I spent several days interviewing OPO’s (Organ Procurement Organizations) and drove to Springfield to interview the Saving Sight Partner Support Manager. We spoke for almost two and a half hours as she educated me on the ins and outs of helping others to live. ‘Donor Hero’ was a phrase this lady used, and I thought it really highlighted what people that choose to give a piece of themselves are, so that others may go on living.
I also wrote that I continue to learn. For some reason (ignorance?), I thought that donating your eyes meant donating the entire globe of the eye (colloquially called the ‘eyeball’). Come to find out, most eye donations involve surgically removing only the cornea, the clear, transparent portion of the eye that sits in the front of the pupil, protecting the eye and helping focus light. So, corneal removal does not ‘deform’ the eye and there are no impacts to having an open casket. All things I did not know about until I sat down and asked the questions.
In addition, several hospitals in Joplin and Springfield have an annual event where people who owe their lives to someone caring enough to donate their organs, get together and celebrate. Around a hundred attendees normally come to the celebration. They are living, breathing, walking examples of folks whose lives go on because someone else cared enough to become a DONOR HERO.
The Cassville Democrat in Barry County just published an article, “Awaiting Death,” two days ago. It contained the below sentences that the author gave me permission to quote here.
“Mrs. Pace, a donor-mom herself, lost her 13-month-old son to an irreversible brain bleed and subsequent brain-stem death in 2004. “We were approached by a representative of Mid-America, and my husband and I chose to donate our son’s heart, liver and kidneys,” Pace said. “It helped us in that time of trauma, something we had no control over, to know that three other lives were saved. Losing him was hard, but donation helped provide some meaning and hope for the future.” Pace said she also lost her stepson, last fall, to cardiac arrest at age 31, and his body, too, was responsible for saving three other lives. Pace now works for Mid-America to support other families in crisis in hospitals. She said most of the members of her family support teams have personal stories similar to her own. There are currently over 100,000 people in the United States on a waiting list for an organ donation and transplant, said Pace. According to stats from opodata.org, Missouri currently has a waiting list of 2,141 people in need of a transplant. Sixteen of those people die every month, while waiting, the site states”
I wanted to give folks an idea of the procedures that the OPO’s go through after a death to determine if your loved one’s body is a candidate to become a Donor Hero. The hospitals and care providers covered by the CMS generally have 60 minutes after death to contact an OPO and notify them of the possibility of an organ donor.
These organizations are very aware of your pain and the agony you are experiencing. They will try to give as much time as possible, up to several days if the loved one is on a ventilator but expected to die. Sometimes, waiting is not possible, especially with eyes and tissue donations.
Eyes are particularly susceptible. Another lesson I learned was that when someone dies, if we raise the head 30 degrees (basically on a pillow) and wet the eyes with some normal saline, we increase the viability of the eyes and possibility of someone else regaining their sight. OPO’s represent the Eye Bank and will contact them separately so there is no need to contact the Eye Bank yourself.
The list of questions is the Universal Donor Risk Assessment Interview (UDRAI). Different forms are used for those over 12 years old, children, infants, etc. I wanted to list the complete set of questions, but the fifty-question outline also include many ‘sub-questions.’ The questions are like the questions you must answer when you donate blood.
There will be questions about occupation, exposure to toxic substances as well as what specific toxins and when and how often they were exposed. They want to know the family physician as well as their contact information. They will want to know about all medical procedures, diseases, and conditions to include drugs, whether prescription, over the counter, or illicit. Question #6 (recent medical symptoms) is a good example of why I could not list all the questions. It has thirteen sub-questions (leave it to a government form).
They will ask about vaccinations, animal bites and scratches and in-depth questions regarding exposure to blood, including tattoos, acupuncture, and exposure to those with hepatitis. One of the hardest portions will be the in-depth questions of the past five years of sexual activity as well as the sexual activity of any partners.
There will be questions about travel outside the U.S., smoking, drinking, and if they ever lived in a homeless shelter or spent time in prison or jail. My talks with the OPO’s revealed that they are constrained as to what answers they accept to questions. ALL questions require a YES or NO. “I don’t know” is not acceptable so another reason to ‘pre-fill’ the form, so your survivors are not left getting into an argument and your wishes to be denied because they did not know something.
It is easy to see why my friend considered this to be somewhat of another ‘trial by fire’ on the heels of his wife’s death. This week, he recounted to me that he had been speaking to a friend who was terminally ill. His friend stated he had one hope regarding the end, he wanted HOPE: to die at Home, with Others, Pain free, and Excited.
Humbly submitted,
Danny Leo Green, Coroner, Cedar County
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