For obvious reasons, there isn't a lot that I can talk about from work on a blog (you know, that whole privacy thing and all), but this is actually a topic that I can share. On Friday, at work, we had a fundraiser for a Donate Life float that will be in the Rose Parade (this link will take you to a picture of the float's design: http://www.donatelifefloat.org/prod/components/). Each rose on the float is in memory of an organ donor or recipient. Each rose has a note attached to it honoring that patient. The hospital I work at was raising money to buy a rose in memory of all the patients donated 2008. This is a beautiful bittersweet memorial that we hope will touch the families of those patients.
We were grateful for the money we were able to raise through donations and the high attendance at our soup/chili fundraiser on Friday. We raised more than enough money to meet our goal. The money that was left over will go toward next year's parade and to create more butterflies for our memorial in the hospital lobby.
I'm not a soap-box speaker and it is not my intention to preach or influence decisions in one way or another. What I would like to encourage, however, is an open conversation with the ones you love so that when the time comes to make big decisions like this--whether or not to donate organs, tissue, eyes, etc.; whether or not someone would want to live for an extended period of time on a ventilator; etc.--your family can rest easy knowing they were able to honor your wishes. Each day, I see families that have not discussed these topics and are suddenly faced with situations that are full of difficult decisions. It is very stressful for these families trying to make decisions and wishing that they had known what their loved one would have chosen.
Please let me know if there is any information I can provide on this topic that would help make decisions easier. Having this conversation does not take long and will relieve a significant amount of stress later.
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