Transplant

This is a new thing for me. I'm not sure how I feel about the whole thing so far.

We "did a donor" tonight.

As in, a gentleman who had had a massive stroke a few days previously, and who had been declared brain dead shortly after that time, by very rigorous criteria, and whose family had requested in their grief that his organs, if possible, be used to help other people, had his liver and kidneys retrieved this evening.

As I write this, there is a man having that liver placed in his body to replace the one that has been failing him. Two people are being woken from a sound sleep and told that they may be able to stop having dialysis and go back to something like a normal life.

And though I know that the gentleman in question had died and the machines were breathing for him, it was still disturbing to see doctors do things to his body that would certainly kill him. I know that makes no sense.

An organ donation is a great gift. I signed my donor card years ago. This unsettled feeling doesn't make me re-think that. I just feel unsettled.