Replies

My wife's brother died a few months ago from a closed head injury.

His brain swelled to the point of causing permanent damage and finally death.

It was early in the morning, 24 hours after the accident, that one eye dialated, then the other. What happened was that his brain had swelled so much that it was pushing down towards the neck and into the brain cell, causing irreperable harm.

Early that morning before we knew what was going to happen, the doctor set asked us to meet someone from the organ donor organization.

After a short presentation, the family talked about it and the parents decided that they would donate. My brother in law was young, heathy and blood type O-positive [the most universal type].

The next morning when the real doctor came in he told us that our loved one died the night before, and was being kept "alive" by the resperator and heart monitor.

When the family realized that he was really dead, the organ retrieval process went forward very fast.

By the next day, a very sick man had one kidney. A single mother with young children got his lungs. A 44 year old man who was given one week to live, got a new heart.

The most remarkable transplant involved a friend of mine who was scheduled to donate HIS OWN kidney to his ailing nephew. He was to give up his kidney on Monday morning, and to take the next eight weeks to recuperate.

His nephew was an exact match and received the kidney without his uncle having to go through a very painful surgery.

We are from Michigan. I am not sure what the exact laws are here in the state. But we were able to easily donate organs, even without a living will.

Organ donation can be a very difficult decision. And there is no good time to broach the subject.

But the moral of this story is to talk about it and let your wishes be known to your loved ones.