Cal.E.'s Korner

C.: So, D.C., have you recovered enough from your weekend to help me write today’s blot post?

D.: I have, Cal.E.

C.: So, what was the best thing about your weekend away?

D.: Well, as you know, I went to a city with some interesting history to work. However, Eudora went with me, so we also had some fun discovering the city and some of the things that it offered for entertainment, but that wasn’t the best…well, let’s just say the most important part of my weekend.

C.: This sounds interesting.

D.: It is. While I was in a patient’s room, the hospital administrator came on the P.A. system and announced that the staff would be participating in an “honor walk.”

C.: What’s that?

D.: An honor walk is to honor the family of someone who volunteered to be an organ donor. To honor the family, the staff lines the walls as the body is being brought to the operating room on a gurney The body is kept alive so that the organs will be viable, even though the person’s brain has been declared dead. This continues until surgeons can be called in and life flight helicopters are available to take organs to recipients all over the country. Some organs even go to other countries.

C.: In a helicopter?

D.: No, those were probably transferred to airplanes because the organs are only viable for twenty-four hours after life support has been terminated..

This young man, from what I could tell when his body passed me in the hallway, looked to be less than thirty years old when he was declared brain dead. From his haircut, I suppose he was either an active or inactive member of a branch of the military. Since he was so young, I doubt he’d given much thought to donating his organs, so that decision was left up to his family, and that’s who the staff was lined up to salute.

That family made the unselfish decision to let their loved ones’ remains make a difference in other people’s lives, maybe even saving ten lives, or more. At his age, this young man probably had organs that had not deteriorated, so most, if not all, of his organs could be used to save lives or, at least, make someone else’s life a less difficult.

If you are not an organ donor, please give some consideration to becoming one. Organs of any age individual can be used if s/he makes the decision to become an organ donor, and it may save several lives.