Last monday i lost a family member, but it is only today that i realised that he had a donors card, what i am trying to say how can a family make decisions of this nature while we are upset and arranging a funeral, it has only just come into our thoughts, i think this may be one of the reason organ donations are going down. I have got a donor card so what can i do to help somebody in life when i leave this world.
delicate subject
Sheila - My condolences. I lost a husband and my father - it's hard :-)
These wishes have to be made very clear long beforehand I think Sheila. My father was a doctor and he wanted to help other doctors so he left instructions for his body to be used for medical research. This is how young doctors learn, as he had done when a student. When he died my brother-in-law and I tried to follow his instructions. He had made arrangements but they had to be confirmed at the time. We rang the University. And they didn't want him. They had enough bodies. So did two other universities we tried. My Dad also had renal failure so his body would not have been suitable for medical reasons - yes I wish I'd realised that at the time. So we ended up just arranging for a simple burial. The thought of donors did occur - after we'd been through all these phone calls to the universities but the body had been moved out of the ward by then. One of the universities, Edinburgh, did send us a very nice letter thanking us for the offer - it was where my Dad had trained.
Don't feel bad about this. I understand it was a sudden death and you would not have had time to discuss these things. They really do need to be discussed well in advance so the family can go through any paperwork quickly to find will, letters, cards or other documents. During his last few years my father made quite a number of changes to his legal affairs as he lived longer than we had expected. It's important to keep all legal documents in one place, readily available.
Please accept my sympathies. Diane