Preview

Organ Donation

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
529 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Organ Donation
Today I’ll be talking about organ donation. Organ donation is the process of giving an organ or a part of an organ for the purpose of transplantation into another person.
In order for a person to become an organ donor, blood and oxygen must flow through the organs until the time of recovery to ensure viability. This requires that a person die under circumstances that have resulted in an irreparable neurological injury, usually from massive trauma to the brain such as aneurysm, stroke or automobile accident. Only after all efforts to save the patient’s life have been exhausted, tests are performed to confirm the absence of brain or brain stem activity, and brain death has been declared, is donation a possibility. The state donor registry is searched to determine if the patient has personally consented to donation. If the potential donor is not found on the registry, his or her legally authorized representative (usually a spouse, relative or close friend) is offered the opportunity to authorize the donation. Once the donation decision is established, the family is asked to provide a medical and social history. Donation professionals determine which organs can be transplanted and to which patients on the national transplant waiting list the organs are to be allocated.
Tissue, such as skin, and heart valves can be recovered from brain dead donors who can also donate solid organs.
If a donor is declared to have died because his or her heart stopped beating (not brain death), then the individual can only be a potential tissue and eye (cornea) donor.
Unlike the waiting list for organs, there is no formal database for those who need a tissue transplant. But at a moment’s notice, tissue has to be made available. For example, in the case of a burn victim, the availability of skin can mean the difference between survival and death.
Each day, averages of 75 people receive organ transplants. However, an average of 20 people die each day waiting for transplants that can't

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    The ability to keep someone alive by replacing one of their major organs is an amazing achievement of this century of medicine. Unfortunately, the current supply of transplant organs is much lower than that need or demand for them, which means that many people in the United States die every year for lack of a replacement organ. When a person gets sick because one of his or her organs is failing, an organ is damaged because of a disease or its treatment, or lastly because the organ has been damaged in an accident a doctor needs to assess whether the person is medically eligible for a transplant or not. If the person is eligible the doctor refers the patient in need of an organ to a local transplant center. If the patient turns out to be a transplant candidate a donor organ then must be found. There are two sources of donor organs. The first source is to remove the organs from a recently deceased person, which are called cadaveric organs (Potzgar, 2007). A person becomes a cadaveric organ donor by indicating that they would like to be an organ donor when they die. This decision can be expressed either on a driver’s license or in a health care directive, which in some states are legally binding contracts. The second source is from a living…

    • 2294 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The donor is aware that they will give up their organs when death has come to them. For example in The House of the Scorpion Tam Lin explains to matt that El Patron has used 7 of this clones for an organ transplant, and the he will be the next if El Patron gets ill. This explains that organ transplant can help to prevent death, like it did to El Patron 7…

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The waiting list for patients in need of organs is growing daily. It is shocking to find that “As of April 13, 2011, there were 110,758 individuals on the waiting list for an organ transplant in the United States” (Cotter, 2011, para 1). This waiting list can be greatly diminished by changing the way we donate and initiating automatic opt-in laws.…

    • 1250 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Signing up to be an organ donor is one of the most generous things you can do — especially when you consider that a single donor can potentially save eight lives. That’s eight people who won’t have to spend agonizing months or years on the transplant waiting list, who will get a second chance, because you made the selfless decision to be a donor. More than 120,000 men, women and children currently need lifesaving organ transplants. Every 10 minutes another name is added to the national organ transplant waiting list. An average of 18 people die each day from the lack of available organs for transplant. In 2012, there were 14,013 Organ Donors resulting in 28,052 organ transplants. In 2012, more than 46,000 corneas were transplanted. More than 1…

    • 1233 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Cited: “CMA policy: Organ and tissue donation and transplantation (update 2000).” Canadian Medical Association. Journal 163.2 (2000): 206-208. ProQuest Science Journals,…

    • 1766 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Organ donation takes healthy organs and tissues from one person for transplantation into another. Organs you can donate include: kidneys, heart, liver, pancreas, intestines, lungs, skin, bone, bone marrow, and cornea (the front part of the eye). (medlineplus)…

    • 417 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Organ Donation

    • 838 Words
    • 4 Pages

    It can help someone else because there are certain organs that you cannot live without, but of course it’s after the donor has passed away and is in good condition…

    • 838 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Unwind Organ Donation

    • 964 Words
    • 4 Pages

    possible to increase it to the percentage used in the novel Unwind. Scientists have most certainly come a long way with the advanced technology we have now, but in the long run, there is no evidence supporting it to be possible to donate almost your entire body. People also need to be willing to donate. You cannot and should not force someone into donating a part of them to someone else, even if you are brain dead.…

    • 964 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As a living donor you can donate a kidney, lung, intestine, blood, bone marrow, or part of your liver.…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Organs Trading

    • 1683 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Some countries use an 'opt out' system for organs, which means that cadaveric organs can be used for transplants unless persons who died had…

    • 1683 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Thesis: Organ and tissue donation isn’t just an important decision for yourself, but it can also impact and save the lives of so many more.…

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Informative Speech

    • 728 Words
    • 3 Pages

    If you decide to become an organ donor you consent to have your organs and tissues made available for transplantation upon death.…

    • 728 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Organ Donation

    • 411 Words
    • 2 Pages

    b. 18 people will die each day waiting for one and one organ donor can save up to 8 lives. II. Thesis: The need is constantly growing for organ donors and it is very simple to become one. Transplantation gives hope to thousands of people with organ failure and provides many others with renewed lives. III. Preview: Today, I am going to discuss what organ donation is, what organs can be donated, how it works, myths about organ donation, how to become an organ donor, and the benefits of being one. Hopefully after I have discussed these issues, you will realize how important this topic truly is and become one yourself and give the gift of life. IV. Credibility Statement: I myself am a registered organ donor, so this…

    • 411 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Bogan, L. M., Rosson, M. W., & Petersen, F. F. (January 01, 2000). Organ procurement and the donor family. Critical Care Nursing Clinics of North America, 12, 1, 23-33.…

    • 2900 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Organ Shortage

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the United States, there are 120,000 Americans listed on a transplant list, and over 30 die daily due to waiting or other illness that prevent them from becoming recipients(Washington post, 2014). Organ shortages seem to be a massive problem in the world today. According to the CDC, the most common transplants are the kidney, followed by the liver, heart and lungs (CDC, 2014). Deceased individuals only make up 1% of the donations, leading to an organ shortage today. This brings up several topics as to how these organs are obtained, and why certain types of people are getting better chances of getting the organs versus those who are not.…

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics