Your Family Would Want You to Be an Organ Donor

Your Family Would Want You to Be an Organ Donor

Before a life changing event occurred, I was not an organ donor. I believed that if you signed up to be a donor that the doctors would not try as hard to save you. Also that you should go out of this world the way you came in. My mind was changed because of a family member that would have died, if it were not for another organ donor. Now I am convinced, and try to convince others, that everyone should be a donor.

My father-in-law was attacked by a stray dog and had to have a blood transfusion when he was a fifteen. Twenty two years later he began to get sick. After a lot of tests, he was diagnosed with hepatitis C. The doctors traced it back to that blood transfusion he had as a child. Back in the 70's donated blood was not tested to the standards that it is today. Hepatitis can stay dormant for twenty plus years, so he had no idea until it began to become active in his body. Hepatitis C is a disease that affects the liver. It can cause it to swell, not function properly, and develop cirrhosis. When my father-in-law began to experience symptoms, it was only about a month until his liver was beyond saving. He had been on the donor list but it was very long. The doctor's told us that unless he was on his death bed to not count on a liver. The night of May 2nd 2002 his condition was the worst it had ever been. All of the family was called in to "say goodbye" to our loved one. We were told that he was on the top of the donor list because of his critical condition, but it would take a miracle. A miracle it did take, and also changed my views on being an organ donor for the rest of my life.

That summer night my Father-in-laws liver shut down, it was not working at all. The doctor told us that the toxins being put out by his liver were contributing to killing him. So they asked if the family would consent to an experimental surgery. They would remove his liver from his body to stop the toxins from running throughout his body, which would buy him a few extra hours of life. There is not a machine that can "act as"