i have a question.....i dont know why this bothers me but....i would love to donate everything but my eyes. i know...weird....but i cant get around it. can you do this....donate everything but request to specifically NOT donate something?

Had it on my drivers license for years. Your story reminds me of the American family vacationing in Italy. Their young son was killed (very strange, I think it was a gunshot) and they donated his organs. It spurred organ donorship in Italy, which had been minimal up to that point.

Far as I'm concerned, take it all. I'm not going to need it.

Take heart from your plea because you talked me into it. I always thought it was a wonderful idea but never did anything about it.

I need to go get a new driver's license because we have moved and I'll be sure that this is done.

Lem -you are a very wonderful man. I truly mean this from my heart -wish there were more doctor's like you. You have moved me to tears. Something that does not ahppen very often since D-Day. You are so right -even us older people have skin that can be donated to burn victims. If anyone wants anything I have left I will gladly donate. I am signing up for bone marrow as well.
I praise you for your heart, good works, and genuine love of life and people. May God bless you. I do hope this cheers you seeing how so many others already are donors.

nikko, that creeped me out too. BUt I checked and I know they don't take your eyeballs, they take the cornea/lens. RIght, LM?

And as far as the eyes, the idea of giving the gift of sight to someon who have never seen their child or granchild, that is something.

THe other thing is skin. Creeped me out. BUt they only take a very thin layer. Like when a sunburn peels. THey they perforate it to stretch ti. I don't remeber how much area they can make the skingcover, but they use it for burn victims. Or they used to. My brother is a fireman and this is something he always talked about. SO I specifically told my family to take my skin. After I die, I won't need anything for my new life. I will be reborn. I think of it a giving away my worldy goods.


I have been a donor since I was 18 - over 36 years. My children are as well.

(((TT)))

Lem,

My 23-yo brother received a live kidney transplant from my mother in September. I was tested but am AB+ and was not a match to my A+ brother. I have since learned how "rare" AB is (about 4%) and talk to EVERYONE I know about being organ donors. We even did a Walk-A-Thon in October to promote organ donation awareness.

My brother wouldn't have lived otherwise.

Thank you so much for posting!

I am big believer in organ donation and it is in my living will as my stbx knows my wishes. It is important to make your family clear on your wishes just having it on your DL is not enough! Very sorry about the loss of that family's dear daughter.

It's on my driver's license, too. They can have whatever is worth taking.

Thanks for reminding us and thank you for being there at some of the toughest times in anyone's life.
Mulan

I want to personally thank each and every one of you for reading this thread and thinking about this, and perhaps paying it forward somewhere else.

As of 2:00 pm est: a heart, pancreas, liver, and kidney HAVE all been transplanted to people in life desperation need throughout the country.

As we all slept last night in our warm beds, there were various Operating Room's througout the country burning the midnight oil transplanting these organs and giving new "life".

Today a family of 4 children and wife visit their Dad/Husband right here in our ICU, only 4 beds away from the room where the donor was. He was given a new lease on life by this liver that he had placed at 1:30 in the morning. The family huddles around their still intubated Dad, holding hands and taking turns letting out emotional grief and joy as they realize the impact of how this happened, and I am sure, how someone else's pain and devestation is giving them their Dad back. When he wakes up, the clock on his life will have hopefully...been "set back".

"All that is not given in this life.....IS LOST"

Lem

this gave me chills and tears..thanks for sharing..
can i have your permission to forward a copy to my friends??

Ofcourse, and it would be appreciated.

Lem

Lem,

This really hits home for me. My older brother has been on the liver transplant list since March of this year. He has been in and out of the hospital many times this year, the last time being this weekend. He was set to be released on Monday and instead took a turn and was in ICU. He was released yesterday. It is such an emotional rollar coaster ride, he needs to be sick, but not too sick for the transplant. And someone needs to pass in order for him to live. Very difficult idea to deal with.

It was very hard to read about the 16-yr old, I can't imagine the pain her family is in. I thank you and others like you for the work you do, making death as honorable as possible, while helping others deal with it. Thanks again!

It's on my DL and in my Living Will. And as of this morning all of my family know my wishes.

Good job LM.

With prayers,

Just a quick response to one of the above posts...as an ophthalmologist, I can tell you that the entire eye is removed for corneal or sclera donation.

meena

Ewwwww. Nikko - What now?

But seriously, one of the guys I worked with had something wrong with his eye - it looked all cloudy. He a transplant last year, and looks GREAT, can see better, and more importantly, feels wonderful about himself.

So I guess I'll just not think about the "hows" of the transplant, and concentrate on the rewards.

I'm using them all right now, but I'm more than happy to be used for parts when I'm done with them.

Dobie

Lem... both H and I have made it perfectly clear to each other and to our FOOs that we want to be organ doners. And of course the sticker is on our dirvers licenses.

My best friend from childhood received a liver from a young girl who died tragically in an accident. How unselfish of that little girl's family to give that gift to my friend and other gifts to other people.

I also hope to donate blood in a couple weeks, if I can get my iron level up enough! Seems I can eat nothing but steak, take supplements, etc., and I'm nearly always one lousy point too low! But I keep trying anyway.

I've been an organ donor --marked on my license-- since 1990.

I told you before, LM, I agree with you more often than not. This is very very important.

lemonman,

thanks for the reminder. it is on both H and I's license. i can't imagine how hard it must have been for that family and even for you. as a nurse, i see sad stuff, but i work in a generally happy part of the hospital so i don't have to deal with it as much. i am way too emotional since having a child and can't deal with it.