Vanessa Morgan:
Transplant Co-ordinator
Animal to human transplants would mean that the people would
not have to wait for an organ which would be a great step forward for
transplantation, the negative side would be that we take away from the
very tangible form of comfort for many bereaved families.
There are two types of co-ordinator, one who works with transplant
recipients and one who looks after the organ donor and their family.
Organ donors are people who die on the intensive care unit, the oldest
age for donation is 75 years but many donors are much younger than this.
The donor is diagnosed as dead while they are still on a ventilator
machine, rigorous tests are performed to ensure that the brain is dead
before the ventilator is switched off. Most donors die from bleeds in
their brain from an accident. The death is always sudden and unexpected
and therefore a terrible shock to the family.
Transplantation is obviously a wonderful form of treatment for patients
with end stage organ failure but there is another side to donation that
is often overlooked. As described above the family of the donor are
facing the worst possible moments in their lives. Having the opportunity
to donate organs and get something positive out of such a tragedy is
very important to them. The parents of a sixteen-year-old boy who died
from sub-arachnoid haemorrhage had these words to put on his gravestone:
'In life he gave love, in death he gave life.'
Organ donation is often the only way in which a devastated family can
make some sense out of their loss. It doesn't lessen the pain but in
some way it makes it easier to bear. Animal to human transplants would
mean that the people would not have to wait for an organ which would
be a great step forward for transplantation, the negative side would
be that we take away from the very tangible form of comfort for many
bereaved families.
Organ donation is not the right choice for every family but many find
it helps them enormously. Those of us who work in donor co-ordination
do so because we believe that organ donation does help many families.
However what our experience tells us is that only a very few people
die in these circumstances on the intensive care unit and therefore
there will never be enough human organs to go round, even if every family
agreed to donation. Xenografting will provide hope for so many people
on the transplant waiting lists and indeed will save lives, but spare
a thought for our donor families.
North Thames Transplant Coordinators
40 Eastbourne Terrace, London, W2 3QR
Tel: 0171 725 2774
Fax: 0171 725 5600
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