April 2004 Volume 30 Issue 4  

Girl Scouts can save lives through Gift of Life Program Patch

by Catherine Graham

If you filled Houston’s new Toyota Center and Reliant Stadium, you then would have the total number of Americans awaiting a life-saving organ transplant. And while many surveys show most people are pro-organ donation, when the time comes to donate their loved one’s organs and/or tissue, some say no simply because they haven’t discussed it!

The Girl Scouts San Jacinto Council (GSSJC) collaborates with LifeGift Organ Donation Center, the Houston-based organ and tissue recovery agency, to increase girls’ knowledge of the critical need for more organ donors. The Gift of Life Program Patch informs Girl Scouts about their bodies while teaching them how medicine and the health community impacts their everyday lives. An important part of the project is to discuss the option of organ and tissue donation with family members.

Council volunteers and medical professionals Susan Shirley and Chitra Chandrashakher worked in partnership with LifeGift to develop the program and

develop appropriate, age-sensitive activities for girls. The Council offers resource kits for loan (small fee and deposit) to troop leaders or Juliettes to enhance girls’ learning of the role organs play and how they can live healthier lives.

In addition, the Houston Independent School District along with LifeGift and the Houston Chronicle developed “Talk About It: Organ Donation Recycles Life,” a collection of study materials for kindergarten through 12th grade. In the past few years, LifeGift donated copies of this resource to GSSJC, who has included in the resource kit and distributed to service units for their libraries.

April is an ideal time for Girl Scouts to rally around this cause during National Donate Life Month. For more information about that and organ and tissue donation, you can visit www.lifegift.org or call 800-633-6562. Girl Scout badge kits can be picked up at the Girl Scout Center and Imperial Valley, Lufkin, and Beaumont Girl Scout Service Centers.

Organ donation testimonial

My name is Susan Shirley and I want to tell you about something that is important to me and could be to you or your family. What if someone told you that your mother, father, sister, brother, or best friend was very ill? What would you do? Would you ask the doctors “What can we do to help them get well?” The doctor might reply “they need a heart transplant.” Then you’d try to get them a heart. As you know, hearts don’t grow on trees.

The doctor would probably tell you they would be placed on a waiting list to get a heart. That means organizations like LifeGift Organ Donation Center would try to provide help through their organ and tissue donation network.

My best friend, my husband Leon Shirley, died very suddenly of a heart attack. He was the father of our three children (two lifetime Girl Scouts and an Eagle Scout), the grandfather of two (one a Junior Girl Scout), and was always a very active part of all our lives. When he died, we wanted him to live and found out there was a way that he could — be a tissue donor. Even though he was gone, his skin, his eyes, and parts of his body could be used to help other people. Someone who is blind was helped to see, he helped a burn victim and people who needed healthy bones, and aided surgical patients whose veins were clogged.

LifeGift states that up to 80 people could be helped just from his tissue alone. That helped us to know that he lives in others. Thanks for reading my story.
GSSJC wants you to learn more about organ and tissue donation so the Gift Of Life GSSJC Program Patch was developed. Take the Transplant Quiz to see what you know and complete the requirements for your program level to learn more. A Gift of Life resource kit is available to check out to leaders to help you and your troop complete the requirements.

Test Your Transplant IQ (True or False)

  1. You have to put your name on a national registry to become an organ donor.
  2. If you carry a donor card or have a sticker on your driver’s license, doctors may not try to save your life if you are in an accident.
  3. All major religions support organ donation.
  4. Hospitals pay families for allowing them to remove organs or tissues for transplantation.
  5. A person can get well from brain death because they are still breathing.
  6. Only rich or important people can get a transplant.
  7. You are more likely to need an organ transplant than to become an organ donor.
  8. Organ donation costs nothing to the donor’s family.
  9. The most important thing you can do is make a personal decision about organ donation and then discuss it with your family and friends.

Answers:

  1. FALSE. There is no official national list for organ donors like there is for transplant patients. Some states have a registry, but Texas does not. To be a donor, make a personal decision and discuss it with your family. A signed donor card is a helpful identification tool.
  2. FALSE. Donation is not considered until death is certain.
  3. TRUE. All major religions allow organ donation as a way to help others.
  4. FALSE. No cost for the donation is charged to the donor family.
  5. FALSE. When blood stops flowing to the brain, cells are permanently dead. There is no chance of them returning to life.
  6. FALSE. Once an individual is on the transplant waiting list, a computerized system matches organs with donors based on medical information alone.
  7. TRUE. Less than 2% of all deaths in the United States are from head injuries that result in brain death and just half of these cases are suitable for organ donation. That is why there is such a shortage of organs for transplantation.
  8. TRUE. The organ donation center pays all of the costs related to the donation. The family is only responsible for the costs of the lifesaving efforts made before death is declared.
  9. TRUE. A personal decision and family discussion are the most important things you can do.