MONROE - Within the first hour of their 14-year-old son Jacob's death, Kurt and Teri Ellefson were already answering questions to screen their son for tissue donation.
"We were in such a state of shock; death is a shock, and then you get bombarded with questions," Teri said. "But once it's done, it's kind of soothing to know how these gifts will be used."
Organ and tissue donation is a cursory decision you can make at the DMV - one that could have tremendous repercussions on your family. Medical professionals, including coroners, doctors or hospice nurses, are allowed to determine whether a deceased person should be eligible for donation. These professionals always consult the families of the deceased but are not legally mandated to follow the families' wishes, if the deceased is a registered donor.
April marks the eleventh annual National Donate Life Month, a celebration that honors those who have given the gift of life. Lori Shinstine, vice president of operations at the American Tissue Services Foundation based in Madison, said organ donation is usually limited to patients with brain injuries who are maintained mechanically in a hospital. Shinstine focuses on tissue donation, which is far more common.
If a person is a registered organ and tissue donor, there is a rigorous screening process to determine if the person is eligible to donate, Shinestine said. Next of kin are asked 46 health-related questions that are typically asked via telephone soon after the potential donor has died. If the deceased is eligible for donation, tissues are recovered and sterilized to ensure the safety of the gifts. Anatomical gifts are then processed in a number of facilities from Georgia to New Jersey to Arizona. The tissues are shipped, typically by FedEx, to any one of these processing centers. Here the tissues are sealed and stored until they can be used.
The screening questions asked of the next of kin delve into the history of the deceased. They ask about sexual history, drug and alcohol use, and many other questions to see if the donor was healthy enough to donate.
To a parent, this process can feel invasive, especially when dealing with the recent circumstances of death. Teri Ellefson said she could only make it through about three-fourths of the questions before she had to pass the phone to her husband Kurt.
"They asked about sex, and I just, I have no clue how to answer that," Teri said.
A Gift
Shinstine said anatomical gifts seldom come back to the communities they originated from, but when they do, it's something very special.
Chris Persinger, of Mukwonago, died in a car crash, but through donations helped 64 people improve their lives, including his sister. Five years after the accident, Chris' sister Caitlyn needed knee surgery for a soccer injury. The family looked to ATSF for the unlikely chance that Caitlyn could receive a portion of Chris' tissue to repair a ligament in her knee.
"There was one of his graphs left," Shinstine said. "It's a tribute to the one they loved."
ATSF is not-for-profit, and they incur all the costs of procuring anatomical gifts. Shinstine said that donation is always looked at with the intent of transplant, with research and education taking a backseat. Anyone who received or renewed a driver's license after March 2010 and chose to donate has given what's known as first-person authorization for donation. This means they have given explicit consent to tissue and organ donation. Anyone over the age of 15-and-a-half is eligible to register for donation. Shinstine said donations can be taken from the very young to the very old, depending on their health history. Bone tissue can be taken from 15- to 85-year-olds, and hearts or valves can be recovered as early as infancy.
Shinstine said ATSF is regulated heavily by the Food and Drug Administration. ATSF is accredited every two years by the American Association of Tissue Banks and audited almost as often. But the FDA wields the most power over ATSF.
"They could close our doors at any moment," she said.
Quality of Life
Kurt Ellefson said he was never in favor of donation. His wife, on the other hand, was all for it. Kurt said he was on the fence about allowing Jacob's remains to be donated, but he eventually came around and felt better about the process.
"Jacob was always active; now he lives on in others being active," he said.
The Ellefsons received a letter from ATSF about a year after their son's death that listed his donations, which helped 42 people improve their quality of life. The letter does not explicitly list who received a donation and the exact circumstances they were used for, but for Kurt it's enough just to know his son helped someone.
"This should be about people helping other people," he said.
The Ellefsons also received a monument to Jacob's donation. It's a glass teardrop attached to a gold-colored metal frame. It's called the healing tear. It symbolizes the grief of losing a loved one, but out of that grief, someone else was helped.
Shinstine said the hardest part of her job is having to probe into people's lives during one of the toughest times in their lives.
"We find that people have a very altruistic spirit," she said. "At the worst time in their lives, they think of others."
Teri Ellefson said donation shouldn't be scary.
"It's not as bad as it sounds; you have to find something good out of the bad," she said. "It's good to know the decision was not made in vain."
"We were in such a state of shock; death is a shock, and then you get bombarded with questions," Teri said. "But once it's done, it's kind of soothing to know how these gifts will be used."
Organ and tissue donation is a cursory decision you can make at the DMV - one that could have tremendous repercussions on your family. Medical professionals, including coroners, doctors or hospice nurses, are allowed to determine whether a deceased person should be eligible for donation. These professionals always consult the families of the deceased but are not legally mandated to follow the families' wishes, if the deceased is a registered donor.
April marks the eleventh annual National Donate Life Month, a celebration that honors those who have given the gift of life. Lori Shinstine, vice president of operations at the American Tissue Services Foundation based in Madison, said organ donation is usually limited to patients with brain injuries who are maintained mechanically in a hospital. Shinstine focuses on tissue donation, which is far more common.
If a person is a registered organ and tissue donor, there is a rigorous screening process to determine if the person is eligible to donate, Shinestine said. Next of kin are asked 46 health-related questions that are typically asked via telephone soon after the potential donor has died. If the deceased is eligible for donation, tissues are recovered and sterilized to ensure the safety of the gifts. Anatomical gifts are then processed in a number of facilities from Georgia to New Jersey to Arizona. The tissues are shipped, typically by FedEx, to any one of these processing centers. Here the tissues are sealed and stored until they can be used.
The screening questions asked of the next of kin delve into the history of the deceased. They ask about sexual history, drug and alcohol use, and many other questions to see if the donor was healthy enough to donate.
To a parent, this process can feel invasive, especially when dealing with the recent circumstances of death. Teri Ellefson said she could only make it through about three-fourths of the questions before she had to pass the phone to her husband Kurt.
"They asked about sex, and I just, I have no clue how to answer that," Teri said.
A Gift
Shinstine said anatomical gifts seldom come back to the communities they originated from, but when they do, it's something very special.
Chris Persinger, of Mukwonago, died in a car crash, but through donations helped 64 people improve their lives, including his sister. Five years after the accident, Chris' sister Caitlyn needed knee surgery for a soccer injury. The family looked to ATSF for the unlikely chance that Caitlyn could receive a portion of Chris' tissue to repair a ligament in her knee.
"There was one of his graphs left," Shinstine said. "It's a tribute to the one they loved."
ATSF is not-for-profit, and they incur all the costs of procuring anatomical gifts. Shinstine said that donation is always looked at with the intent of transplant, with research and education taking a backseat. Anyone who received or renewed a driver's license after March 2010 and chose to donate has given what's known as first-person authorization for donation. This means they have given explicit consent to tissue and organ donation. Anyone over the age of 15-and-a-half is eligible to register for donation. Shinstine said donations can be taken from the very young to the very old, depending on their health history. Bone tissue can be taken from 15- to 85-year-olds, and hearts or valves can be recovered as early as infancy.
Shinstine said ATSF is regulated heavily by the Food and Drug Administration. ATSF is accredited every two years by the American Association of Tissue Banks and audited almost as often. But the FDA wields the most power over ATSF.
"They could close our doors at any moment," she said.
Quality of Life
Kurt Ellefson said he was never in favor of donation. His wife, on the other hand, was all for it. Kurt said he was on the fence about allowing Jacob's remains to be donated, but he eventually came around and felt better about the process.
"Jacob was always active; now he lives on in others being active," he said.
The Ellefsons received a letter from ATSF about a year after their son's death that listed his donations, which helped 42 people improve their quality of life. The letter does not explicitly list who received a donation and the exact circumstances they were used for, but for Kurt it's enough just to know his son helped someone.
"This should be about people helping other people," he said.
The Ellefsons also received a monument to Jacob's donation. It's a glass teardrop attached to a gold-colored metal frame. It's called the healing tear. It symbolizes the grief of losing a loved one, but out of that grief, someone else was helped.
Shinstine said the hardest part of her job is having to probe into people's lives during one of the toughest times in their lives.
"We find that people have a very altruistic spirit," she said. "At the worst time in their lives, they think of others."
Teri Ellefson said donation shouldn't be scary.
"It's not as bad as it sounds; you have to find something good out of the bad," she said. "It's good to know the decision was not made in vain."