Organ & Body Donations: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

As someone with stage 4 neuroendocrine cancer and a genetic abnormality that has helped me survive much longer than I should, I've chosen to donate my body to the teaching hospital where I've been receiving treatments. They're actually excited about the possibility, seeing as how neuroendocrine cancer is highly uncommon and doesn't act like other cancers, and my liver is extremely efficient, being able to process narcotic painkillers like they're candy and function at normal levels even with only 20% of it not being tumors. I'm hoping my donation will be able to help people both understand neuroendocrine cancer better, and perhaps lead to genetic understanding and implementation of my liver's strength to others.

Thanks to John Oliver for making the decline of the human race so entertaining.

My husband was an organ donor. It was hard because they have to take them pretty quickly after they die, but I knew he had signed up to be one and I knew that was his wish. Months afterwards I got a letter thanking him/me for corneas that two people needed. It made me feel like he is living on in them.

My dad did his surgical residency at Emory University in Atlanta, GA, so he knew how important real bodies are for medical training. He donated his body to Emory medical school, and near his death at 96, as his caregiver I carried the paperwork with me at all times so that when he passed away arrangements could immediately be made. While the school made use of Dad’s body we had a memorial service, and when the school was finished they cremated and returned him to me for burial. When I picked up his cremains I learned he had been used for emergency room training. Appropriate, since he was an ER surgeon for many years.

We donated our 9yr old daughter’s heart, liver, and kidneys. She saved 4 lives. Kinda hard to watch the dog eating up the human heart 🫀…. No one probably will read this but I felt I wanted to state it anyway, signed a mom that still grieves.

When my daughter Jana passed away, I was able to donate her corneas. A 5 yr old boy and a 17 yr old boy both gained sight because of her gift.

One of my cousins has cystic fibrosis and was supposed to die in his teens. He was able to get a double lung transplant and is now almost in his late 30s, married and has two kids. God bless that person and their family, their loss helped him gain his whole family. So thankful he’s still around.

A man in my city became famous when he found out one of his customers needed a kidney, and he immediately went to find out if he was a viable donor. He gave the man his kidney, and he then gave organ donors a discount at his permanent food stall. He passed away a few years ago and his assistant took over the stall, keeping up the organ donor discount, and the seating area beside the stall is plastered with pictures of the original owner with organ donors and he has a stand on the counter with info on becoming an organ donor, and ways to donate to local groups for organ transplants.

My sister died about 10 years ago now, and I must say the cards and letters we get sent from some of the donor recipients are very comforting. We got quite a few at the start, which really show the difference it's made to some of their lives. Some donors are still writing to us about life events such as college graduations, marriages and children. As recently as last year one woman who got her lungs sent a picture of her first baby. My favourite part of all this was her eyes allowed 2 blind people to see one for the first time, and another getting her sight back, and reading the thank you letters from them. Obviously, it's all anonymous and we can't contact them, but they can relay letters to us. Niamh died of Meningitis at the age of 15, so literally every part of her was healthy and ideal for donations. She had given consent in her work vehicle permit and I'd urge everyone to tick the box on their driver's licence form.

I'm a medical student and I've worked with more human cadavers than i can count. I can't put into words how incredibly grateful I am to the donors and their families. It's such an invaluable learning tool to be able to work with real human tissues, and my first teacher in this field really hammered it home for me - these aren't just specimen to work with, they're my patients and they deserve the same dignity and respect that i give to my living patients.

I think that clip with the woman meeting the family of the woman whose heart saved her life was the first time this show made me cry. Wow.

I'm in the process of donating a kidney to a swedish friend I know from the internet. We met for the first time during compatibility testing last month. Good news! We're compatible! The donation happens this february!

I just have to say that I spent well over a decade being a medical training actor (portraying roles like "Woman With Migraine," "Pregnant Woman Who's Still Smoking," "Woman Getting Diagnosed With Ovarian Cancer," etc), and we really did have backstories like John was joking about! That's totally accurate! Our characters were based on real patient files, and we were given whole personal histories to learn so that we could better interact with the med students and answer their questions. I loved that work, and I thought the actress in the video was fantastic!

I work at one of the largest transplant hospitals in the us. I get Healthcare through work. Despite working at a huge transplant hospital my health insurance does not cover being a living donor. So would cost me over $100,000 to donate a kidney. That's pretty fucked up. Good job America

Just take a moment to appreciate that Jesus organ donation ad though. Everything from the guy being like "😬 Yeah, awkward timing, nobody want's to talk about death, but-" and then Jesus ending the convo with a simple "Well of course I'd do it, I'm Jesus!"

That heartbeat teddybear is literally the sweetest thing I've ever seen and I love it immensely

I lost my wife on March of 22. She was a donor. Her donations have helped my grief in so many ways. She's helped restore 3 people vision. That's the ones I i know about. I wish it was easier for Donor families to find out what the donations are used for. I understand anonymity. The eye bank provided me with the information after a request. They didn't disclose any names. Thank you for doing a piece in this subject. If you're not a donor already, please consider becoming one. You could be saving lives and making people's quality of life better from beyond the grave. That's pretty amazing to me! I love you Rebecca Lynn Smith. Thank you for your selfless donations. I miss you so much.😢

Surgeon here: I’ve never seen a more realistic interaction with a patient’s family than that demo video. Most patients and families are reasonable, but 10% of the time they are exactly like this. I used to volunteer in an anatomy lab where a lot of bodies were gifted for science, and a few grandparents definitely ended up in a abandoned factory with rebar shoved in their chest as part of realistic special forces medic training. The worst was a 16-year-old girl, who died of a brain cancer, donated her body to study the cancer that killed her, but there were no active studies being done and her donation was rejected by a neuroscience. Unfortunately, we ended up using her skin and flesh for suture practice Because it was deemed too distressing for students to use her as an anatomy cadaver. Maybe I’m soft, but defleshing a 16 year old girl with painted fingernails was the worst experience I’ve ever had, and I’ve seen some bad shit as a surgeon

I’m in the hospital now, waiting on heart surgery later this week to keep me alive until I can hopefully one day receive a heart transplant… I’m a huge fan and I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard at an opening of this show before. Informative, important, and hilarious. You are an absolute treasure, and much appreciated. Love and greetings from Kansas City tonight 🌻

Can I just say, the writers of this show deserve a Nobel. This show maintains speed with comprehensiveness like none other can