JBInvolved

About Me

Wow, the last several days in St Louis where quite busy and exhausting. I have been training for this position for 37 days and I have worked 5 cases, helped save 9 lives and I have no idea how many lives I will have helped improve. One person can improve the lives of 100s of people through tissue, bone, valve, cartilage and eye donation. It’s a pretty great feeling and there is so much more to come.

All of my cases have been hard, nothing is easy emotionally about what I do. One of my first full cases I helped save the lives of a 7 month old who needed a heart and an 11 month old who needed a liver. You can imagine how small the donor was. It was a very emotionally trying case. I had to be able to separate myself from the reality of the situation in order to get done what was needed. The loss of a life can bring life to others who may have eventually lost theirs.

Another case was one that I had mentioned in a previous post. A women who died of Broken Heart Syndrome. She left this world saving several others but leaving 4 small children and a husband dying of cancer. Those children are going to loose both of their parents in a very small period of time and I hurt for them. These families, in the time of great loss, are making wonderful decisions without having had the time to process everything that has happened. Sometimes in our society it is hard to believe that their are so many giving people in this world and yet so many others that are not willing to give.

What is it about organ donation that turns people away? Why would someone not want to help save others? Our society is lacking a tremendous amount of education on organ donation and I would love to help change that.

Find your state donor registry and sign-up to be an organ donor.