The death of someone we love is one of the hardest things we will ever have to face. In the consuming grief which follows, it is difficult to imagine that anything positive could result.

Consider the case of Brian, a seventeen-year-old who love baseball and his 10-speed bicycle. One evening last spring Brian was struck by a car while riding home from his high school. He was rushed to the emergency room with severe head injuries. Emergency surgery was performed during the night but Brian was finally declared "brain dead." Brain death is a condition in which all indications of brain function have permanently ceased. With the use of a machine called a respirator breathing was mechanically maintained and his heart continued to beat. Brian's parents and older brother were grief-stricken and in a state of shock.

But Brian's story does not end here. His nurse in the Intensive Care Unit knew that everything possible had been done to save Brian's life. She suggested to Brian's parents that a positive result could still come out of this family tragedy if they would give permission to donate Brian's healthy organs and tissues to others in great need. Both mother and father agreed. The thought that good would happen to others gave them a large measure of comfort.

Brian's parents signed the permission form. Within hours skilled surgical teams removed Brian's organs and tissues and sped them on to waiting recipients. Brian's heart went to a 35-year-old father of two. The liver forestalled death in a 20-year-old college student. One of Brian's kidneys went to a teacher who had been on dialysis for 5 years; the other kidney went to a young wife and mother of three youngsters.

Brian's eyes were removed so that his corneas could restore sight to two blind people. His donated skin helped save the life of a severely burned baby. Bone from Brian's legs and hips were removed so that a 14-year-old boy would not have to undergo amputation of a leg due to bone cancer and so that another child's severely deformed face could be reconstructed by a plastic surgeon.

From this single tragedy sprung new life, new health, new hope for nine of Brian's fellow humans and for nine American families.

Improved surgical techniques and new anti-rejection drugs now permit successful transplantation of organs and tissues, such as heart, lung, kidney, liver, pancreas, cornea, bone, skin and other soft tissues.

More than 600,000 Americans could benefit today if enough organs and tissues were available.

For many diseases, organ transplantation is the only accepted medical treatment to offer a chance of survival.

Heart and liver donations are a matter of immediate life and death. Donated kidneys eliminate weekly dialysis treatments. A donated pancreas may "cure" someone's diabetes. Donated eyes not only provide corneas for sight-restoring corneal transplantations but also vital eye tissue for other surgical procedures and for research into blinding eye disorders.

Bone transplants may avert a need for amputation; skin donations save the lives of severe burn victims. State, regional and national computerized networks keep track of potential recipients.

Transplant recipients are selected on the basis of medical criteria, urgency of need and length of waiting time.

We need a strong donor program. Anyone may be a candidate for a transplant in the future, perhaps a member of your own family.

Because of that great need, additional legislation has now been enacted in many states. Known as "Required Request," the new laws require that hospital personnel ask family members to consider giving permission for donation.

This request will give families an opportunity to consider donation. Those who do, claim that it helps ease their own grief by helping others in great need.

Many of us may have organ or tissue donor cards in our wallet or purse. In many states we can affix a donor pledge to our driver's license. The Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, now enacted in all 50 states, makes provision for these donor cards. But donor cards are not enough!

Organ and procurement agencies such as ours will not act without permission of the next-of-kin of the donor. In order of priority legal next-of kin are (1) spouse, (2) adult son or daughter, (3) parent, (4) adult brother or sister, and (5) legal guardian.

The most important step in considering organ and tissue donation is a family decision so that family members are fully informed and aware of each other's wishes. If a question comes up that is not covered by this brochure call us at any time. We'll be glad to help.

Give my sight to the man who has never seen a sunrise, a baby's face or love in the eyes of a woman.

Give my heart to a person whose own heart has caused nothing but endless days of pain.

Give my blood to the teen-ager who was pulled from the wreckage of his car, so that he might live to see his grandchildren play.

Give my kidneys to one who depends on a machine to exist from week to week.

Take my bones, every muscle, every fiber and nerve in my body and find a way to make a crippled child walk.

If you must bury something, let it be my faults, my weaknesses and all prejudice against my fellow man.

Give my sins to the devil.

Give my soul to God.

If, by chance, you wish to remember me, do it with a kind deed or word to someone who needs you.

If you do all I have asked I will live forever.

-- Robert N. Test

Q. Will my medical treatment suffer if I am a donor?

A. Many individuals fear that once they are declared donors their own medical treatment in a hospital will suffer because their doctor will be more interested in their organs than in saving their life. This is simply not true. Organ donation is considered only after every attempt has been made to save the life of the donor.

Q. How is death determined?

A. In the past, death was declared only when the heart stopped beating. Advancements in medical technology now allow death to be determined by measuring brain function. When brain activity has totally ceased, breathing and heart function can no longer continued independently and the individual is dead.

Now there are respirator machines which can temporarily allow the heart and lungs to continue functioning in a brain-dead individual. These machines have helped make organ donation possible.

Strict medical criteria have been established to define brain death. The condition is always determined by physicians who do not participate in organ procurement or transplantation.

To insure viability of the internal organs such as heart, lung, liver, pancreas, and kidneys, individuals without brain function must be maintained on a respirator. Donation of eyes, bone, skin and other tissues does not require maintenance on a respirator.

Q. Will my body be disfigured in any way?

A. Another frequent concern is disfigurement. The answer is no. There is no disfigurement. A highly skilled surgical team will remove the organs and tissues in the hospital, leaving he body intact for burial arrangements.

Q. Will my family have to pay additional fees if I am a donor?

A. The family of a donor does not receive nor pay any fees. It is illegal to buy or sell human organs or tissues. The family is responsible for burial costs, but does not pay any hospital or physician fees associated with organ and tissue removal.

Q. What about my religious beliefs?

A. All major religions fully support organ and tissue donation and the concept of brain death.