Organ Donation

Choosing to be an organ donor is a very personal decision. My occupation has given me the honor of helping with organ harvest. We don't do the transplants at our small hospital.I'm not sure if I can explain the feeling in the operating room when a family makes the decision to have a loved one's organ's donated. We are used to helping patients with an operation that will save lives and improve life style. While we never see the people that will receive the gift of donation, we experience the reverence and gratefulness of the team that does the harvesting. There is a special spirit in the OR that is felt by everyone there. I know what donation has meant to my family. My brother has been a recipient of a kidney, lovingly donated by his daughter. My nephew was killed in a car accident in 2004 and his eyes, tissue and bone were lovingly donated by my Sister because he made a statement saying that he would like to be a donor if anything would ever happen to him.My Sister-in-law will receive a stem cell transplant next week to hopefully put her leukemia in remission.This video by Paul Cardall is really beautiful and it certainly speaks for itself.Whether or not you would choose to be a donor, you certainly can't deny the value of the lives it changes.