Organ Donation:
Don’t Let Myths Stand In Your Way
Patience is a virtue. But if you’re one of the nearly 90,000 people in the
United States waiting for an organ transplant, patience can cost you your
life.
Nearly 90,000 people are
on the national organ transplant waiting list, waiting for kidneys, livers,
pancreases, intestines, hearts and lungs.
The numbers are steadily climbing and at much higher rates that the
number of organ donors. Slightly
more than 6,000 people die waiting for an organ transplant each year ~ that’s
more than 17 people a day. They died
because not enough organs were donated for transplantation.
Perhaps no other medical
procedure has
generated the amount of myth, mystery and perhaps a sense of the macabre as
organ donation. If you’ve
delayed your decision to be a donor because of fear or a rumor you’ve never fully
explored, here are answers to some common organ transplant myths and concerns.
Myths:
-
If I agree to donate my organs, my doctor or the
emergency room staff won’t work as hard to save my life.
-The
hospital makes more money if I die because they can transplant my organs.
-
Maybe I won’t really be dead when they
sign my death certificate.
-
My family will be charged for donating a
loved one’s organs.
-
My loved one has suffered so much because
of his illness. I don’t want
him to suffer any more.
-
Blacks have a history of being treated second
to whites.
-
Rich, famous and powerful people always
seem to move to the front of the line when they need a donor organ.
-
I want my loved one to have an open casket funeral.
-
I’m too old to donate.
-
I’m not in the greatest health, and my eyesight is poor.
-
I’m too young to make this decision.
-
Organ donation is against my religion.
-
I am a cancer survivor. I've been told
that I may never be a donor.
How
to be an Organ Donor.
Myth:
If I agree to donate my organs, my
doctor or the emergency room staff won’t work as hard to save my life.
They’ll remove my organs as soon as possible to save somebody else.
Reality: When
you go to the hospital for treatment, doctors focus on saving your life –
not someone else’s. You’ll be
seen by a doctor whose specialty most closely matches your particular emergency. This effectively shuts the door to you being treated by a
transplant physician who works solely with transplant candidates and
recipients. The doctor assigned
to your case has nothing to do with transplantation.
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Reality: Let
me put it in black and red. When the hospital stops trying to save your
life, the hospital stops getting paid. The hospital may only bill the
patient for the costs associated with their efforts to save the patient's
life. The costs to retrieve the organs and transplant them to other
patients are shared by the Organ Procurement Organization and the transplant
recipient respectively.
Furthermore, transplantation is a very costly enterprise
that hospitals do not profit from. There are very high costs associated
with maintaining and operating a transplant center which requires highly trained
professionals in not only surgery, but pharmacology, radiology, anesthesiology,
transfusion medicine, pathology, laboratory medicine, nutrition, infectious
disease..., as well as the specialists who dealt with the original
disease/condition that caused the need for the transplant: cardiologist,
pulmonists, hepatologists, nephrologists, urologists, hematologist, oncologists,
ophthalmologists... Nurses and technicians are specially trained for the
transplant patient population.
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Myth:
My
family will be charged for donating my organs.
Reality:
The organ donor’s family is never charged for donating organs.
Your family is charged for the costs of all final efforts to save your
loved one’s life, and those costs are sometimes misinterpreted as costs
related to organ donation. Costs
for organ removal go to the transplant recipient.
If you receive a bill for what you believe are costs related to organ
donation, talk to the billing department of the hospital.
You may have misunderstood the charges, or the costs may have been
misdirected. Funeral expenses are
still the responsibility of the donor’s family.
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Myth:
Maybe
I won’t really be dead when
they sign my death certificate. It’ll
be too late for me if they’ve taken my organs for transplantation.
I might have otherwise recovered.
Reality:
Although a popular topic in the tabloids and melodramas, in reality, people rarely
wiggle a toe after they’re declared dead.
In fact, people who have agreed to organ donation are given more tests
to determine that they are truly dead than are those who haven’t agreed to
organ donation.
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Myth:
My
loved one has suffered so much because of his illness.
I don’t want him to suffer any more.
Reality:
Your loved one is dead at the time of donation and cannot feel pain.
Even after death, every effort is made to ensure that your loved one’s
body is treated with the same degree of respect as is given a living patient.
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Myth:
Blacks
have a history of being treated second to whites. How do I know that my organs won’t simply be given to
whites and that black people won’t be denied organs whenever a white
transplant candidate needs one?
Reality:
The national organ transplant waiting list is colorblind.
Among all of the medical data listed on the transplant list for each
person waiting, no race information is specified.
When a donor organ becomes available, those allocating the organ don’t
know the race of those waiting for it. Allocation
is made according to medical data and time spent on the waiting list.
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Myth:
Rich,
famous and powerful people always seem to move to the front of the line
when they need a donor organ. There’s
no way to ensure that my organs will go to those who’ve waited the longest
or are the neediest.
Reality:
The rich and famous are not given priority when it comes to allocating
organs. It may seem that way
because of the amount of publicity generated when celebrities receive a
transplant, but they are treated no differently than anyone else.
In fact, the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the organization
responsible for maintaining the national organ transplant network, subjects
all celebrity transplants to an internal audit to make sure the organ
allocation was appropriate. Remember
too, that it would be unfair to deny someone a transplant simply because he or
she is a celebrity.
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Reality:
Like an autopsy, organ and tissue donation doesn’t interfere with
having an open casket funeral. If organs are taken, the body is stitched up as if the person
were alive and had undergone surgery. The
body is clothed for burial, so the stitches aren’t visible.
With tissue donation, a very thin layer of skin similar to a sunburn
peel is taken from the donor’s back, and because the donor is clothed and
lying on his back in the casket, no one can see any difference.
For eye donation, an artificial eye is inserted, the lids are closed,
and again, no one can tell any difference.
For bone donation, a rod is inserted where bone is removed.
The body is stitched up and clothed, so no one can see any difference.
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Myth:
I’m
too old to donate. Nobody
would want my organs.
Reality:
There’s no defined cutoff age for donating organs.
Organs have been successfully transplanted from donors in their 70s and
80s. The decision to use your
organs is based on strict medical criteria, not age.
Don’t disqualify yourself prematurely.
Let the doctors decide at your time of death whether your organs and
tissues are suitable for transplantation.
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Myth:
I’m
not in the greatest health, and my eyesight is poor. Nobody would want my organs or tissues.
Reality:
Very few medical conditions automatically disqualify you from donating
organs. The decision to use an
organ is based on strict medical criteria.
It may turn out that certain organs are not viable for transplantation,
but other organs and tissues may be fine.
Don’t disqualify yourself prematurely.
Only medical professionals at the time of your death can determine
whether your organs are suitable for transplantation.
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Myth:
I’m
under age 18. I’m too young
to make this decision.
Reality:
That’s true ~ in a legal sense.
But your parents can make this decision for you.
You can express to your parents your wish to donate, and your parents
might give their consent knowing that it’s what you want.
Children, too, are in need of organ transplants, and they usually need
organs smaller than those an adult can provide.
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Reality:
Organ donation is consistent with the beliefs of all larger religious
denominations in the United States. This
includes Catholicism, Protestantism and most branches of Judaism.
If you’re unsure or uncomfortable with your faith’s position on
donation, ask a member of your clergy.
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Reality:
First, congratulations on defeating Cancer. As with all organ
donations, transplant specialists will review your health history to determine
if your organs are viable for transplant. They will consider many
factors such as how long you've been in remission (5 years is good), the type
of cancer that you had, as well as the overall condition of your body.
Perhaps some, but not all of your organs can be recovered. You may still
give the gift of sight to someone in donating your corneas, or a happily
beating heart to someone who may already share the same type of cancer you
had. Don't count yourself out - let the medical professionals decide.
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Contrary
to popular belief, signing a donor card on your driver’s license does not
guarantee that your organs will be donated.
Check with your state to see if they have an official Donor Registry.
Californians may now register to be organ donors on-line at www.donatelifecalifornia.org.
State donor registries are legally binding; however, a signed donor card or driver’s license
only provides proof to your family
that you wanted to be a donor, and these cards are often not available.
The best
way to ensure that your wishes are carried out is to inform your family of
your desire to donate. Hospitals
seek consent from the next of kin before removing organs.
If your family knows you wanted to be a donor, it makes it easier for
them to give their consent.
