Disgusted nurse from Bristol

I found last nights Casualty/Holby City special on Transplant surgery very distasteful. It seems the idea was to raise the awareness of the general public to the desperate needs of transplant patients in the UK.
But in my opinion, this was done with inappropriate drama and insensitivity.
I'm very surprised at Prof Robert Winston for fronting such drivel.
I'm not a huge fan of either medical soap dramas. I say medical loosely as they really are both totally fabricated and bear no resemblance to real wards or A+E Departments.
Last night's 'Transplant families' were dreadful. The pushy Cystic Fibrosis parents. A total injustice to those real families who cope with CF every day. Always aware that someone else has to die to give their child life.
Wanting the transplant but also not wanting it as the moment their child is pushed into theatre there's a realistic chance that they won't see them alive again.
To shout at another family in a hospital corridor though, to demand a transplant? Never. They would have received massive and intense counseling.
I was appalled at the Transplant Services Worker. He was so insensitive and brusque. There are ways of asking people, preparing them, supporting them. Allowing them time to come to terms with a brain stem death. This is a terrible time for them, the worst time ever. They aren't jumped on from a high building and hurried along like that. No one got to know the family, no one sat with them, comforted them. Allowed them to cry and grieve and express.
And now we have to decide WHO gets the Transplant. It'll be the 40 year old man. The CF parents were too pushy. Britain doesn't like pushy.
We have to phone in, like voting for Big Brother? Craig or Antknee.
This is meant to raise awareness and sympathy?
Dreadful programme. I have looked after many kidney transplants post surgery. Children who previously were tied to machines. Tired, pale, sickly children. On massive amounts of drugs. On diet restrictions. Endless needles, tummy upsets, depression. The joy when that kidney yields it's first drops of urine. The difference it makes to lives. Families, people, real people.
I've also looked after kids who have died and whose brave wonderful parents have given that gift of a part of their loved one to someone else.
I've gone with parents to the theatre doors and watched as they've sobbed their last goodbyes. Forever etched in my mind. And I've taken the body back afterwards. I know the care they take with those bodies. Precious and special. I know the comfort those parents have taken in knowing that as their child has died, another five or more people will live on because of their actions and gift.
Such special memories. Such touching times almost so painful that it's hard to think of them. Maybe because the bravery and selflessness of those parents defied any stupid medical drama.
Real people need transplants.

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