Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Age Matters: Organ donation a true gift of love
Dr. Michael Camardi
Recent columns
About Dr. Michael Camardi
Dr. Michael Camardi is a geriatrician at Carilion's Center for Healthy Aging. Age Matters is his new Roanoke Times column, appearing the third Tuesday of every month.
Camardi has been with Carilion for about three years and was one of the experts who reporter Beth Macy spoke to for her series, “Age of Uncertainty.” He wanted to start this column to help answer questions he’s often heard as part of his job.
Camardi was founder and past medical director of the geriatric liaison program for Jacobi Medical Center (Albert Einstein College of Medicine) in Bronx, N .Y.
Camardi trained at Winthrop University Hospital (Stony Brook University Medical School), where he was chief medical resident. He has received numerous commendations for his contributions to education, patient advocacy, community relations and hospital administration.
If you have questions for Camardi, please mail them to him at Center for Healthy Aging, 2118 Rosalind Ave., Roanoke, VA 24014, or e-mail them to extra@roanoke.com with “Age Matters” in the subject line.
Dear Dr. Camardi: I met you when you were taking care of my brother at Carilion hospital last year when he was there for his stroke.
Well, this time I did not see you when my brother was brought again to the hospital. He was very, very sick with another stroke and he died pretty quickly. What bothers me though was how pushy people were about me signing some papers so they could use his body parts for what I don't know.
They never asked me this before. I feel bad enough as it is. Why do they have to make me feel worse? What do they do with his sick and broken body?
If God wanted us to do this, he would have said so in the Bible. And then why do they ask me when he's dying and then get all huffy when I just want to be left alone? And really now, are they going to try that hard if they know they're going to get his body anyway and what if they start grabbing parts and he ain't dead? It seems to me they should let the dead be dead.
-- Bedford
I hear you and sense how upset you are, and I can understand what you mean. It seems that at the worst possible time, people are coming at you from all directions to make yet another decision upon all the other decisions you have to make at the time when a loved one dies.
Over the years I've heard other people bring up the same points you raise, and I thank you for expressing your feelings and for the chance to discuss this very important topic -- not only to clear the air on your behalf but also to hopefully help others in their time of need.
The decision to be an organ donor is best resolved before the prospect of death is upon us. Organ donation is all about giving somebody another chance at living a better life. Think about the joy you would feel at getting a second chance at life and let that feeling guide your decision.
Please do not think for an instant that a health care professional is not doing everything in his or her power to save and preserve life when you go to a hospital. The choice of organ donation is often not even known by the people taking care of you or your loved ones and it plays no role at all in their thought process.
Sometimes people have expressed fear to me that the process of organ retrieval will begin before they are dead and they would suffer or be killed by the process. Nothing could be further from the reality of what must be done to declare somebody legally dead. Before anything is harvested from the deceased, a well-defined process is followed so that this does not happen. The dignity of the deceased is preserved.
At times people have said that organ donation is against their religious beliefs. I can say that the best thing is to ask your clergyman for guidance.
Do not be concerned about the age of the deceased or their state of health, as there are very precise limits placed upon the usefulness of the organs to be considered for use.
I think I know the doubt, fear and suspicion people must feel at this moment when they are asked to do something they may not have thought about before and may feel very uneasy and suspicious about. I went through it when two of my relatives died -- one unexpectedly and the other because of natural causes.
As the "medical person in the family," in each case my relatives directed the hospital personnel in my direction to make the decision about organ donation. I can say to you that just about all of my relatives were firmly against organ donation as they visualized the process and not the result. It took me about two hours to respectfully speak to each one of them in their moment of sadness to get their approval. And then I had to do it all over again about a year later. But I can sincerely say it was worth it.
As I have written before, this topic is the ultimate human paradox in claiming life for one from the death of another. I never tire of thinking of the charity, generosity and simple love that we can give to a total stranger.
Sign that donor card -- make a note of your desire to be an organ donor in your advance directives and know that in giving of yourself when your eternal spirit is released, you will be blessed beyond your understanding in gracing the living spirits of those unknown with hope.
We never walk this path alone.
