ORGAN DONATION - Living organ Donor by Thu Siew Ching – A122363

Organ donation is the removal of the tissues of the human body from a person who has recently died, or from a living donor, for the purpose of transplanting. Organs and tissues are removed in procedures similar to surgery, and all incisions are closed at the conclusion of the surgery. Simple, effective steps can be taken to provide a traditional funeral viewing whenever this might be desired. People of all ages may be organ and tissue donors.

Organs that can be procured include the heart, intestines, kidneys, lungs, liver, pancreas. These are procured from a brain dead donor or a donor where the family has consent for donation after cardiac death, known as non-heart-beating donation. The following tissues can be procured: bones, tendons, corneas, heart valves, femoral veins, great saphenous veins, small saphenous veins, pericardium, skin grafts, and the sclera (the tough, white outer coating surrounding the eye). These are only procured after death. Organs that can be donated from living donors include part of the liver or pancreas and the kidney.

An organ transplant is the moving of a whole or partial organ from one body to another (or from a donor site on the patient's own body), for the purpose of replacing the recipient's damaged or failing organ with a working one from the donor site.

I would like to discuss about living organ donation. For your information, living organ donation has become a common source of organs for those in need of organ transplantation, usually a kidney, bone marrow, and sometimes the portion of a liver. Less common is donation of a portion of a lung or small intestine. There are thousands of living donors in the US and around the world every year.

Many people consider becoming donors when they hear about relatives and/or friends in desperate need of an organ transplant but have no idea what donation entails or where to go for information. And now, with the less invasive surgery for live donors and the new anti-rejection drug protocols that have been perfected in the last couple of years, most potential recipients do not know the most current details, either. Also, many in need of a transplant are afraid to approach family and friends about becoming potential donors because of this lack of information.
One of the latest developments in living organ donation is the creation of programs for altruistic, living non-directed donation. These programs accept living donors who are not related to or friends of the organ recipient. These donors are people who understand the need for organs and want to help by donating to a someone on the waiting list.

"How do I become a living donor?" In general, the answer is as follows:

• First check with family and friends to see if there is anyone who needs an organ transplant. Donations most frequently are between people who know each other because they are relatives, friends, or affiliated through religious or social groups.

• If you don't find someone that way, contact the nearest transplant center, usually the closest teaching hospital. You can find transplant centers by visiting this web site: ustransplant.org. Ask if the transplant center has an anonymous or "nondirected" donor program. Some transplant centers have formal programs, some don't. If they do, ask how you can participate. If they don't, ask for suggestions on how you can become an anonymous donor elsewhere.

• If you would like to donate a kidney, an option similar to the second item above is to sign up for one of the living donor registries in the US. You can find the registries on this web page: Living Donors Online Kidney Links. Look in the "Living Donor Registries" section for information and links to web sites with more information.

• A final possibility is to post a message in the "Looking For..." section of the Living Donors Online message board. Please make sure you read the first three messages in that section of the message board before posting a message of your own. You should also be aware that many transplant centers in the US have a policy of not accepting donors who met potential recipients via the Internet.

In short, organ donation is very meaningful. Hence, i would like to urge all of you who have read my article to be an organ donor, no matter living donor or non-living donor. Thank you!!