NHS Highland Organ Donation campaign to highlight how WE ALL could make a difference

“Death and dying are not what families usually talk about, but we need to change that and change it now.”

Those are the words of Rebecca Shekyls, a specialist nurse with the organ donation team at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness.

Her role is to talk to families of patients for whom options, time and luck have run out. They may have been involved in a car accident, or suffered a traumatic brain injury, and will usually be on life support.

Once it is clear that they are going to die, and if they might be a suitable candidate, she will gently explore the possibility of organ donation with the family members who are present at the bedside.

If families have talked about organ donation before, there is no decision to be made. Everyone knows what the patient in the bed would have wanted. But if they’ve not had those conversations, then it can be an agonising decision for the family to make, and at a time when they are already in shock and starting to grieve. Unfortunately, there isn’t the luxury of much time.

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Dr John Rae is a consultant in Intensive Care at Raigmore and is clinical lead for organ donation at NHS Highland.

He said: “Every year in Highland there are people on the organ transplant list who die, waiting for a suitable organ.

“They may die of lung disease, liver failure, heart disease or kidney failure. Or, indeed, a myriad of other conditions that they have developed during their lifetime. Some are children.”

The health of these patients will have deteriorated to the point that medicine has run out of other options. They may be at home, a packed bag hopefully waiting by the front door, or they may be in a hospital bed, counting down their last few days hooked up to a machine that is keeping them artificially alive. Alive until the call comes. An organ is available.

None of us wants to think about organ donation. None of us wants to be sick enough, or for our partner, our child, or our friend to be sick enough that they need a new organ to stay alive.

And none of us wants to be in Intensive Care at the bedside of someone we love, making the decision about whether they would have wanted to become an organ donor.

But without these conversations, and without clarity, families are left to second-guess their wishes.

Because although Scotland legally has an opt-out system when it comes to organ donation, in practise the wishes of the family will prevail. So if they don’t know that you wanted to become an organ donor, in the stress of the moment they might not carry out your wishes. Only 60 per cent of families currently give consent.

Over the next six weeks, we have partnered with the NHS Highland Organ Donation Committee to help highlight the impact of the organ donation programme.

Our message is straightforward; we want people to do three things.

First, get informed about organ donation – we’ll help you with that – and make a decision about what you would like to happen to your organs after you die.

Second, share that decision with your family, and ask them about their wishes too.

Third, register your decision online at www.highlandorgandonation.co.uk

Over the next six weeks, we’ll share stories of Highland people whose lives have been saved through the selfless gifts of their donors and their families; John from Culloden who received a double lung transplant just in the nick of time, Angela from Nairn who was days from death after heart failure when a donor heart was found for her, and Duncan from Inverness, who also received a new heart, and has gone on to found Scotland’s first National Transplant Football Team.

We’ll also talk to Zabrina, who is trapped at home on haemodialysis for 15 hours a week; a machine does the job that her kidneys should, a new kidney would give her the freedom to work and provide for her young family.

And we’ll chat to Anushka, whose partner Chris died in a road traffic accident just over a year ago. They had had the conversations about organ donation while watching medical dramas, so she didn’t have to decide, he had already done it for her.

The NHS Highland region already punches above its weight with around 60 per cent of us already signed up to the organ donor register.

But how many of you have also had the conversation?

Act now. It’s easy and it needn’t be a drama. But you could be someone else’s real life hero; your body could potentially save up to 10 lives. Organ donation creates hope out of tragedy.

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