<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>I got a late start on this, but has anyone heard the "but if you're a donor, they won't even try and save your life" argument? How do you even respond to that? </end quote></div>
hey Jenica,
I do quite a lot of talks to raise awareness about organ donation, and come across this question quite often!
I usually explain it like this: When a patient is admitted to a hospital, they are given a designated team. That team is responsible for this person and their target is obviously to save this person's life. Not only is that why they are in the job, but more bluntly speaking, hospitals get measured on their fatalities.
The organ donor team are completely independant from the team in charge of looking after this potential donor. Therefore their priorities do not overlap.
As UK Transplant put it:
<i>
Will they just let you die if they know you want to be a donor?
No. The doctors looking after a patient have to make every possible effort to save the patient's life. That is their first duty. If, despite their efforts, the patient dies, organ and tissue donation can then be considered and a completely different team of donation and transplant specialists would be called in. </i>
I hope that helps a bit <img src="">
I am in the UK so stats over here are different, but here are some questions and bits I find useful:
"I am too old" - oldest donor so far in the UK was 82 and there isn't actually a cut-off.
"I have diabetes/ms/etc so cant donate" - The only two illnesses that rule out organ donation are CJD and HIV
"Can children become donors?" - Yes. In fact there are 160 children in the UK right now desperately in need of a transplant, and 28 died last year. <a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.onetruemedia.com/otm_site/view_shared?p=16623e58bf76a274b8fc58&skin_id=601&utm_source=PostFacebook&utm_medium=Share&utm_content=PostFacebook&utm_campaign=PostFacebook&origin=facebook">Click here for more info</a>
OK enough waffling from me <img src=""> Hope everyone is ok <img src="">