Life

Last week I took care of a patient that possibly saved millions of others' lives.

I can't give out details, but this young man in his 50s was technically braindead, and wasn't going to recover. Tragic? Yes....

But it turns out he had checked the little box on your driver's license application asking if you would like to be an organ donor 

(actually becoming an organ donor is quite the lengthy process, but it worked in this guy's case).

SO...we were taking immaculate care of this man while we were testing to see what organs he could donate and others were preparing those that were to receive them.

It was kinda weird, taking all these precautions and measures to keep his heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, skin, eyes etc in pristine condition (which is not always easy with a patient relying solely on a ventilator to breathe, IV infusions to keep his blood pressure stable, etc etc I could go on and on).

But at the same time, it was extremely rewarding and, well....cool.

The family was at peace, definitely had some interesting conversations with them...

and came home to make sure Steve and I were on the same page about organ donation 

(we're both all for it...please...get rid of mine after I die!)

After I left for work that day, that evening somebody out there received this guy's heart, another his right kidney, another his left kidney, another his liver, and his lungs were harvested for research.