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Have you ever seriously considered organ donation? Perhaps you should. Organ donation
is a vital means by which many hundreds of lives are saved every year. I can speak to this personally because I
have a son that is a recipient of a kidney and a sister in-law that has been a recipient twice. Without these
transplants, and short of a miracle from God, these loved ones would only have dialysis as a means of survival.
Dialysis has become a vital means of sustaining life. Some people's bodies handle it well. Others literally shut
down not being able to endure the rigors dialysis requires on a regular basis. No man made device has been able
to do the work that a full time kidney can do with minimum stress on the body. Other vital organs are also critical
to the survival of people who are living on borrowed time. In having to take my son to a transplant clinic for a
few years now, I have met many wonderful people who could easily be friends, loved ones, spouses, son, or daughters.
They are alive today, or at a minimum, have a much better quality of life because of organs they received from caring
families. One day at the clinic at MCG, I met a young man that looked very normal and healthy. It became obvious to
me that he had to have been a deathly ill individual at one point. He could have been no older than 25 or so and told me
that he had had a double lung, kidney and liver transplant. With the need of these major organs, he was clearly living on
borrowed time prior to his transplant. It is amazing to me how little thought people give to give to the idea of giving
someone else a second chance at life through organ donation. A cousin of mine, who is really a neat responsible guy,
said to me on an occasion, that he really had not given much thought to being an organ donor in the event of his death.
He stated that the only time he really thought about it is when he went to apply for his driver's license and they offered
him a $5 dollar discount if he were a donor. I appreciated his candor. He has reevaluated this position hearing about
how my sister in-law benefited from the kidney of my other sister in law. There have been various other reasons that people
have given us for not considering organ donation.
One lady said her husband wanted them to be buried with everything. Another person had just not
done anything about it. In this millennium, there are intelligent African American people and others who have strange and
superstitious ideas about this very important subject. In this article we are focusing on organ donation due to someone
passing as a result of injury, accident, or disease not affecting the organ to be transplanted.
Why is Organ Transplant such an issue with African American?
I have listed some of the statistics on kidney failure and the benefits kidney donation as given
on the MORA(Mississippi Organ Recovery Agency) website. This will give you a better idea of the urgency that is faced with
this particular health crisis.
African-Americans suffer from a higher incidence of hypertension; they have a greater chance of developing kidney failure.
An African-American with high blood pressure is 17 times more prone to kidney failure than Caucasians.
Kidney disease due to high blood pressure is often an inherited trait, which can be passed on through the family.
Sickle cell disease is very common among African-Americans and can lead to kidney disease.
A Kidney Transplant takes the patient off dialysis and gives them a better quality of life
An organ transplant is the only hope for a healthy, productive life for someone with organ failure.
What can you do to bless someone through organ donation in the event of your passing?
Those little transplant donor cards are important. They are not nearly as important as you telling
your loved ones and friends emphatically that you are interested in being an organ donor. During your life time, repeat
your wishes to those people who will most likely handle your affairs should you die unexpectedly. It would also be wise
to share this information with people who would likely be affected emotionally by such a decision. Organs can even be directed
to specific recipients for transplant. It would be a wonderful idea for families to plan a major meeting once year to include
siblings, parents if living, and spouse if any. These forums can be used to share information and ideas. Getting valuable
requests and personal wishes on the table can become an important part of the discussion. A Living Will is also a very important
legal document that can speak for an individual if he/she becomes incapacitated and unable to communicate his/her wishes. I
will be talking more about this idea of organ donation through the months and years ahead, God willing. To find out more about
organ donation and how you can become an organ donor, you may contact any of the following organizations listed below:
References:
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