Andrew

Brief Outline:

Andrew is a specialist nurse

Andrew describes Max and Keiras Law.

The law change stemmed from Max and Keira’s law. So Max was a heart recipient who received a transplant from another child called Keira and their family got together and realised the mass shortage and so many people dying on the waiting list that they ended up campaigning and gonna the government to request the law to be changed to an opt-out system.

And, you know, Max’s life wouldn’t have been saved if it wasn’t for somebody like Keira’s family who took that brave decision to support that and has since gone on to do amazing things.

I think, you know, although the law doesn’t apply to children, it took a child to get the law changed. And that just speaks volumes really. You know, the law only applies in England to people over the age of 18.

But it’s such relatable that, you know, even an adult organs could help a child.

We’re all still people’s children.

Andrew, specialist nurse, explains why it’s important to join the donor register.

So my name’s Andrew Morrison Lee. I’m the professional development specialist nurse the Northwest team.

But have been a specialist nurse in organ donation for just over nine years. So there’s different ways you can register a decision. The best way and the way that we kind of wanna promote really, is that people would join the organ donor register. So you can do that online or you can call, you can also register through things like your driving license or through your GP surgery or the leaflets that you’ll find in different locations.

And that would be to register a decision to opt in. That would also give you the option to select for organs and tissues you would or would not wanna donate.

So we’ve proven that for patients who have registered a decision that families are more likely to respect that decision.

When a decision’s unknown, that’s really difficult. We’re asking families on the worst day of their life when somebody’s dying to make really difficult decisions, and often it’s easier for them to just say no.

Whereas if you’ve discussed it and we know it’s something that you would want to save the lives of other people and your family are more likely to support that decision.

Andrew explains how people can make their organ donation decision.

The other option is that you discuss it with your family and that could be a verbal decision. Again, you can stipulate if there’s any preferences on what you would or wouldn’t wanna donate.

Or the third option is you can nominate a representative. So if you want someone to make decisions on your behalf, should you be in a position to donate, then we can check the organ donor register and see if you’ve nominated somebody to make those decisions for you or failing that.

If you don’t make a decision, then we will assume that you have no objection to donation, that you would fit in with the majority of the population who do support organ donation and we could deem that you would be a donor.

Andrew explains how ‘Deemed Consent’ can remove the burden from families.

Now the law can help in, in many ways, it takes that burden of decision making away from families when, as I said, you know, you’re going through a really difficult time that day and we’re having these really difficult conversations that the law can take away that decision making for you.

Obviously, we want you to feel comfortable and be supported and there will be a specialist nurse with you to guide you and support you the whole way through the process.

But when you don’t have to make that decision often that, that gives reassurance to families that it’s not their decision, that decision can be taken from them.

Andrew talks about misconceptions around organ donation.

If families are unsure then we’ll have discussions around that.

You know, there is lots of misconceptions about organ donation and often we can overcome some of those misconceptions when we talk about organ donation.

Even simple things like organ donation is completely separate from your care and your intensive care decisions about organ donation are not paid by the intensive care team. Looking after that patient where a specialist team that come in specifically for that purpose.

And also people don’t realise that organ donation only takes place after death. People think that we take organs and then you die. That’s not case.

And it’s these misconceptions that often people worry about and if we can have that open and honest discussion with each other, you know, the majority of the time we can overcome those concerns or fears.

Andrew talks about why families don’t agree to organ donation.

I said before it’s easier to say “no”. Organ donation is a really rare opportunity. It’s extremely rare. Around 1% of the population can donate organs when they die.

So something as a society we’re not very good at discussing, we’re not very good at discussing dying in general. The majority of families out there haven’t discussed what their wishes would be in terms of anything to do with end of life care.

So when we’re having these discussions and you’ve no idea, that’s really hard. Plus you’ve got the grief and you’re trying to process everything that’s happened. The patients that we attend are very sudden and unexpected deaths, it’s not something they’ve planned for. So it’s really difficult for them with everything that’s going on to then have to think about something else.

And it’s really hard to put yourself in a position where you think how might I feel in 12 months time if my relative has gone on to save the lives of multiple people. I think if you’ve had that discussion it just makes it so much easier and you know you’re doing exactly what that person would have wanted.

Or if we can show evidence that they’ve registered a decision on the organ donor register, again families are comforted by seeing that those decisions are there.

Andrew explains what organs people can donate.

So every donor’s assessed on an individual basis and we would only take organs that you are suitable for, but potentially you could donate heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, pancreas, small bowel, eyes, heart valves, skin, bone, tendons, meniscus.

There’s lots and lots of things. And again, by making your decision known, you can choose those things in advance. Otherwise, we’d assume that you have no objection to anything. There’s so many people can benefit from tissue donation.

Andrew explains the benefits of organ donation.

It is the biggest gift anybody can give. You know, every day, three people die because they don’t get a transplant.

And it’s the greatest gift to save somebody’s life. And I think we’re all generally good Samaritans. If we see somebody’s gonna get injured or there’s gonna be an accident, and we can intervene and, and we can prevent that happening.

That feeling of elation and that you’ve made a difference and saved somebody in any situation is massive.

And once you’ve died, if you can then prevent that death and that family suffering the same way that yours has to suffer, that’s a massive, massive comfort to families and to people on the waiting list.

It means so much that the people are out there wanting to help them and save them and give them more time with their family, and build more memories and do more things and live a really happy and healthy life.