Organ donation

[sueyh]

Are we Brits allowed to carry organ donor cards or the suchlike in France.  Or should I say, are we allowed to offer to donate our organs?

Sue

[idun]

Now you are asking. There may still be problems with organ donation as well as blood donation due to mad cow disease. Brits have been unwelcome  donors.

Ask these people. http://www.france-adot.org/

 

 

[cooperlola]

I had no problem registering.  Val has very recent experience of this [:(] and from memory, it was not a problem.

Blood is though, as Idun says.

[Val_2]

Yes we can donate organs in the event of death. We have all carried cards in this family for many years and recently as you may know, we offered my husband who was brain dead as an organ donor and his card was not even asked for. Here you normally have to refrain from giving permission when asked but as we have always said, what good are your organs when you are dead and are going to be cremated, someone else could benefit from them and they did (7 persons in total) in our experience. I could not hide my disgust though when the doctor said my husband was only the third person to donate organs since the hospital became equipped with a standby retrieval team since June 1st 2011 and this was October 28th. The staff in the reanimation were crying when we gave permission and the co-ordinatrice is on hand whenever we want to ring and talk to her and find out how the recipients are doing. In fact, my son will probably ring this week now a few months have passed and the results will be better.

Blood donation is not allowed if you resided for more than ten years upto 1996 in the UK!

[Théière]

Respect, Val_2

[sueyh]

Amazing Val. As Theiere said "you have my respect" - what a wonderful

gift.

Sue

[Val_2]

You may not understand this until you are faced with a sudden terrible loss you just cannot comprehend or accept, but it infact helped us to accept his death was not a waste, he was only just 56 after all.  Imagine how any one of this family would feel should we or future children/grandchildren etc suddenly find a transplant is the only hope of survival and we had refused to donate in the first place. Without donors,thousands of people from the elderly right down to newborns would have died. I like to think there is a little bit of my husband out there still, helping others and he would have done the same if it had been me first.

[idun]

I am pm'ing you Val.

[Judith]

I've had at least two talks on organ donation in France recently - and I think the system here is that you are asumed to have opted out unless you opt in.  There is indeed a serious need for organs - and I recently took out the equivalent of the UK donor card from the organisation given above.

I see no problem with what Val has done, indeed we did the same 30 years ago when my sister died in the UK - I believe her organs helped to save at least 5 others ....  and they are little use to the dead person, but might make all the difference to those needing an organ to live.

So this to encourage those reading to just go and do it!

[Frecossais]

Val_2, you have made me think very seriously about the whole question of organ donation, which I had previously dismissed.