- In Colombia, patients on the waiting list die daily, being 15% of these children.
- Discuss with your family the desire to be part of organ donation.
Empathy is commonly defined as “putting yourself in another’s shoes.” This word has been forgotten, with a globalized world, the concern for what each one feels or lives only increases. And this selfishness is present when people are faced with situations in which death is close to a loved one, says Dr. Jorge Eraso, transplant doctor at the Medical Center.
When a loved one dies of brain death or cardiac arrest, pain floods, and mourning clouds thoughts, to the point of basing every minute on what happened. Today, the invitation is to think that a part of that loved one’s body can live in another human being, saving his life and improving his quality of life, giving him and his family a rebirth. Practicing empathy is thinking about how many lives can be saved by agreeing to donate a family member’s organs, it is understanding that the life of a loved one transcends by helping and providing hope to a person in need.
Assuming that the entire society practices empathy, a person, whose heart is sick and in some cases enlarged, without being able to contract from how big it is, this makes that person live every moment of his life tired, every breath feels like it is slowing down. drowning and short of breath, he has to live like this until a person decides to donate a heart. The same happens with a person whose native lungs no longer work, each breath is agony, waiting to be able to take the next breath; At the same time, think about the people whose liver no longer works for some reason, they have to see how their body becomes malnourished day after day, and how their abdomen swells, that at any moment they can have digestive bleeding or that they lose their judgment, reasoning and their level of consciousness deteriorates. Also all those people who every other day have to connect to a dialysis machine for 4 to 6 hours, watching how their blood leaves their body and goes through that machine to be filtered over and over again, says Dr. Eraso.
That suffering can be alleviated just by saying YES to the donation. Grieving the loss of a loved one can be more bearable, knowing that approximately 55 lives have been saved by accepting organ and tissue donation.
Around organ donation and transplantation there are myths that spread fear and doubts to people who want to provide a voice of hope by practicing this altruistic and loving act.
Next, Dr. Astrid Castaño, coordinator of donation and transplants at the Medical Center, clarifies the most common:
- Does religion allow organ and tissue donation?
R/ There is no religion that opposes organ donation. In the Christian world, this process is endorsed considering it as an act of love and charity. With respect to Jehovah’s Witnesses, it should not be governed by religious precepts, but by their own conscience, unless the transplant to which it gives rise implies the transfer of blood from one body to another. Therefore, we have donors and recipients of this religion.
- Is there organ trafficking in Colombia?
R/ No, neither the body nor the organs of the donor will be sold under any circumstances or at any price, in the first instance it is a criminal offense that could represent up to 8 years in prison. On the other hand, it is not possible since the donor and recipient require high-quality technology and, above all, genetic compatibility that prevents this type of process from being carried out clandestinely. Finally, there is no record in legal medicine of any cadaver with this type of illegal procedure.
- Are they going to let the patient die for the donation of their organs?
R/ The only way to be a donor in Colombia is:
living donor: In Colombia, you can only donate a paired organ or a liver lobe to relatives in the first degree of consanguinity or to your spouse.
Cadaveric Donor: It occurs when the patient presents cardiac arrest or brain death, the latter is a condition of medical and legal death, therefore irreversible, where the deceased patient has artificial support.
- If you suffer from any disease or do not enjoy youth, can you donate?
- We are all good donors until proven otherwise.
- There is no age, sex, race, socioeconomic status, or religion limit.
- With or without donation card.
- Can the waiting lists be altered?
The process is monitored by the National Institute of Health, accompanied by the transplant programs and personnel who intervene so that this process is possible and is carried out in a transparent manner.
Does the body lose its natural shape?
No, the donation process is carried out in entities where the patient has been treated through a surgical procedure in which the anatomical components are extracted in a controlled manner, leaving the corpse visibly the same as it was, if necessary, replacements with prostheses are used. .
Learn the story of Francy Riveros who was diagnosed with autoimmune cirrhosis of the liver. A liver transplant was performed and his quality of life improved. https://youtu.be/9q8GY0A6QjA
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