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You are here: Home / Confessions / The Greatest Gift

The Greatest Gift

January 21, 2008 urngarden.com

vintage valentine Friday’s yoga session made me think about my lungs. How lucky and grateful I am for my functional set. So why do I knowingly abuse them? Sickening.

If something were to happen to me, would they be of any value? I’ve instructed Mr. Greenjeans that in the event of my demise, to make sure that the body is stripped of anything worthwhile and donated.

We’ve talked about organ donation before and the contacts with families who when faced with tragedy, made the unselfish decision to save the lives of others with the beautiful gift of a set of lungs, or tissue, heart or kidneys. One widow told me that her husband’s donation helped 59 people. FIFTY-NINE!

  • Donors ages have ranged from newborn to 65 plus.
  • Recent studies have shown that over 95,000 patients in the USA are waiting for an organ transplant.
  • Nearly 4,000 new patients are added to the waiting list each month.

Organdonor.gov

Today’s Tip for better living: Open your heart.

Filed Under: Confessions, Fitness, organ donation Tagged With: organ donation, organ donor, organ donors, organ transplant

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Busplunge says

    January 21, 2008 at 6:38 PM

    When my father died in October, 2003, we gave his remains to the Mid-America transplant people. Some my sisters thought it was awkward having a funeral visitation and mass without a body, but it worked. The cremains were sent back to us a couple of months later via US Mail. Tom, our mailman, the kind soul, rang the door bell and gave them to me. They were identified as cremains on the box. He said he believed it would have been a little too impersonal to just stick them in the mailbox. I will never forget his kindness. My Dad cremains are buried in the National Cemetary off of Glenstone and Seminole. I honk everytime I drive by.

  2. Lenette says

    January 21, 2008 at 8:12 PM

    Jim, thanks for sharing your story. It’s becoming more common to have a funeral without the body present.

    I’ll make it a point next time I’m driving by the National Cemetery to give a “shout-out” to your dad.

  3. Candace says

    January 23, 2008 at 7:37 PM

    My brother’s body was so destroyed after he was killed that the only thing he could donate was his skin…but, its nice to know, someone had some benefit from his death…

  4. Lenette says

    January 23, 2008 at 8:12 PM

    Candace, you might be surprised to know that maybe more than one person was helped with your brother’s beautiful gift.

  5. Candace says

    January 26, 2008 at 11:29 PM

    Lenette, I hadn’t really thought of it that way. I guess I imagined a burn victim…needing a lot of skin. (sigh)

    Hey, I came back to ask…did your lung comment mean you are a smoker? I am not sure why, but I have been wondering!
    I am not a smoker, but I do like my wine…sometimes I wonder how my liver is doing. LOL.

  6. Lenette says

    January 26, 2008 at 11:44 PM

    Candace, I’m might switch to Skoal.

Trackbacks

  1. Dead Man Walking at Life in the Garden says:
    January 29, 2008 at 4:38 PM

    […] Ran into a colleague today that was just returning from a medical leave. Emergency surgery to repair a compressed disk or nerve or something that could paralyze him with just the right action. Turns out he got a replacement part from a cadaver and he’s good to go. […]

  2. Dead Man Walking Pt. 2 at Life in the Garden says:
    September 4, 2008 at 1:44 PM

    […] other news, Virginia is trying to attract organ donors by waiving licensing fees at the DMV. Let’s make it really attractive and waive personal […]

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