10 Organ Donation Practices and End-of-life Care ... 249vomiting and a severe headache. At 04:00 a.m. in the morning she was
taken into hospital, where doctors tested her for suspected meningi-
tis. Tesh Gallagher’s parents, Mark and Lisa, tell the story of how Tesh
became an organ donor:
The doctor took us to a side room and said that Tesh did have meningitis
after all and the disease had taken over her body so rapidly that barely any
symptoms were detectable. He also said that the meningitis had caused
fatal brain damage. It was only a few hours from the time our daughter
arrived at hospital until we were told there she was brain dead and there
was nothing they could do to save our girl. It all happened so fast. The
doctors then apologized and said they needed to ask us a question. They
then asked us if we would consider donating our daughter’s organs. We
didn’t hesitate at all. Our daughter Tesh was a very giving person and was
always willing to help others.
The team from Organ Donation New Zealand (ODNZ) was coming
from Auckland to retrieve Tesh’s organs but unfortunately Auckland air-
port was fog bound. We had to keep Tesh on the ventilator to preserve
as many of her organs as possible. It wasn’t until the next day, before the
retrieval team arrived, that they advised us that due to the length of time
that she had been on the ventilator that her lungs could not be retrieved.
They could however retrieve her eyes, heart, kidneys and liver.
This operation was going to take five hours, so we decided to go away
and get freshened up. After two hours, we received a phone call from the
donor co-ordinator to tell us that unfortunately Tesh’s heart was not via-
ble. This just told us that her heart belonged to us.[Post note: Tesh’s heart valves were also donated]
Case 2: Clinical Practice Commentary
In Tesh’s story, we learn more about the processes used to convey infor-
mation about brain death and organ donation to families, and also gain
greater insight into the organisation of organ donation. Both these areas
are unique to brain death as opposed to circulatory death and, as such,
inform how end-of-life care is delivered. In Tesh’s story, the key aspects