Thought you donated your liver, but somehow ended up giving your left eye? Oops. Organ donations in the UK have taken a kidney punch after the wrong organs may have been taken from donors. “I decided I was happy to donate my liver, lungs, pancreas and kidneys,” student Stephen Banks told the BBC. “But a few days later… I received a letter from the NHS (National Health Service) thanking me for donating and telling me I had also donated my eyes. I feel a bit embarrassed to call up and say, ‘I want my eyes back.’” Most of the 17 million donors agree to give any and all of their organs, but having the option to pick what organs you’d like to give sure beats the US system, where it’s all-in or nothing. {Thanks, Codi!}
Posts Tagged ‘donate life’
Give My Kidney Back!
Posted: Monday, April 12th, 2010Kidney Parties!
Posted: Thursday, December 10th, 2009
Eleven years after a successful kidney transplant, Jim Wallace still appreciates his kidneys. So much so, in fact, that he and his wife have thrown a Kidney Party in celebration of his fabulous filtering organ every year since. They make kidney pie and serve kidney bean salad in honor of the organ. Very cute! {via Los Angeles Times. Thanks, Mom!}
Liver 2.0
Posted: Friday, September 25th, 2009
Somehow we missed the newsy tidbit that Apple head Steve Jobs had a liver transplant back in April. “As you may know, I had a liver transplant,” Jobs told the audience assembled for Apple’s music event in early September. “So I have the liver of a mid-20s person who died in a car crash, and was generous enough to donate their organs. And I wouldn’t be here without such generosity.” And here this whole time we thought his pancreas was the one giving him trouble. {via Wall Street Journal}
Heart Topics
Posted: Thursday, September 10th, 2009
A few guts spruced up the tables at the Transplant Ethics Community Education Event, hosted by California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. The event included a lecture on topics vital to people in the transplant community — who gets an organ and when? How will these organs be obtained? All good stuff, we hope the guts were good listeners. {All photos by Benjamin Robert}
