Organ donor Awareness Week

Organ donation rates still too low. : "Today marks the start of Organ Donor Awareness week and Australia continues to have one of the lowest donation rates in the world despite being a world leader in organ transplant surgery."

I know it is a very difficult thing to confront and I have blogged about organ donation before. Thinking about donating your bits when you are alive is actually difficult. It can also be traumatic for the ones who are left when you go. So I have told people I am happy to donate whatever might be useful to the living but they need to decide because it can be bad enough losing someone without thinking about their being cut up. There have been some pretty insensitive hospital cases with regard to this. That, in itself, should not stop you. I do not believe I shall need my bits when I am gone and if they can help someone else I am happy for that. Hospitals need to ensure that the living feel comfortable with it all because, bottom line, people would like to see others live. The waiting lists are sad. We have had a local lady die because she couldn't get the second transplant she needed. That's the other reality. Sometimes the transplants only last a while. She couldn't breathe any more and her new husband had to let her go. That's sad. Cystic fibrosis is one of those diseases we all know but the reality of it doesn't really hit home unless you know someone. These people can live relatively well and then they have to have a transplant. If nothing else this week we should look at the hopsital practices to reassure people it is done sensitively. We should talk about it and we should look at the people who have survived and renewed their lives because of the gift of an organ. In many ways I think it would help to connect the families of those who give and those who receive. I can imagine it would be tricky. It needs to be judged and a period of time needs to pass...but I am certain that putting a human face on it all would make it more real to us all.

Cystic Fibrosis in Australia