this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2024
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I'm an orderly in an OR that does organ procurements from donors. The patients are already brain dead or otherwise intubated, but still technically alive. When the doctors open them up and get to where the organs are, there is a brief moment of silence and a prewritten letter in their honor is read aloud. After that they are taken off of life support and the organs are ready to be taken. The most interesting part to me is watching the color fade from their intestines. It's actually very fast from pink to gray.
That's due to oxygen deprivation, right?
Yes. Without hemoglobin or myoglobin, flesh looks very dull. That's why packaged meat is treated with carbon monoxide, keeps it looking red.
https://www.drweil.com/diet-nutrition/food-safety/is-meat-too-red-to-be-true/
Thanks for the education. :)
Damn, I could have done without reading that one.
So how does organ donor work? Let's say an organ donor dies in a car crash, could their parts be put on ice and transported to the nearest hospital where it's needed? Or do they need to be rolled in alive?
The hospital I work is not a trauma hospital, so those types of patients dont come to us, but as far as I understand patients must be alive. Organs become unusable fast.