Betrayed by this country

Please read this article and await my wrath:

I cannot believe this.

No. It's truer to say I wish I didn't know this.

Of all the fucking irresponsible behaviours of the HSE. In the past, they have displayed gross incompetence, but this? This is just carelessness, this says they just can't be bothered.

Making an effort to procure organs should be a requirement of their work. When somebody collides with their fate in tragic circumstances and is brought to hospital; once the medics have fought like hell to save their lives, once death is declared, for those doctors and nurses the next thought should be contacting a transplant coordinator.

Somebody needs to have that conversation with a bereaved family, to find them in their darkest hour, and in the most gentle and hushed tones try to show them this little light that is embodied in me and hundreds like me.

To explain to them that there are hundreds of people waiting for a special call, and that through this devastating upheaval in their family, they today find themselves with the power to save a number of lives.

I maintain enough faith in humanity to believe that the reaction from a good percentage of those bereaved would be positive, that they would see an opportunity to salvage some good from this tragedy.

The figures makes me feel stupid. Here we all are, going around trying to encourage people to carry organ donor cards. Ha. Why should we bother? It's a waste of an effort, a waste of precious energy that I don't have in good supply.

Evidently there is no interest in the hospitals in helping us out. We can create all the awareness in the world, but we can't start chasing ambulances.

It sickens me to think of all the organs that have gone. Think of it like this, reader - think if you were stranded in a desert and all the water bottles had been buried on you. Think if you were in desperate need of food and all around you they were setting fire to hamburgers.

If I feel a desperation over it, how must the others feel? Those who are waiting for hearts or lungs or livers, who have an end date that beckons to them, without a treatment like dialysis to sustain their sick bodies. For them, this recklessness is the worst kind of betrayal.

Are our lives worth so little? I am 28 years old. I am educated and I want to be something, to contribute something, but my society has evidently decided I am not worth the bother.

When I was listed for transplant in August 2009, they told me I would probably wait two years for a kidney. Suddenly that seems so optimistic.

Fuck this.

*WARNING* Blatant Attention-Seeking

This is shameless self-promotion on my part, but for those who don't read or haven't the time to flick through the entirety of the weighty Irish Times, I offer a link to my article which was published therein today - it also contains a pic of me for those curious to know what a freaky dialysis patient looks like:



http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/health/2010/0323/1224266870184.html



To those who have already read and taken the time to then visit this blog and post lovely comments, I am really grateful. It's actually been a bit overwhelming after going many months without talking to anybody outside of a few close friends about the day-to-day reality of this. I want to reply to each of you individually, and I will do that just as soon as I figure out how...technology is not my strong point and I'm still learning how this stuff works:-)