About 95 percent of Americans support organ donation, but less than half sign up to be
a donor…
what’s up with that?
Hello conscious collection of organs, Jules here for DNews.
No one knows exactly why people refuse to be organ donors.
Organ donation is a tricky subject, and super individual.
According to one study most people gathered information on organ donation by watching
scientifically inaccurate shows like Grey’s Anatomy.
Another study backed up that data, showing more than half of people learned what they
know about donation from television, and another 12 percent from their friends; unsurprisingly,
72 percent of people were afraid organ donation.
So, let’s burst this Anatomically Grey bubble and talk about what actually happens during
organ donation.
First, if a patient enters a hospital, literally no one is thinking about whether or not they
are an organ donor.
If it’s an emergency, they’re working to save the person’s life, if not, to try
and make them healthy again.
And yet, it’s a fact of life that they don’t always succeed.
If the person does die, only then do they check if the person was a donor.
Only.
Then.
Of course, backing up a step, death itself can be complicated.
Some people connect the presence of a heartbeat to life, but since 1981, legally, it’s not
the heartbeat, but brain activity that determines life or death.
If the brain dies, it’s not coming back.
Patients who are brain dead, by the way, may still have basic functions, sometimes assisted
or completely controlled by machines -- often the cadaver will be on a ventilator at time
of death to keep the blood pumping, oxygen moving, and organs alive.
Sometimes, death is easy to spot: major injury, blood loss, suffocation, hemorrhage, swelling,
stroke, and so on -- they all make the diagnosis of brain death easier, but it’s never taken
lightly.
Brain death isn’t an accidental or flippant diagnosis like on tv -- there’s no fancy
machine with colorful charts monitoring your brain activity -- instead: doctors (yes, there
are two) will conduct a “brain death test.”
According to the American Academy of Neurology this means checking for reflexes controlled
by the brain stem.
They’ll shine a light into the pupil, scratch the back of the throat, poke to cause minor
pain, and put water in the ear canal trying to get eye reactions.
If there’s no response they’re disconnected from the ventilator to see if they have a
“respiratory drive,” or if they want to breathe.
If they react to none of these, doctors decide their brain stem isn’t controlling their
body, and they’re considered brain dead.
The ventilator is turned back on, and the family is informed.
The doctors then check donor rolls, and discuss final wishes with the family.
If the person’s wish is for organ donation, then they look for organ and tissue matches!
The heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas, intestines, skin, bone tissue, corneas, tendons,
ligaments, and blood vessels can all be transplanted -- that may sound like a lot, but that still
leaves a lot behind.
The doctors take as much care with deceased donors as they do with living humans, taking
the donor to a sterilized operating room like any other.
An anesthesiologists monitors fluids and body conditions while surgeons remove organs and
tissues that can be used, inspect them for any unknown disease or damage.
They then cool them for transport to the donee.
Once the organs are safely removed, the person is closed like any surgery, the ventilator
is shut off.
The body is cleaned, hair is washed, and the body is returned to the family.
Really quickly, there are a lot of myths out there about this process.
Donors can have an open casket funeral, no problem, organ donation is performed just
like any surgery.
Doctors will absolutely work as hard as possible to save your life if you come in no matter
how many desirable looking organs you may have.
And finally, no matter how old you are, your organs can be helpful.
Organ donation is tough for people.
A breathing, body with a heartbeat is difficult for many family members to accept as a cadaver,
and even if you sign up to be a donor, and die in a way suitable for donation, your family
can sometimes override that wish.
That said, only 3 in 1000 people die in such a way that allows for donation.
They have to be generally healthy, without viral infection, and must die in a hospital
setting!
Over 119,000 children, women and men are on the waiting list for organ donation, and 22
die each day waiting for a replacement.
Unsurprisingly, lots of people are working to get more people to donate their organs.
The American Journal of Transplantation published a study recently detailing how Spain reached
40 donors per million people.
That’s huge.
In Australia it’s 18 per million, in it’s Israel 11, Ecuador 2.
Thanks to efforts in the U.S. we’re pretty high on the list at 26 per million.
In the end, Spain might be in the lead, but the winners are the people who are willing
to give up parts of themselves they no longer need, and the stories of those who receive
the life-saving donations.
So why do we even have to match organs in the first place?
That’s what one group of researchers thought, so they figured out how to donate from anyone
to anyone else.
Amy’s got the story here.
And if you guys like interesting and obscure facts - which I know you do - check out our
friends at Did You Know for nine facts that will make you smarter than everyone else.
Do you plan to donate your organs?
Why or why not?
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