Here is the video that Robby Berman was filming when I broke my hip. The HBO crew was filming Robby filming. I was leaning against a gate across the street from the action.
This is truly a clever video. It's an analogy for the ridiculous prohibitions we have in this country, and every country except Iran, in regards to compensating organ donors. In the video a mother pleads with onlookers to save her child from a burning building. No one steps forward. She then offers $10,000, and someone says he'll do it. Then Robby prevents him from saving the child, saying that he can't accept any money, that it's better if the child die than to save his life and be compensated for it.
This is exactly the situation with organ donation. So please watch it and send it along. Please spread the message that the law has to change. People are dying every day, waiting for organs. As it is now, living donors are not even given paid time off from work to undergo surgery and recover. This prevents many people from donating who cannot afford to take two weeks or more off from work unpaid.
Mystical experiences, yearnings, politics, little dramas, poetry, kidney dialysis, insulin-dependent diabetes, and opportunities for gratitude.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Followers
About Me
- Heidi's heart
- Southern California, United States
- Perhaps my friend Mark summed me up best when he called me "a mystical grammarian." I am quite a mix--otherworldly, ethereal and in touch with "the beyond," yet prone to being very precise and logical, when need be. Romantic in the big-canvas meaning of the word, I see the world as an adventure, as a love poem, as a realm of beauty and wonder.
Blog Archive
- ▼ 2010 (176)
- ► 2009 (169)
4 comments:
As the death toll from the organ shortage mounts, public opinion will eventually support paying for human organs. Changes in public policy will then follow.
In the mean time, there is an already-legal way to put a big dent in the organ shortage -- allocate donated organs first to people who have agreed to donate their own organs when they die. UNOS, which manages the national organ allocation system, has the power to make this simple policy change. No legislative action is required.
Americans who want to donate their organs to other registered organ donors don't have to wait for UNOS to act. They can join LifeSharers, a non-profit network of organ donors who agree to offer their organs first to other organ donors when they die. Membership is free at www.lifesharers.org or by calling 1-888-ORGAN88. There is no age limit, parents can enroll their minor children, and no one is excluded due to any pre-existing medical condition.
Giving organs first to organ donors will convince more people to register as organ donors. It will also make the organ allocation system fairer. Non-donors should go to the back of the waiting list as long as there is a shortage of organs.
Dave, thanks for your comment. Yes, I have read of LifeSharers and am interested in joining as soon as I am waitlisted. Did you receive an organ in this manner?
Heidi:
If you want to join LifeSharers, don't wait. You have to be a member for 180 days before you get preferred access to the organs of other members.
I haven't received a transplant. I'm the Executive Director of LifeSharers.
Dave, thanks so much for prompting me to join. I figured I would have to be on the kidney wait list before I joined, but I see that the vast majority of your members are not currently waiting for an organ. I signed up and, fingers crossed, will be on the wait list soon. I have an evaluation at UCLA on April 29. I am sure hoping that this is the last hurdle I have to jump through to get on the damn list! Thanks again for your concern and your efforts to help people like me. You're doing good work, Dave.
Post a Comment