About Giving the Gift of Life

I would like to take a few moments and provide some information about a very important, yet controversial subject – organ and tissue donation. Due to the nature of the subject, many people are reluctant to discuss this topic, and it often crosses the bounds of a person’s belief. It is also a highly regulated process and involves several outside agencies who oversee the entire process. The one thing that cannot be argued is that organ and tissue donation can help a person or persons in need. It is estimated that there are currently 100,000 people waiting in the U.S alone for organ transplants. About 77 people per day receive transplants, but on average 18 people die each day because an organ did not become available for them.

Organs such as lungs, heart, liver, pancreas and kidneys are rarely available. They can only be obtained from a donor who has been declared brain dead but is kept functioning by a ventilator until the organs can be matched with a potential recipient and then removed.  However, tissue donation is much more common because the donation can occur after the heart has stopped beating. Tissues that can be used include skin, bones, heart valves, and eye corneas. Nearly all people who pass away are potential tissue donors except in those cases when the day of death cannot be determined, if the patient was very elderly or if they had certain infectious diseases.

The Federal Required Request Act of 1986 mandates that hospitals must offer the option of organ donation upon the death of any potential donor. Other laws require hospitals to affiliate with an organ procurement organization.  Maria Parham Medical Center has affiliated with Carolina Donor Services. We must notify them within one hour of every death or after a person is declared brain dead. At that time, we give them the contact information for the family, if it is available. Because every patient is considered a donor until they are declined by Carolina Donor Services, we have protocols to care for the body. That care includes placing moistened gauze over the eyes in case of potential cornea donations.  The hospital does not ever remove any organ or tissue. This is done by the donor service and at no cost to the family of the deceased.

Since Carolina Donor Services has been deemed the expert in talking to families about organ and tissue donation, it is mandated that our doctors and nurses should not have these conversations with the patient’s family members. 

 If the patient is a registered donor, Carolina Donor Services begins the scheduling of organ harvest or collection and notifies the NC Eye Bank. Often this harvest may be done at the hospital, but the patient might be taken to a different location.

 If the patient is not listed as a registered donor, Carolina Donor Services and the NC Eye Bank contact the family to explain the process and ask them to consider donation. If the family says no, then the case is closed, and both Carolina Donor Services and the NC Eye Bank make separate calls to the staff at the hospital to state that the patient has been declined or released.

The hospital cannot release the body to a funeral home until the patient has been declined or released by both Carolina Donor Services and the NC Eye Bank. Equally important, Carolina Donor Services and the NC Eye Bank cannot harvest from a patient at the hospital without written documentation that the patient is a registered donor or that the family has given permission.

While much of this may seem cold and impersonal, it’s important to remember that the sole purpose of our legislators is to increase the number of available organs and tissues for those that wait desperately for word that something is available. It is also important for those that have become registered donors to communicate their wishes to their family. We are lucky to live very close to two renowned facilities that do many successful organ transplants: Duke University Medical Center and UNC Hospitals. There are many people in our community who have been recipients of tissue and organ donations and now have a better quality of life.

 

Cindy Faulkner, RN

Chief Nursing Officer

VP Patient Care Services

Maria Parham Medical Center