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News - Alameda County Medical Center, Oakland California USA |
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| Alameda County Medical Center |
| Oakland Police Officer's Organs Save Lives |
| Date : - 30/03/2009 |
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Oakland - It was the final gift of slain Oakland Police Officer John Hege. For four Bay Area residents, it meant the world. One man has Hege's heart. Two men have his kidneys and a fourth his liver.
As many as 50 other people may benefit weeks or months from now. Hege, of Concord, also donated his skin and tendons to a tissue bank in San Rafael. These tissues will eventually be used by burn victims and those in need of tendon repair or reconstructive surgery.
Hege's lifesaving generosity has drawn renewed attention to organ donation registries. It has also lifted the spirits of the emergency teams at Highland Hospital in Oakland who fought valiantly, but unsuccesfully, to save his and three other officers' lives last weekend. Several of the Highland nurses and doctors knew one or more of the officers because they would frequently bring people into the emergency room for medical evaluation. "For our staff, it is like the loss of a family member," said Tina Bray, a registered nurse who is director of emergency, trauma, critical care, and maternal and child health at the hospital. "We have a lot of staff members who were profoundly upset by this."
The medical staff has donated $10,000 to a trust fund for the officers' families, and the nurses are collecting donations.
Many from the ED staff and trauma team attended Friday's memorial service for the four officers at the Oracle Arena in Oakland. The emergency teams at Highland are used to dealing with gunshot victims, including several people brought in at once. Every month, the trauma center sees 230 to 260 people who have been shot, stabbed or suffered severe injuries from a car accident or fall. But no one remembers having four people arrive at once with the type of severe brain injuries suffered by the officers. In a stroke of good fortune, the hospital had an advanced trauma life support class happening that Saturday "so nearly every trauma surgeon in the house was here that day," Bray said.
But despite their efforts, the Highland team could not save the officers. There also was no chance that Sgts. Mark Dunakin, Ervin Romans and Daniel Sakai could donate organs because thier injuries were too severe, Bray said. For people to donate, oxygen and blood must continue to flow to vital organs of the body so that no damage occurs before the organs can be harvested.
Hege, 41 had been shot behind his left ear, said Dr. Atul Patel, a neurosurgeon on call that weekend. Hege had no motor function evidence of brain activity, but Patel talked to Hege's parents, Tamara and Dr. John Hege of Piedmont and suggested they wait 24 hours to make sure it wasn't a temporary concussion in the spine or brainstem. After another round of brain tests March 22, Patel concluded Hege was brain-dead. Because Hege had previously registered to be an organ donor when he renewed his drivers license - and made his family aware of his wishes - doctors and his family decided to keep him on life support until his organs and tissue could be harvested.
More than 21,000 Californians are on waiting lists for organs, according to the California Donor Transplant Network. A third of them will die before receiving a transplant. People can register or obtain more information about organ donation at www.donatelifecalifornia.org. Before Hege's heart could be taken, emergency crews transported him to Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland to have a catheterization performed. This procedure is done when the donors are over 40 to make sure the arteries are clear and that the heart is healthy. Hege's heart went to UC San Francisco Medical Center, his liver to Stanford Medical Center and his kidneys to California Pacific Medical Center. He was then removed from life support.
Bray said she hopes more people will register as donors. "People die every day waiting on an organ," she said. "It's an incredible gift to donate your organs." |
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| Reference : - www.acmedctr.org/highland.cfm |
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