Discussions of organ donation and end-of-life planning are coming up again as a result of the Indiana State Fair disaster.
24-year-old Megan Toothman died Monday afternoon but not before doctors kept her on life support in order to harvest her organs for donation. She is the seventh person to die following the stage collapse at the State Fair. Sam Davis, Director of the Indiana Organ Procurement Organization, says end-of-life conversations aren't popular among Americans.
Listen to the Interview:
"What goes on or what you would like to have happen at the end of your life is just not something that people generally want to talk about and so often they will make a decision and put it in writing but won't necessarily make a lot of mention about it," Davis says.
Davis says from his conversations with families, talking about end-of-life procedures makes it easier for the family because it's one less thing for the family to think or worry about. Davis says having the organ donation heart on your driver's license makes it even easier for families.
Davis says the priority in these cases is to make sure that every attempt to save a life has been made.
"For those of us who work in this particular field of health care, we would not want it any other way because frankly, it might be one of us there someday or one of our family members and we would want the appropriate thing done."
