RJCF
Member
Username: Rjcf
Post Number: 2
Registered: 04-2011
| | Posted on Sunday, April 10, 2011 - 12:05 pm: | 
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I hope it is ok to post this here.
I would like to let you know about a support group I have just started. I lost my husband after donating a kidney to him in 2010, and felt very alone afterwards. There is no support specifically for people in this most painful situation. So I founded this group so that those of us in this rare situation can provide mutual support and understanding to each other. I also hope to increase awareness of issues surrounding living donation so that what happened to us does not happen to others.
Anyone who has been involved in a living donation transplant as either a recipient or a donor and lost the other person as a consequence is most welcome to join.
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/bereavedbylivingdonation/
There are many issues that bereaved donors have to deal with, in addition to the grief at the loss of the loved one, including
* A sense of betrayal
* Survivor guilt
* A sense that if it were not for the surgery, the other person would still be with them
* Ongoing health issues
and
* A sense of being alone in a world of successful transplant stories
For donors, the sense that many have that the hospital no longer cares about them after removing the organ will be greatly magnified.
For recipients, the need to continue with frequent hospital visits may be more disturbing because of the associations with the surgery that took the donor from them.
(This is not a group for general living donor issues, but is specifically for those bereaved by the process. It is also not intended as a general bereavement forum.)
The group fully supports the principles of organ donation, including living donation.
Rebecca |
