Donate Life

As April is coming to an end, I wanted to blog about this special month. April is organ donation month. A time when we celebrate those who's lives have been changed from receiving an organ donation.  It's also a time to reflect on those whose choice to donate their organs have allowed others to continue living.

All month long, the atrium of Methodist Hospital has had posters displayed telling the stories of who have been affected by organ donation.  I've walked by these daily, stopping to read each story.  They definitely pull at your heart:  The two little kids who were killed in an accident outside of Tone's Spices, the couple who lost their lives after an accident in a well on their property, and the young girl who suffered an intracranial hemorrhage.  They were all organ donors, the latter donated her lungs to another young girl with cystic fibrosis.  It forces you to just stop and reflect.

All day long I see patients on dialysis.  This is their life-line.  Many are not transplant candidates for a variety of reasons, (age, other health conditions, lack of adherence with medical regimen). Many others have been waiting for years to receive that message on their pager from their transplant clinic telling them an organ is waiting at a nearby hospital.

I love the days when I walk into a dialysis center, looking for a particular patient, only to find out he or she was called for a transplant the day before.  I recently visited a patient in the hospital after his kidney transplant. I never thought I would see the day that he would be transplanted. Although young and relatively healthy, he had other things holding him back from being a transplant candidate. He got his life together after a scare a year ago and is now off dialysis.  I was quick to remind him to "take care of that kidney," when I left his hospital room.

What an amazing feeling that must be. To go from spending 3 days a week, 3-4 hours each time, tied to a dialysis machine, (or daily dialysis at home), to having the freedom of your life back.  To go from little to no urine output, to urinating regularly.  To be able to eat and drink pretty much whatever you want, instead of complying to a 1500cc fluid restriction, low potassium, low phosphorus and low sodium diet.  (Plus add a diabetic diet on to that and that leaves you with limited food choices).  To know that receiving that transplant will keep you alive and more healthy than being on dialysis, and hopefully prevent you from needing to step inside a dialysis unit for many, many years must be a great feeling.

It's also important to remember our humanitarian donors. Those who decided to donate their kidney to someone they don't know, just to allow that individual to have another chance at life.  What an altruistic act.

Next time you renew your driver's license, check YES to be an organ donor, and discuss your wishes with your family because in many instances their consent would also be needed.