A public service announcement...

On what I would LOVE for people to know about organ donation!!

I chat in a few forums, and a couple of times, the topic of organ donation has come up. I'm very passionate about organ donation, and will share our story any chance I get.

I have heard people make comments on why they don't want to donate their organs, reasons being that they were afraid that the doctor would make a mistake, and they weren't actually dead.

In one instance, I engaged with a poster, who said that she heard a story that a guy was in an accident, his heart stopped, and they decided to harves his organs. On the way to the OR, his heart started beating again, and he made a full recovery. This poster was using this as a reason that she wouldn't donate her organs.

*Organs are not taken out of a dying person. They are taken out of a brain dead person...BIG BIG BIG difference!!! Also, they do not rush you from an ambulance to the OR to remove organs. A lot has to be arranged, before they even think about cutting the person open!*

More recently, a poster claimed that she'd read an investigation that if a doctor knows ahead of time, that a dying patient is an organ donor, that he might be likely to let that patient die, in order to harvest his organs. That the doctor might not do all he could to save that patient, so that another could live.

*Why would a doctor let one patient die, to save another? He wouldn't. Unless, maybe it was his mother, who needed the organs!! Even then, there are these pesky oaths, and ehical guidelines that doctors must deal with! And, again, organs are taken from a brain DEAD person, not a brain-DYING person! BIG BIG BIG DIFFERENCE!*

Misinformation like this makes my blood pressure sky-rocket, my heart race, and my emotions run wild.

This stuff couldn't be farther from the truth.

I just wanted to share our experience, so that people know exactly what goes on, behind the scenes of organ donation. We've been on both sides of it, so I'm speaking from our personal experience, particularly, in donating Joey's heart.

Organs are only harvested from a person who is brain dead. Brain dead is all dead. There is no recovery from brain death. When a person is declared brain dead...that's it. There will not be any miraculous recovery, and brain death is not the same as a coma. In a coma...the brain is injured, maybe impaired, but, not dead.

The doctors do several tests to declare brain death, before the organs can be harvested. We were allowed to be present for Joey's tests, so that we could see for ourselves, that he was indeed, gone. They did an EEG, to measure brain waves. They did a test on his pupils, to see if they reacted to light, and they pulled him off the breathing machine to see if he tried to spontaneously breathe on his own.

After this was done by one physician...they waited over night, and repeated them in the morning, by another physician.

The process to donate an organ is long, and tedious. It is not a hurried, rushed decision. There is a lot that has to happen and that has to be arranged, before they take the brain dead person (NOT BRAIN DYING PERSON) to the OR.

It took about 24 hours, or more, between the time that we signed the organ donation consent, and the time they took Joey into the OR.

I am very passionate about organ donation. A stranger's gift, gave us three months that we might not have otherwise had, with Joey...and his heart still beats in a precious little girl, named Daniela, today!

I hate that misinformation is used to scare people into making a decision against organ donation. I've lived it...both sides of it...and it's beautiful. It's incredible. It's AMAZING!! And, most importantly, it's carried out respectfully, and carefully, by people who genuinely care. For a few years after Joey died, I still talked to the nurses who came to harvest his organs, on the phone. I still send them Christmas cards, to this day.

I would be happy to answer any of your questions about the process. I love talking about it, and would be happy to share our experience, and even more happy to eradicate any misinformation out there!!!