More than 55,000 people have signed register of those who wish not to donate organs when they die The release last week of the figure of more than 55,000 people opting out of assumed consent for organ donation took some by surprise. The number joining the new register featured in a HSE response to a parliamentary question from TD Cormac Devlin, and appeared to some observers large and worrying.
Heart donations traditionally come from donors with no brain function, with a heart that continues to beat, said UHN. But in the DCC process, the heart is recovered from a patient who has died, it said. Although these hearts experience a brief period without oxygen, advances in medical technology now allow them to be successfully transplanted under carefully defined criteria, the hospital said in the release.
When we wake from the dream-laden phase of sleep, the brain boots up step by step. The first brain regions to rouse are those associated with executive function and decision-making, located at the front of the head. A wave of wakefulness then spreads to the back, ending with an area associated with vision. This precise understanding of how the brain transitions from slumber to alertness could help to manage sleep inertia - the grogginess that many people feel when hitting the snooze button.
Surgeons have developed two low-cost techniques to revive the hearts of people who wish to donate their organs after they die. These methods have only been tested on a small number of people, but they avoid ethical issues sometimes associated with current transplantation techniques.
