You may wonder why I chose this topic to write about, but I am truly passionate about organ donation. This is not a political piece, merely an emotional subject for me based on my career and love of medicine. I realize the power behind the statement of donating the gift of life. If you do not agree, I respect your opinion fully, and believe that is why each individual has to make the choice for themselves. I personally, am proud to be an organ donor. While I hope to live a long, healthy, and vibrant life -- accidents happen and life can change in seconds.
What sparked my passion on the subject? In 2012 I was first hired at Mayo Clinic Arizona. While I had been performing ultrasound for years, I had never scanned a fresh transplanted organ. This was a whole new learning curve for me, which I loved. I returned to Mayo Clinic in 2015 after taking 2 years off with my son living in North Dakota, I soon realized the love of what my job entailed never went away. I now work part time and still spend lots of quality time with Lincoln! Best of both worlds if you ask me!
We have all lived the daily chaos of work. Sure work is just work sometimes, but my patients are people. While I see many individuals for multiples reasons, transplant patients are a large volume of my work flow. I love the emotion they bring out in me. I have cried with those I've gotten to know well, I've been excited when I see they received a transplant, and even strangers whose stories of waiting years for the phone call -- choke me up because they are real people, with spouses, children, and grandchildren. In a world of pain, they want to live for the hope of tomorrow. The gratitude they feel and the life given back to them is overwhelming. Most donors never know the story of the individual lost, but the majority realize fully that another families sorrow is what saved their life. A topic that deserves its own piece another day. (For those reading who wonder do some transplants not take or do some people not follow the rules, of course these things happen and again are not being touched on in today's post).
Mayo Clinic is the largest integrated transplant provider in the United States. While I perform ultrasound and you may not think that applies to transplants -- it actually does on a large scale when it comes to liver, kidney, and pancreas transplants. It is not uncommon to scan the "new" organ in a patient the same day the individual comes out of surgery and multiple times after looking for appropriate blood flow and any complications that could cause an organ not to thrive (there are many other factors not discussed here that factor into post transplant care as well). I am so proud to be a part of a remarkable team saving lives!
I thought the following statistics were very interesting:
- Approximately every ten minutes someone is placed on the waiting list
- You may save up to 8 lives through organ donation
Obviously there is a ton more information on this topic, many more statistics and a million opinions out there as well. Today I simply wanted to touch on the topic, and express if you've never thought about being an organ donor, please do. Your heart, lungs, kidneys, pancreas, skin, and other organs could all change someone else life in the event that yours was tragically taken.
I have attached a couple links below with more information if you would like to read more about being an organ donor.
http://www.organdonor.gov
http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/consumer-health/in-depth/organ-donation/art-20047529
"The things we take forgranted, someone else is praying for" Unknown