Organ donation after death: thoughts and experiences?

Whether they make an announcement or not, nothing really changes. At the end of the day, a sick person needs a transplant, and how or from whom that organ is sourced is secondary. Would you rather have a kidney from a killer or one from a chronic alcoholic?

Jose Miller3 said:but organ donation isn't nearly advanced enough here in the States—I seriously doubt anyone is even going to donate today!

Jose Miller3, you didn't quite explain yourself there...

In America, we only see about 50 transplants happen in an entire year. So, honestly, if someone gets an organ these days, they can pretty much be certain who it came from.

I'm not really sure what you're asking me... It's not like there are 50 transplants happening every single day—if that were the case, it would be impossible to track where everything comes from.

Jose Miller3 said:In America, they only do about 50 transplants a year total. So, anyone getting an organ these days can be pretty damn sure exactly who it came from.

I don't even get what you're asking here. It's not like there are 50 transplants happening every single day where you'd lose track of the donor.

And what does it matter where it came from anyway?
I mean, you could just turn it down if you aren't feeling the vibe of the donor's profile or whatever...

Walter Myers4 said:Who cares where you got it from?
I mean, you have every right to turn it down if the donor's psychological profile doesn't sit right with you...

That’s exactly the point. You either wait for someone more "gifted" 😬
Jose Miller3, the procedure here in the States is the same: an organ fails, you get on the waiting list, and you pray to God it happens while you're still breathing. 😁
You can think whatever you want about the donor...

Justin Fox said:Look, whether they release the info or not doesn't change anything. At the end of the day, a sick person needs an organ to survive, and how or from whom it comes is secondary. Would you rather have a kidney from a killer or one from a chronic alcoholic?

I just don't get it! Nobody is going to offer up an alcoholic's kidney because it isn't a healthy organ. Personality and character aren't stored inside a kidney—that's located somewhere else entirely (let's talk about the philosophy of it). And what does it even mean to "accept" a killer's organ? Like, does receiving it somehow turn you into a killer too? It's not like someone who receives my organs is suddenly going to turn into a stunning blonde or some moody brunette😬 if they weren't already
.

Look, I think we’re overcomplicating this. The core issue here is the actual protocol for organ donation and transplantation. Honestly, how many times a donor might have parked their car illegally is completely irrelevant to the matter at hand.

Grace Jackson11 said:I don't get it! Nobody is going to offer an alcoholic's kidney because it isn't a healthy organ.

...🙂 ....oh, they absolutely will, provided the lab results and ultrasound scans don't show any signs of pathology. Honestly, contraindications for organ transplants are becoming rarer by the day—there are really just a handful left. Even the age limit has been creeping up over the last few years; I remember we actually performed a kidney transplant on a 61-year-old not too long ago.

I know for a fact that no patient dealing with cancer is ever going to 😢

but my mom... she really wanted that

Contraindications:
- Kids under 5 or anyone over 65.
- Any kind of malignant disease, though I don't think anyone deals with primary brain tumors—if they did, they’d be heading straight for surgery anyway.
- Hepatitis B or C, HIV, and syphilis.
- Chronic low blood pressure that just won't budge even with vasoactive meds.
- Any medical history showing previous organ damage.
- Sepsis or any confirmed infection in the organ systems.
- Low urine output or total kidney shutdown despite being on diuretics.
- Abnormal lab results for urea, creatinine, or liver enzymes.

...so yeah, that's pretty much the whole list.

Scott Allen10, you’re honestly just an incredibly sharp and kindhearted soul, you know?

😘

So, basically, what was mentioned above only applies to patients hanging out in the ICU, specifically those who:
- have suffered an isolated traumatic brain injury, or
- are dealing with intracranial bleeding, or
- have sustained hypoxic brain damage.

...it’s really only those specific types of patients (given those diagnoses and assuming there aren't any contraindications) who would even be considered potential organ donors.

Scott Allen10, what actually happens to the organs of someone who signs an organ donor card, gets into a car wreck, and turns out to have had cancer all along without knowing...

I think I read somewhere—I'm pretty sure the original piece was out of the Lancaster—about someone who actually passed away because of the donor's cancer.

Tragedy... but it's definitely not just some urban legend.

The organ donor was this young, "healthy" person who died in a car accident, and neither the doctors nor the family even knew they had cancer (where the primary site was, I'm not really sure 😢 ). Her liver was transplanted, and then, despite all those immunosuppressant drugs, the metastases from the donor's liver just spread and ended up killing the recipient.

Such a Tragedy.

Lisa Ortiz17 said:Scott Allen10, I was just sitting here wondering about that weird scenario where someone signs an organ donor card, gets into a bad car wreck, and then it turns out they actually had cancer all along without even knowing it—what happens to their organs then?

You know, there actually isn't such a thing as an "organ donation contract" here in the States; what we really have is just an organ donor declaration. I honestly can't even begin to wrap my head around how much of a mess things have become lately, but I guess that's just life in America, isn't it? It feels like everything is just drifting away from us without anyone even noticing, almost like we're all just watching things slip through our fingers while we go about our daily routines. When it comes to organ donation after someone passes, it really all comes down to what the family decides in the end.
To answer what you were asking, we always run a super thorough diagnostic check on any donor, because honestly, you can't afford to miss anything when it comes to this stuff. Beyond just sitting down with the family to get their full medical history, we’re running a whole battery of lab tests, blood work, chest X-rays, and ultrasound scans on the abdomen and chest to confirm brain death. If even one little thing looks slightly off or suspicious, we have to step back and rule out every other possibility before moving forward—it's just how we ensure everything is done by the book.
But honestly, you have to keep in mind that those tiny little microtumors or micrometastases can totally slip under the radar, so everything described above is definitely a possibility.
Honestly, stuff like that is super rare and just falls into that whole "shit happens" category of life.

Jose Miller3 said:Scott Allen10, you’re honestly such an incredibly sharp and kindhearted soul, you know that?

😘

😁 ...man, I try telling my wife that all the time, but she just won't buy it...😍

I honestly can't wrap my head around how anyone could be bothered by this. Like, seriously—if you're dead and you have a chance to help someone out, maybe even save a life, why even hesitate???

I mean, it’s pretty simple: it's better for your organs to actually do something for a living person than to just rot in the ground feeding worms!

M.B. said:Maybe I’m losing my mind, maybe I’m just being foolish, maybe it was all a dream—or perhaps it is the absolute truth. In any case, please enlighten me.😬
Does anyone else among you esteemed forum members remember seeing an advertisement, or perhaps a public service announcement on PBS, about a year or two ago? It suggested that if you *don't* want to donate your organs after death, you actually have to sign some sort of legal agreement.
As illogical as it sounds, I cannot shake the feeling that I saw that commercial multiple times. If my heart and my reason are serving me correctly, I would love to find even a few people who recall seeing such an announcement.🙂

Regardless of whether you are "crazy," you saw it clearly enough.
And if you ask me, I would recommend that everyone go out and sign those opt-out papers immediately, right alongside me. We shouldn't be handing over our organs so easily. Have we not realized by now that such policies can become breeding grounds for criminality and even murder at the hands of medical professionals?
I don't need to lecture you on the existence of organ trafficking. Consider this scenario: suppose you are struck by a car, and then a doctor intentionally lets you slip away in the hospital simply because you failed to sign a document refusing organ donation, all so they can sell your parts to someone else.
I am not suggesting that all doctors are thieves, but one should never assume that such criminals don't exist within the system.
Don't give anyone your organs... sign those refusal forms immediately so you aren't handing over your insides to anyone!

What a massive pile of nonsense.... Here, take this... 😵 ...maybe it'll help clear your head a bit....

Posts like this only come from people who live for conspiracy theories and clearly haven't done a lick of actual research on the subject.
It honestly takes me back to this debate I had with a few self-proclaimed "experts" on another forum about this exact same thing.
I'm throwing out the same questions now that I couldn't get an answer to back then, because I suspect we're dealing with the same crowd:

Criminal activity or shady dealings regarding medical extractions here in the States...
WHERE EXACTLY?
WHEN?
WHO?
WHICH HOSPITAL?

Once you can actually provide some real answers to those questions, then we can talk, but until then.... 🙂 ....you might want to take your little manifestos somewhere else....

cyanide said:Everyone, listen up... sign a waiver right now stating you won't let anyone touch your internal organs!

Yeah, sure, "internal organs." 🙄

So, what, you think you're going to wake up one day in a bathtub full of ice only to realize your kidney is missing? 👏 Honestly, I'm fine with it, even if there were some kind of organ snatching spree happening on the streets of Chicago... ☕[which isn't happening]. If anything, I'd sign a document right this second saying I don't want your organs either, just so you could sleep better at night. Who knows? Maybe someone doesn't actually want to help another person stay alive after they've passed away, right? 👎

*And the odds of that actually happening are about the same as an asteroid hitting the States. Like, right now.