asked my mother, my sister, and I if it is what we and he wanted. We said we thought it was what he wanted and we were prepared to honor his wishes. Then they sent in yet another person, an organ donation counselor to discuss it with us further and make sure we understood what was involved and if it is really what we wanted. Then we had to fill out and sign about a dozen different documents. The process took close to two hours.

During the process the doctor that was going to assess my father for brain death was not in the room. In fact, he wasn't even in the hospital.

One of the things most people don't know is that a dead person, someone who is flat lined and no longer has blood pumping through their veins is no longer a viable organ donor. They HAVE to keep your body alive until the organs are removed. When a person is only brain dead but still being kept alive they can donate, but no other way. This is why most people cannot be organ donors even if they are registered. This is most of the reason why there is a shortage.

Anyway, then the doctor arrived to declare my father brain dead. After the priest read him his last rites, the doctor performed a series of tests while we were in the room. He explained what he was doing the whole time. At the end of that process he left us to say goodbye to my dad. He filled out the paperwork which we got to read and declared my father dead. Then the organ donation people came one more time to discuss it with us and make sure we were still on board. AFTER that they began to test to find out which of my father's organs were usable for transplant. This required cutting him open and visually inspecting the organs as well as having some blood work done. AFTER this a massive coordination effort began. They had to contact organ transplant doctors and their patients to coordinate. My father donated 7 organs that day to 7 different people and the effort involved 13 doctors. This count does not include the doctors that had anything to do with my father's care.

What I'm trying to say here is that although I'm sure there's a case or two of organs being harvested from people who are capable of life because anything is possible, it's certainly a very rare thing.

They don't look at your driver's license and think "Well, this one is an organ donor, lets just let her die." That doesn't even make any sense. Why would they trade one life for another? They don't even know if your organs are usable. They don't even know if you can be kept alive long enough to get them. They don't have the time to think about that in an emergency anyway.



If you've managed to read this far, thanks! This is a topic that is super important to me. Seven people are alive today and countless more have better quality of life because of my dad. I am extremely proud of being able to give that gift to people. My dad is a hero in a way. Another thing people don't know is that you can donate your eyes, bones, skin and other tissues. You can even be selective about what you want to donate. You can say take my lungs but leave my heart alone, or just take one kidney and a piece of my liver on the off chance I do wake up and still need the other stuff. You can say take it all or just take my bones cause it'd be neat to be all floppy. Go to this link: http://www.organdonor.gov/index.html, find your state, go through the process of registering even if you ultimately decide not to at least you can see what you can do, read about it, send them spam mail...whatever. If you register there you don't even have to put it on your drivers license if that makes you uncomfy.


Next up, we can talk about bone marrow donation if you want.

I have a lot of friends who have received organs. I have been through the process of donating organs. I am a Donate Life Ambassador. I have had lots of training in talking to the public about organ donation and getting people registered and dispelling myths. Really, ask me anything. But please don't look at the fear mongering media for answers. I can get a transplant recipient in here to talk about it if you want also.
 
^ Excellent post

I'm curious about quality of life after implantation.

I have several close friends and a roommate in college who had kidney transplants - what do you want to know?

Well said Eileen! I am so sorry you lost your father, but it is wonderful that his death helped bring life to so many.
 
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Just basic quality of life stuff. Anti-rejection meds suppress the immune system. Isn't this a big problem?

My roommate in college had her kidney transplant when she was 9. She was born with one working kidney - the other was shriveled up and non-working assumed from birth and then obviously as a kid she had issues to the point she had a kidney from a 35yo male stuffed into her little body (as she said). In her case the kidney worked wonderfully and once they had the meds balanced out she had very little issues.

She wasn't supposed to drink much for obvious reasons. However, her life was very normal. She did have to take a variety of pills - more than 2 but not like dozens or anything - and she had to take one every 6 hours. By the time she was in college it was "normal" to her. She wasn't a fail thing at all either. Honestly most people would not have had a clue she had a transplant at all.

She told me her whole story at the very beginning also because she said if an alarm went off she apologized since she had to take meds. Her body was so used to it that it was kind of on the schedule and she'd take her pill at bedside and go right to sleep. Normally she'd do it like clockwork without needing an alarm, but had it just in case. I think I only heard it 2x and only for a half a second or so.

Everything else about her life was absolutely normal to me.

She's the best example I can give since I lived with her and can say I saw her a lot to get an idea of what it was like to live through it. She wasn't sick any more than I was or anything. She did move back home because she missed her boyfriend, but that has more to do with her loving him than her health LOL

I do have a friend going through everything now and more recent. He has had ups and downs and since it is more on-going I'd rather not go into big details. I'll just say he was kind of on "death's door" when he got his transplant. The new kidney is working wonderfully but he is dealing with some issues with the old which were left and recently removed.

From what I gather the balance at the beginning is tough, but once the balance is found it's not terribly hard to live through a kidney transplant at least.

I would imagine those going through things like heart or lung transplants have it harder though.
 
Oh my roommates worst side effect from what she told me - bad breath. She asked me to tell her if it got really bad. I introduced her to Altoids and she loved them!!! She was from a smaller town and just never saw them before LOL
 
I think it depends on the person. You can get chronic rejection. The anti-rejection meds don't always work. The meds can cause cancer. They can cause a weakened immune system. Or, like helenabear said, you can be fine and just go through life normally. People who get organ transplants often go from being really really sick to healthier than they've ever been, so even if they do face all those problems it is totally worth it.
 
There is so much misunderstanding and falsehoods in this thread I don't even know where to start.

There's about 120,000 people on the wait list for organs in the US alone.

It is not just a doctor's choice. People don't understand what a long and difficult process it is. I'm going to take a moment and tell you all the story of the day my dad died. My dad had a stroke, and then a brain aneurysm, and then another more massive stroke all within 24 hours. He wasn't waking up or responsive. After many scans and evaluations they informed us that at least 5mm of his brain had been destroyed in the second stroke and this wasn't taking into account the damage from the other two incidents. He was on a life support as his brain was not capable of keeping his heart beating on its own. The doctors sat us down and let us know that if he ever woke up, which there was almost no chance of, he would have absolutely no quality of life. He would not be able to walk, talk, work, feed himself, go to the bathroom on his own, or do any of the normal things you and I take for granted. They didn't think he would even be able to enjoy things anymore because of the part of his brain that had been destroyed. They told us that we could wait indefinitely and see if he would wake up or they could have another doctor come to evaluate him to declare him brain dead.

We chose the second one. AFTER we had made the decision ANOTHER social worker other than the one that had been working with us at the hospital came to speak to us to inquire if we were interested in organ donation. At no point did anyone look at my father's drivers license (we had it with us, it was not with my father) to see if he was a registered organ donor prior to this. The organ donation social worker asked my mother, my sister, and I if it is what we and he wanted. We said we thought it was what he wanted and we were prepared to honor his wishes. Then they sent in yet another person, an organ donation counselor to discuss it with us further and make sure we understood what was involved and if it is really what we wanted. Then we had to fill out and sign about a dozen different documents. The process took close to two hours.

During the process the doctor that was going to assess my father for brain death was not in the room. In fact, he wasn't even in the hospital.

One of the things most people don't know is that a dead person, someone who is flat lined and no longer has blood pumping through their veins is no longer a viable organ donor. They HAVE to keep your body alive until the organs are removed. When a person is only brain dead but still being kept alive they can donate, but no other way. This is why most people cannot be organ donors even if they are registered. This is most of the reason why there is a shortage.

Anyway, then the doctor arrived to declare my father brain dead. After the priest read him his last rites, the doctor performed a series of tests while we were in the room. He explained what he was doing the whole time. At the end of that process he left us to say goodbye to my dad. He filled out the paperwork which we got to read and declared my father dead. Then the organ donation people came one more time to discuss it with us and make sure we were still on board. AFTER that they began to test to find out which of my father's organs were usable for transplant. This required cutting him open and visually inspecting the organs as well as having some blood work done. AFTER this a massive coordination effort began. They had to contact organ transplant doctors and their patients to coordinate. My father donated 7 organs that day to 7 different people and the effort involved 13 doctors. This count does not include the doctors that had anything to do with my father's care.

What I'm trying to say here is that although I'm sure there's a case or two of organs being harvested from people who are capable of life because anything is possible, it's certainly a very rare thing.

They don't look at your driver's license and think "Well, this one is an organ donor, lets just let her die." That doesn't even make any sense. Why would they trade one life for another? They don't even know if your organs are usable. They don't even know if you can be kept alive long enough to get them. They don't have the time to think about that in an emergency anyway.



If you've managed to read this far, thanks! This is a topic that is super important to me. Seven people are alive today and countless more have better quality of life because of my dad. I am extremely proud of being able to give that gift to people. My dad is a hero in a way. Another thing people don't know is that you can donate your eyes, bones, skin and other tissues. You can even be selective about what you want to donate. You can say take my lungs but leave my heart alone, or just take one kidney and a piece of my liver on the off chance I do wake up and still need the other stuff. You can say take it all or just take my bones cause it'd be neat to be all floppy. Go to this link: http://www.organdonor.gov/index.html, find your state, go through the process of registering even if you ultimately decide not to at least you can see what you can do, read about it, send them spam mail...whatever. If you register there you don't even have to put it on your drivers license if that makes you uncomfy.


Next up, we can talk about bone marrow donation if you want.

I have a lot of friends who have received organs. I have been through the process of donating organs. I am a Donate Life Ambassador. I have had lots of training in talking to the public about organ donation and getting people registered and dispelling myths. Really, ask me anything. But please don't look at the fear mongering media for answers. I can get a transplant recipient in here to talk about it if you want also.

Well written, and accurate. Excellent post.

Was your father an organ donor on his license prior to going unresponsive? Or was that a decision you all had the ability to make for him at that point.
 
I think it depends on the person. You can get chronic rejection. The anti-rejection meds don't always work. The meds can cause cancer. They can cause a weakened immune system. Or, like helenabear said, you can be fine and just go through life normally. People who get organ transplants often go from being really really sick to healthier than they've ever been, so even if they do face all those problems it is totally worth it.

My one friend I didn't mention much (kind of being vague for privacy sake) does worry about illness more - again a kidney transplant. And this person has to be a bit more careful than my roommate. In the end even though not quite as healthy as prior to being sick, it's much better than before when sick AND being alive to watch the children grow up makes all the negatives worth it all.

I know not all are so lucky and again I only know people who have had kidney transplants personally (not including someone I know who had an cord blood transplant to try to cure an illness - which is a whole other ballgame).
 
Well written, and accurate. Excellent post.

Was your father an organ donor on his license prior to going unresponsive? Or was that a decision you all had the ability to make for him at that point.

It's funny, days later one of us (I don't remember which) looked at his license finally and said "oh good, it is what he wanted!" We ultimately made the decision. If there had been any question from anyone in our family though, they would have done an investigation into what he wanted. They would have looked for legal documents and asked for his license. If we had all just said no then they wouldn't have pushed it either. I think, at least in Maryland, they only bother to research if the family is at odds over what to do.
 
I just looked her up - sounds like a sad yet inspiring story. I can't even imagine going through all that.

My mother died relatively early (65) when her parents and blood related aunts and uncles into their 80's and 90's. She died of pulmonary cystic fibrosis, not something I would wish on my worst enemy.

I was reading in Popular Science that soon we will be using 3-D printers to make what ever organs we need.
 
My mother died relatively early (65) when her parents and blood related aunts and uncles into their 80's and 90's. She died of pulmonary cystic fibrosis, not something I would wish on my worst enemy.

I was reading in Popular Science that soon we will be using 3-D printers to make what ever organs we need.

That's already happening. They made a kid a trachea recently, iirc.