Honor Life - Protect Life - Save Lives

As members of Chris by the Sea parish, we have seen how our Pastor and other faith leaders have stepped forward to highlight the pillars of our parish. Protecting Life is one of the pillars and I wanted to share some thoughts about this topic as a retired health care provider and member of our Knights of Columbus Council #4685.

Protecting life for our parish members will mean different things to each of us. Standing against abortion is probably the first thing most Christians will think of. Yes, we should stand against abortion as life altering decision and process. Certainly, avoiding an unintended pregnancy should be a no-brainer for folks in their child bearing years. Your health care provider can assist you in this discussion. I would prefer not to judge anyone forced into that decision, but offer up the option of adoption as a best practice. Let’s keep everyone in our prayers and ask for God’s intercession and blessing on anyone affected by abortion.

In my reflection of this article, I wanted to focus on two other areas our Parish “Protect Life” pillar. Blood Donation and Organ/Tissue donation are where I’d like to focus. I have had experience with both of these processes in my 40 year medical career. Serving in our nations uniformed services for nearly 40 years, I saw firsthand how blood and organ/tissue donation positively impacted hundreds of lives. Starting as an hospital corpsman in the USAF in 1973, I worked on a cancer unit where patients diagnosed with various forms of cancer were admitted for hospital based treatments. In those early days, I was not making any decisions of what care my patients would be offered, but I was directly involved in helping our nurses and doctors administer the selected treatments. Blood transfusions in various forms were commonplace. Administration of blood components like red blood cells, plasma, various subunits of blood like factor 8 or platelets were also routine. I saw how human blood from volunteer donors improved the lives of my patients by extending their lives, improving the quality of the time they had remaining and gave them hope for whatever was next in their course of treatment.

After my first term in the Air Force, while attending pre-med training in college, I worked at a blood bank and blood donation center. I drove a 40 foot blood mobile to work sites all over my town and screened the volunteer donors to make sure that their blood donation would be safe to give to others but also, that they were healthy to give the gift of life. If you have donated blood before, you understand the screening process involves a health and medication history as well as “vital signs” to check your blood pressure, pulse and iron content of your own blood. When you “pass the screen” you can donate your blood to someone else. After donating that pint of blood, it goes through a battery of testing to ensure that it is safe to transfuse into someone else, free of infectious disease or pathogens. Thank you to all who have donated blood in the past for your “gift of life” which clearly supports our Parish’s life protecting pillar. Dozens of patients can benefit from one unit of blood. For the past 18 months, as a member of our parish’s Knights of Columbus Council, I have been leading our parish effort in this area by coordinating our periodic blood drives. I owe great thanks to my brother Knights who help with promoting and marketing, drive set up,

drive break down and refreshment service during the blood drives. We have several very dedicated members and local Red Cross volunteers who help us with each blood drive and make them extremely successful. But in addition, we wouldn’t be successful without the help of Denise Comeau and Father Scott. They work with me and our Red Cross partners to find the best days to host the drives at both parishes to avoid school classes or other Holy events. We average 30-35 full units of blood with each blood drive and are a leader on the South Shore with very successful drives. Thanks to all who make this possible including so many of our parish members who donate as well as fellow Hullonians who “mark their calendars’ after a donation for the next one 60 days later.

The last point I wanted to make to highlight how you can ensure that you support our parish “Protect Life” pillar is to ask you to consider being an organ/tissue donor. You can be a living donor of bone marrow or other tissues. In the unfortunate situation of your passing on to be with Jesus, your body tissues can help countless people who are clinging onto life. Over 100,000 Americans are on waiting lists for needed organs. Every day, 9 more are added to the list and 17 die for lack of a needed organ. 3 to 5 years is the average waiting time for a needed organ and 85% of the people awaiting an organ need a kidney. When one person passes away who is a declared organ donor, they save on average 8 other people, they restore sight to 2 people and over 75 others are given tissues to help them heal. Organ, Eye, and Tissue donation is not specifically mentioned in the Bible, however, the timeless content of the Scriptures speaks to donation in principle. The following Scriptures can guide our thinking and actions about Organ Donation.

Genesis 2:20-30 The First Transplant: A rib taken from Adam to create Eve.

Ezekiel 37: The valley of dry bones; “These bones shall live”.

Matthew 5:7 Blessed are the merciful

Leviticus 1:17 “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”.

Mark 9:47 We can enter heaven without having every part of our bodies present.

Luke 6:37-38 Give and it shall be given unto you.

John 3:16-17 God so loved the world that he gave…

John 10:10 Give life that others may live more abundantly

John 15:12-13 Greater love has no man.

Revelation 21:4-5 In eternity we will not need our earthly bodies: Former things will pass away, all things will be made new.

I hope that this newsletter article might help to motivate some of our parish members to consider becoming an Organ Donor if you are not already. Its easy to do when you get your driver’s license to check the box to be a donor. It is important to have this discussion with your family so that they know your intentions in the event that the unfortunate happens. It is much easier for family members to support your intention if you have made it clear to them that you want to help someone else when the time comes for you go to be with Jesus.

Thank you all for taking time to read my rambling thoughts as well as for those who donate blood, help at blood drives, and have made the clear choice to be an organ donor, either living or when you pass on. If you have any questions about this topic, please contact me and I would be happy to have a discussion with you these “gift of life “ topics. I can be reached by cell phone/text message at 646-812-1139 or by email at [email protected].

Thank you Father Scott for your ongoing support and for your patience in awaiting this article!

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Mike Milner, DHSc, PA-C

Rear Admiral, US Public Health Service, (retired)

Former Assistant United States Surgeon General