Ahiahi mārie, welcome to The Spinoff Daily. Today on The Spinoff: How will climate change affect what foods we can and can’t grow in New Zealand? Are we on the cusp of Kamalamania? And is Christopher Luxon a political grim reaper? But first: We don’t have enough organ donors in New Zealand. Why?
T Black: “‘Jessica Manning had been waiting a year and a half for this phone call. “My heart fell out of my butt,’ recalls Manning. ‘I just knew – nobody else would call me at 6.30 in the morning.’ ‘Jess, I think it’s your time,’ the voice on the other end of the line said. It was her donor coordinator. Manning, who was born with multiple heart defects, and facing end-stage heart and liver disease at age 25, was being offered a new heart and liver. ‘It was my only chance of survival,’ Manning says. ‘When I say I was on my deathbed, I could not even walk to my letterbox without almost passing out.’ Nervous energy fizzed in the air. Suddenly, everything was happening, now. There were phone calls to family members – it was not guaranteed Manning would survive the surgery – and logistics to organise, as well as a race across Auckland to get to the hospital in 90 minutes. Despite the 20-hour transplant surgery, followed by time in a coma and having to learn how to hold a pen again, Manning considers herself lucky. But for Manning to be lucky, to receive a new heart and liver, she knows that somewhere, a family was grieving the loss of a loved one. This is the dichotomy of deceased organ donation: one family’s hope is another’s sadness.”
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‘Everything I do in life, I do it for my donor’
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