A blessing in disguise

I am not to sure how to start this off so I'm just going to throw it out there, but i wanted my first post on this blog to be something that I am passionate about. Organ Donation. Google says that Organ Donation is "the process of surgically removing an organ or tissue from one person (the organ donor) and placing it into another person (the recipient), however to me it is much more then that; Organ donation to me is having the strength and compassion too see beyond a tragedy in times of trauma and grief to give something special (a life, some sight, a step, a breath) in order to allow others to live a life and have a quality of life that otherwise would not have been possible.

The awkward conversations that pop up every now and then about organ donation has got me writing this today. I hear it all the time, "why would you want to be cut open and pulled apart when your dead", "I don't want to make my family have to deal with extra shit after I die" or the "Imagine having to see someone dead in there coffin with open wounds, that'd be so gross". This post is not asking for sympathy, it is to raise awareness and to stop the stigma based around organ donation, and I want you to see from my perspective how it can be so life changing for not only recipient families but also donor families.

So it may seem odd for those of you who don't know me or 'my story' to be writing about such a delicate and touchy topic, so I am just going to do a quick run down of what has happened to make this so important to me.

One Thursday morning at 6 am on the twelfth of April 2012 I woke up to the news that changed me and my family forever, we lost our father due to a subarachnoid brain haemorrhage. At the time this happened I was only 11 and had just finished my first term of grade 7, so I knew what this meant but it didn't quite register to me completely. In reality he was gone, there was nothing I or anyone could do to bring him back, I just had to get my shit together and be strong for my family, and they had to get there shit together and be strong for me. Times after that were really fucking rough, not only for me but for everyone that knew him, we could see each other struggling but knew there was no way we could ever fix what had happened. Time went on and we grew stronger and stronger as a family and community, we hadn't forgotten what had happened or the great man that we lost, we just learnt to grow stronger and more courageous.

Moving on a few years later, just a few months after I turned 13 and my sister Georgia 18, we were off to our weekly game of Wednesday night touch, we didn't play in the same team because she was really good, so we said goodbye and good luck and went our separate ways to our fields. I got stuck into the game and was playing for a while until I heard what I thought was the half time hooter go off, I remember thinking "gee that went quick", but it wasn't that, it was the hooter going off to stop the games because something tragic had happened. Georgia had suddenly collapsed on the field and fallen into a fit, I remember trying to suss out what was happening, thinking someone had just fallen over and hurt there ankle or something, but it was so much worse, I had no idea what was going on until I saw my sisters friend sprinting over to the gates of the ovals to direct the ambulance in tears, she saw me and quickly said "It's G, go and look after her" so I ran over to the huge group of people bunched around the girl laying lifeless on the grass whilst having CPR being performed on her, in that exact moment was when everything started to fall apart again.

But there was hope and light, lots of hope and lots of light, the ambulance arrived, the paramedics and the doctor jumped out and rushed over, there was so much chaos at the time but everyone was doing the best they could, and that was all we could ask for.

I remember thinking that she was going to be fine because years earlier something similar had happened and she bounced back within weeks, but it was different this time. She had a heartbeat, but there was no breathing, but this was good, well better then it could have potentially been. A few hours later, she was put into a medically induced coma and flown to the PA hospital in Brisbane with mum. My two brothers, Keenan and Maddison, my stepdad Mark and I were then off to meet them there. I remember the whole car trip and the tension in the car, no one knew what the outcome was going to be but everyone had a vague idea, four hours later and we were there, in a waiting room outside the ICU. We were sat down and mum came in to break the news that she wasn't going to make it through. That was the moment we decided as a family what was best for her and us, donating her organs.

At the time, I didn't really understand the concept or reasoning for organ donation, it wasn't something I was familiar with. But looking back now, it was the best thing to come out of such a tragic situation. Knowing that losing something so special to me and my family could give something so special that money couldn't buy to 12 other people was one thing that made the healing process a lot easier to cope with. It seemed to be a blessing in disguise.

Hearing how thankful the recipients of her organs were brings so much joy and ease to it all, receiving letters from the recipient families really put things in perspective for me.

A mother, 56 years old, before her cornea transplant, could not do the simple things in life that are taken for granted each day like walking down stairs, reading, and even cooking, in her letter to our family she wrote"Since receiving this gift, I am now privileged to be able to drive again, enjoy and thoroughly appreciate that I can now see the leaves in the trees, the butterflies, the birds etc. I can now say to my husband "can you see that plane in the sky?' before he does. Everything I see now is so special to me"

This is just one of the many reasons why I am now registered as an Organ Donor, knowing that when I pass, that the opportunity to bring so much light to someone else's life is there, makes me feel like I have been put on this planet for a purpose other then just living, but helping other people live. At the end of the day, everyone is going to die eventually, so why not make yourself useful when it does happen and let someone live a big fulfilled life of happiness like you, or even if you didn't let them live one for you, because I can assure you that, that person will be forever thankful for the priceless gift you give them.

I am going to add some facts and useful information based around organ donation, in hope to start a conversation and get more people registered.

1. One organ and tissue donor can transform the lives of 10 or more people.

2. Less than 1% of people die in hospital in the specific circumstances where organ donation is possible.

3. Around 1,600 people are on the transplant waiting list at any one time.

4. In 2014, 378 organ donors gave 1,117 Australians a new chance in life.

5. Of the 51% of Australians that know the donation decisions of their loved ones, 94% would uphold these decisions.

I understand that there is so many myths and misconceptions about organ donation and that it isn't for everyone, but if I can at least educate one person on this topic or convince one person to register, I will consider my job done. But at the end of the day, it all starts with a conversation.

Mikayla Bourke

More information on Organ Donation and how to register can be found at https://donatelife.gov.au/