
My son died in 1994 but his heart only stopped beating this year - happy-go-lucky
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-39422660
======
nom
I want to raise awareness that you don't have donate an organ to save lives.
Blood cancer patients all over the world are frantically looking for bone
marrow and blood cell donors. The chances for a match are very low, but if
they find one the chances of success are high. So you can understand the
desperation.

The thing is, an actual bone marrow extraction is only required in 10% of all
cases, most of the time you only have to donate blood cells. It's painless and
pretty much non-intrusive.

Check out [https://www.dkms.de/en](https://www.dkms.de/en) or
[https://bethematch.org/](https://bethematch.org/) for more information about
the subject. Costs for the match test are unfortunately not covered by health
insurance here in Germany, but it's only 30€ or something in that order.

If you ever wanted to save a life, get tested.

~~~
jyriand
I would love to donate blood, but it seems I'm too sensitive to blood. Not
sure why. But there have been cases where I have passed out after giving blood
tests or cutting myself. Would love to hear ideas how to overcome this.

~~~
chimen
I donated a lot when my father died. Just make sure you're not looking at the
bag filling with your blood. We're programmed to think that our life is
dripping out through that cord but be positive and aware that this helps
someone and also regenerates your blood so it has its benefits.

Don't look and prepare mentally that you're not going to die there. I know it
sounds absurd but the "fight or flight" situation kicks in and, like with
panic attacks, the fear of actually dying probably leads you to pass out
probably.

~~~
omarchowdhury
I'm not sure that's really a fight or flight response since passing out would
leave one extremely vulnerable to harm from predators, the environment.

~~~
chimen
You never had a panic attack. When the brain overloads in such situation will
take the most extreme action it can, shut you down, put you to sleep so you
can't feel anything probably. It won't happen to everyone but it does to many.
I've had some panic attacks 5 years ago that got me close to that point. I
didn't pass out but I was right there, in all instances I ended up in the ER
though.

I have a friend who's girlfriend was driving one day and the car slipped off
the road going towards an electrical pillar (it didn't hit it though because
my friend managed to grab the wheel). Near the collision point with that
pillar his girlfriend passed out, in an instant. We laughed at that situation
for years. They ended up in someone's yard, killing a poor dog in his little
house.

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sdiq
Humanity at its best: Your son gets killed in a foreign country and, rather
than being angry with the people of that country for producing some murderers,
you actually help seven other families with organs from your now dead son.
And, the family (or is it just the father) still come back to the same country
to celebrate with the children who received the donated organs. I salute that
family.

~~~
cavanasm
It's interesting too, because in many countries, there's VERY strict patient
confidentiality that would prevent the family of the donor from ever meeting
recipients.

~~~
dpark
If both parties agree to meet, doctors can enable that, even in countries with
strong patient protection laws. People in the US do this sometimes, too.

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dankohn1
You don't need to have someone die to create a life-giving chain of organ
donations. Take a look at:

Why I gave my kidney to a stranger — and why you should consider doing it too
[https://www.vox.com/science-and-
health/2017/4/11/12716978/ki...](https://www.vox.com/science-and-
health/2017/4/11/12716978/kidney-donation-dylan-matthews)

~~~
easilyBored
Wow, very gutsy.

Donating has its risks, after all there's a reason we have two, when only one
does the job. I know a person who donated one kidney to his son and was told
to essentially change his lifestyle at least when it came to physical work.

~~~
dankohn1
It is cool that donors automatically go to the top of the donation list if
they need a kidney in the future.

~~~
selectodude
I mean, they paid into the system and went from 2 to 1 to zero kidneys. Seems
fair to me.

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TheCycoONE
My own son had his eye saved by an organ donor when he was an infant. We live
in Canada which is still opt in so someone made the decision that they wanted
to give up a part of themselves after they died. For that I am grateful.

~~~
dsacco
That's inspiring. If you don't mind divulging more details, can you tell us
how your son's eye was saved? Do you mean they transplanted an entire eye, or
was there a critical part of the eye donated by someone else?

Also interested if your son has heterochromia as a result. I'd imagine that's
the case if there was substantial change to the original iris?

~~~
TheCycoONE
They transplanted tissue on top of the eye as part of implanting an Ahmed
valve. My son has primary congenital glaucoma. There is no obvious signs like
heterochromia, the entire transplant and most of the valve is between his eye
muscles.

------
jscheel
Wow, that's amazing that they were so willing to try and help others. However,
reading this 7 days before I take my 4 year old and twin 1 year olds to Italy
was not the best timing on my part.

~~~
trumbitta2
Just stay (sadly) away from Sicilia, Campania, Calabria, Puglia.

Edit to avoid misinterpretation and backlash: those are the 4 regions (out of
20) where the Mafias (Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta, Camorra, Sacra Corona Unita)
kill the most.

~~~
easilyBored
The mafia, even if it is as once was, does not target "civilians." You have a
much greater chance of being slashed by a 14 yo gang-member in USA

~~~
scarmig
Worth noting is that, although the USA does have a crime epidemic, the typical
murder doesn't take the form of random shooting or a mugging gone wrong. Think
young men who already know each other shooting each other.

~~~
ridgeguy
Do we really have "a crime epidemic"? These data don't show that [1].

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_the_United_States)

~~~
overcast
Of course we don't, it's just perpetuated by the media. Every single incident
is blasted into our faces, until we're all living in fear of everything.

------
magic_beans
I'm amazed that Reg has 21 year old twin daughters at age 88! I'm sure raising
kids at 60 will keep a man young.

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barking
I remember that from when it happened, it was widely reported at the time,
even in the UK. Hard to believe that it's 30 years ago now.

Edit: Sorry, Nicholas was born 30 years ago, it was 23 years ago when he died.

~~~
dogma1138
1994 was 13 years ago.

~~~
ianai
Nobody correct him/her.

~~~
barking
So it was, once.

~~~
toyg
And for a whole year!

------
donretag
"Andrea Mongiardo, 22 years following the transplant of American seven-year-
old Nicholas Green’s heart in 1994, has died aged 37 of lymphoma"

[http://www.italianinsider.it/?q=node/4998](http://www.italianinsider.it/?q=node/4998)

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itsmemattchung
What a well written article. Half way through reading it, my eyes started to
swell up with tears ... the image of the father, who was driving the car,
turning around to see his son, just sleeping moments before, now laying there
dead with a bullet through his head.

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mdjt
That was a really nice and touching story to start off my Friday. Thanks for
sharing!

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Rebelgecko
I had the opportunity to see Nicholas's parents speak a few years ago, and
their talk convinced me to opt in as an organ donor. When I first got my
driver's license, I had opted out of more or less out of spite— the CA DMV's
form seemed intentionally misleading, which bothered me. I suppose it still
bothers me, but it changed my mind to hear firsthand about the impact that my
body could have when I'm done with it.

------
anton_gogolev
On a somewhat related note, I highly recommend listening to "Gray's Donation"
([http://www.radiolab.org/story/grays-
donation/](http://www.radiolab.org/story/grays-donation/)). It is an
extraordinary episode.

~~~
wyldfire
Started listening and I recall having heard most of this one in the car. Great
story.

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jannotti
That's the power of defaults. Italy changed to an opt-out program for
donation, rather than opt-in.

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VMG
HN title is confusingly incomplete

~~~
ziikutv
The article title is almost identical too.

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redxblood
Wow, what a clickbait.

