Death Brings New Life

"Let us take a moment to reflect. Reflect on life, on death, and those rare but miraculous circumstances when death leads to new life. Now, I didn't know Sheri*, but what I do know is that this was her final gift. I spoke to her family for only a few moments. But it was clear that they had said their good byes and were ready for closure. They told me Sheri spent her life giving back and that this is her final gift. Let's take a moment in silence to remember why we're here. To honor Sheri and the new life her death brings." 

We were in the OR in a city in northern Wisconsin. The woman on the table before us had been declared brain dead and the machines were keeping her heart pumping to allow blood to continue to circulate her organs. She had offered her organs before death. I had traveled along with the procurement team (composed of a manager, PA and a transplant surgeon fellow) from Madison to procure these organs and to deliver them to individuals with chronic diseases back at UW.

The transplant surgeons hurriedly got to work. The anesthesiologist was using machinery to keep the heart beating and the lungs expanding with air. A large incision from the top of the sternum to the public bone was made. The ribs were opened. I stared at the opened chest. The heart beating, the monitors beeping, the lungs expanding. Entrancing me. Mesmerizing me. Consuming my thoughts.

"LIZ! What is this!??!" said the transplant surgery fellow, snapping me back to reality. I gambled a guess and was correct. "And this?!" Another guess. "Good. And this?!" I guess. "WRONG! Liz, Liz, Liz, this?! This is nothing!" With a swooping movement of her hand she cut the nothing quickly and moved on to the next task at hand.

We are taking back two kidneys and the liver. We let blood flow to these vital structures as long as possible. Once we were ready, a main artery was cut, and the blood removed. The machines turned off. The anesthesiologist no longer needed. The heart stopped beating. The lungs stopped expanding. Sheri had already been declared death because her brain no longer functioned. However, in that moment, I felt overwhelmed with emotion. Though the machines did the work, I had just watched the heart take its final beat and the lungs take their final breathe. All signs of life officially gone. I took another thought, to once again thank Sheri for her gift. 

The organs were procured and placed in coolers. Through the utilization of private vans and airplanes, we were swiftly transported back to the Madison. Within hours, I was back in the OR at UW. The man before me now, Jon, had been ill for many years. His liver was failing. His skin colored yellow from jaundice.  Jon told me that he felt a mix of emotions. He had been waiting for years for a new liver, but deep down he knew that in order for him to continue living, someone had to die. I stayed up all night, watching the transplant surgeons take out the damaged liver and put a new one in its place. Upon reconnecting the blood supply to the new liver, it slowly turned pink, indicating that Jon's blood was adequately perfusing Sheri's organ.

Death, indeed, had brought new opportunity at life.

*all names changed