January is National Blood Donor Month. Nearly seven million people in the United States donate blood each year. In fact, many do so multiple times over the course of their lives. The decision about whether to do so is relatively simple. If you are healthy and want to help, and do not have Trypanophobia (fear of needles), you probably volunteer to give. But the question of organ donation is not straightforward. After all, you only get one body to use for your entire lifetime. And when it comes time to donate organs, you won’t be around to make the call. That’s why we recommend choosing whether or not you want to be an organ donor now, so your family won’t have to decide at a time when they’ll be overwhelmed and grieving over your loss. Continue reading Organ Donation
Tag: Organ Donation
Brain Death
Although people often joke about someone being “braindead,” the reality is no laughing matter. Brain Death is described as the total and irreversible loss of all brain function and the circumstance under which the donation of vital organs most commonly takes place. Another, more detailed definition is:
“There is only one kind of death — when one is dead, one is dead — but death can be determined in the two different ways described in the law. A braindead individual who is warm and pink with heart beating and lungs ventilating is just as dead, legally, as an individual whose body has turned cold after the heart has permanently stopped beating.”