RAW Magazine
March 2004 Issue
The Finisher: Giving Back
By: Victoria

A few weeks ago, RAW Magazine senior staff writer Keith Elliot Greenberg (I actually call him “Greeeeeeen-berg,” the way fans chant “Gooooooold-berg” asked me if I would be interested in writing “The Finisher” for the magazine. I was flattered to be asked, and I gladly agreed to write the column. Then, it occurred to me that I had to come up with something that fans would want to read.

A few days later, the magazine’s editor called to thank me for my upcoming contribution. I confessed that I wasn’t sure what to write about. He mentioned that people regularly express interest in a previous job that I had, and that this was something interesting and something I’m passionate about. So you’re about to learn about my life as a Human Tissue Coordinator.

A Human Tissue Coordinator works for an Eye and/or Tissue Bank. You see, when a person passes away, there are parts of the body that be taken from the cadaver up to 48 hours after their death. The Inland Eye and Tissue Bank where I worked dealt with corneas, saphenous veins (veins in your legs that are used in transplants), bone, skin, middle ear, and heart valves. The Eye and Tissue Bank works much like your neighborhood bank where you deposit your check and take out money. Corneas, for example, are deposited into the bank from a recently deceased donor, then withdrawn by a doctor who can implant them in a visually impaired patient.

This process is not like an assembly line, where different people are responsible for different stages. As a Human Tissue Coordinator, I was involved from start to finish. The first step is to make the rounds to the coroner’s offices. Every few hours, I’d check in and look over the medical charts of the recently deceased. I look to see if there is anything that would preclude them from being a donor, such as certain diseased, questionable medical and social histories, or a list of other high-risk factors. If everything seems in order, I physically examine the cadaver.

Yes, this is disgusting. I’ve seen people burned to death, mangled in auto accidents, and shot at close range. People wonder how someone can deal with so much death. You tolerate it because it will better others’ lives.

If I determine from the physical evaluation that this person is a suitable donor, I contract the hospital where they passed away. Again, I search for more details on their medical history and cause of death. If, after this, I still determine them to be suitable donors, then I get to the hard part, I have to call the family for permission to remove suitable tissue for transplantation.

This call never got any less terrible. I would have to call the next to kin hours after they lost a loved one. I can’t print many of the names that I was called. It wasn’t unusual for them to hang up on me. And then, there were many other times where I ended up crying with the bereaved. It was very emotional, one way or another. But I knew that if I received a family’s consent for donation, someone, somewhere, was going to get the treatment they needed to better their medical condition, and maybe their life.

So with their consent, I’d go out, either alone or with a team, to surgically remove the tissue from the donor. The tissue was then brought back to the Eye and Tissue Bank. We didn’t have to list what we have and wait for calls. There were always people waiting for tissue. So we’d contact the next physician in line waiting on that particular item.

This is a long way from powerbombs and the Widow’s Peak. I’m glad I have the opportunity to entertain the fans, and I hope I can be a positive role model. But when you guys get tired of seeing me wrestle, I look forward to going back to an Eye and Tissue Bank, where I know I can make a positive impact.

There are many ways to make a positive impact, and we can all make one right now. People die every day waiting for organ donations that never come. Let your next of kin know that you want to be an organ donor.