Saving Lives with Losses

Saving Lives with Losses

Every year in America 2 people die every minute. Out of those people, 1.5 are eligible for being an organ donor (Donate Life). At this very moment, 600,000 people are awaiting an organ or tissue sample to help them keep living. Being an organ donor should be a personal choice. The family should not be allowed to deny the wishes of the deceased. Being an organ donor is one of the noblest things to do as your last conscious action. If you are an organ donor and you are physically healthy and you die in a car accident you could save 38 lives. When you answer one of the many “silly” questions next time you go to renew your drivers license, stop and think, “Do you want to be an organ donor?” you could answer no and they will destroy your perfectly good organs, or you can answer yes, and according to Community Tissue Services, possibly save 75 lives.

When you make your decision to be an organ donor and they place that little red sticker on your driver’s license that is not the last step. You need to make sure your family knows your decision and respects it. In today’s world many people are losing the chance at a new organ that may save their life because a family is too distraught to make a decision in time. Educate your family and let them know your decision. It is a life and death choice.

There are so many stories of the people that have benefited from receiving an organ. On the organ donation website they told the story of Bobby and Gloria. Bobby collapsed with a brain aneurism at work. His wife Suzi, daughter Melissa, and son Matt all rushed to the hospital to be by his side as they prepared him for surgery. As, they prepared for surgery, Bobby had another brain aneurism that caused his tragic death. The family was left to grieve. When given the option, Suzi was comforted by the idea that other people could live through Bobby. One of those people happened to be Gloria. Gloria was an active mother of two small children and went to the doctor with complaints of being tired and stressed out. It turned out to be more. Gloria’s blood work indicated that she had a rare type of hepatitis. The doctor told her to go home and rest and they would call her back. She went home to take a nap, and woke up three weeks later with a new liver. She had slipped into a coma and her husband had found her. He rushed her to the nearest hospital, the very same hospital Bobby had just passed away at. Suzi made the decision to donate Bobby’s organs, and Gloria was the first to receive his liver. Gloria awoke to find a husband with gray hair, a mother who had aged 10 years, and two children who had been told their mother wasn’t coming home. It was a sad time for the whole family but had ended well. Gloria was allowed to go home just 4 days after waking up. Suzi received a thank you letter from Gloria’s family about two months after Bobby’s death. It helped her knowing that someone had survived because of Bobby’s death. Melissa, Bobby’s daughter, wrote back to Gloria and they began to correspond. Now the two are close friends and Bobby’s family often sees the benefits of organ donor ship (Donate Life).

There are so many stories so similar to Bobby and Gloria’s. You could make the decision to save lives. Your family plays a vital role in helping these people. After you die they hold the ultimate decision. I think there should be a law that prevents family members from denying organ donors their ultimate choice. There is a law that forbids you from selling your organs, because they don’t want the rich to have an unfair advantage at receiving an organ. Therefore, there should be a law that allows everyone that is healthy enough to donate to make their own decision and not be allowed to prohibit the donation by the family members.

According to Life Connection of Ohio,

Consider the case of Brian, a seventeen-year old who loved basketball and his 10-speed bicycle. One evening last spring Brian was struck by a car while riding home from his high school. He was rushed to the emergency room with severe head injuries. Emergency surgery was performed during the night but Brian was finally declared “brain dead.”…Brian’s parents signed the permission form. Within hours skilled surgical teams removed Brian’s organs and tissues and sped them on to waiting recipients. Brian’s heart went to a 35-year-old father of two. The liver forestalled death in a 20-year-old college student. One of Brian’s kidneys went to a teacher who had been on dialysis for 5 years; the other kidney went to a young wife and mother of three youngsters. Brian’s eyes were removed so that his corneas could restore sight to two blind people. His donated skin helped save the life of a severely burned baby. Bone from Brian’s legs ands hips were removed so that a 14-year-old boy