171329 Resource 102972 2154 2154 1181227430961 1181228083812 Controlled Organ Donation

A recent tragedy underscores the importance of organ donation.

<p>Early this week on the news, I heard a brief mention of an organ transplant team returning to U of M on an emergency flight.&nbsp; Their plane went down in Lake Michigan and rescuers expected to find no survivors.&nbsp; Knowing little or no details, the incident struck home as I contemplated the fact that organ donation may be in my family's future.&nbsp; Sometime down the road, we might be depending on a donor and a similar transplant team.</p><p>A day later, I learned that the cardiac surgeon on board is the father of a family that attends my childrens' preschool.&nbsp; The older children attended the school when Frankie was there and the youngest attends now, concurrent with Rita and Rose.&nbsp; I never knew the parents well because our children have never been in the same class.&nbsp; But I often saw the mother at parenting meetings and always appreciated her outlook and approach with her kids.</p><p>In this very busy, end-of-the-year week, I have felt deeply for this family and have been reading excerpts from the Ann Arbor News and local blogs to learn what I can about the crash.&nbsp; In the process, I've seen many testimonials from organ donors, recipients, and health care providers&nbsp;that have reminded me of the massive number of people awaiting transplants and the shortage of organs.</p><p>If you haven't already signed the back of your drivers license, allowing harvest of your organs upon death, please reconsider.&nbsp; There are many seriously ill people that could be given a totally new lease on life were they to receive a transplant.&nbsp; There is no chance that your organs would ever be taken before you were completely unable to use them yourself.&nbsp; If you respect the dedication and sacrifice made by this transplant team, registering yourself as a potential donor is a way to honor their memory.</p> 9 application/xml false crash of transplant team organ donation 96,628 people around the country are awaiting kidneys, hearts, livers and other organs http://www.mlive.com/news/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-23/1181140978171340.xml&coll=2&thispage=2 'Our hearts are broken today,' says U-M President Coleman http://www.mlive.com/news/aanews/index.ssf?/base/news-23/1181140829171340.xml&coll=2 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727) 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 carols false true false false true 173251 false false true false false false true 102972 blog blogsite/Seidl/web