Press "Enter" to skip to content

Organs matter | Lorena von Gordon | TEDxUniMannheim


I am looking for you if you like to
dance as much as I do if you like
between ear next to me oh shoot
if you like to be in the mountains it
needs three knives after excitedly an
adventure as much as I do then you’re
the right match for me
I’d love to meet you best within the
next six months exact iodate are
irrelevant I’m available anyone hoping
now that I’m not giving a talk on organ
donation but I’m giving a talk on how to
improve your tinder matches I got sick
of it but we can talk about that there’s
an you so to give you some background on
me because I’m not a doctor I’m not an
inventor I have not time to start but
nevertheless I think this topic is
important to address especially at the
moment in Germany so I want to give you
some backup or backup story about me so
that you know why this story is
important to my heart so basically I was
born was awaiting the ocean ticket
I was not been wanted in a country where
there was no war and a very stable
healthcare system this winning lottery
ticket though had a little hook to it
because the gene combination I have
inherited was not a winner so now you
might look at me and you’re like look I
don’t know what you’re talking about
there are other types
now with the yields are even taller you
have legs you have arms you have a face
your boobs
it works yes
from the outside it works from the
inside it does not it is actually a very
dark place in my case my sodium chloride
channels are blocked or don’t even there
look
that means that my digestive system and
my lungs are blocked by having mucus so
to some of you maybe it’s difficult to
imagine what the consequences are then
in reality you were in daily life well
the consequences are occurs out that my
first boyfriend always followed me his
little salty pipe so they passed
yourself what did he do that well
because I taste very very salty does not
matter but anyway it does look you know
it happened do you or Nick how you act
every day but this is the first time
that this is how and it was detected
back in the days when the doctors did
not have the instruments they have today
there hasn’t been a day in my life I did
not take medicine I can follow up to
15,000 ones and I know all about
physiotherapy so this is what the
consequences with cystic fibrosis can be
and as you grow older another
consequence
that you need a lung transplant and this
is the reason the topic is very close to
my heart so I don’t just want to talk to
you generally about organs or organ
donation actually for you today
I grew up three points so the first one
is don’t think it’s about someone else
the second one is we can do better and
December is back to the future but we
hope before we go into my three points
I’d like to give you the current state
of organ donation in Germany at the
moment so if you imagine that 2010 there
were about 1300 people who were organ
donors after they passed away in 2017 we
had 800 that’s a difference of 500
people not donating organs as they
passed away I mean we’re in none time
you’re all smart students now you can
start calculating if one human organ
donor can take about seven nights how
so given those numbers I think it’s
important that you realize don’t think
it’s just about someone else does anyone
know anyone who’s ever been on a waiting
list for a new organ or who still lives
there we have quite a few people well
since that person you know or maybe it’s
yourself has been in that situation I
can imagine your muse might have changed
where it is even the first time you
thought about death topic generally well
I experienced that many people haven’t
thought about it
and that often as I did people think
well it sometime happened to me if it
happened to someone else till I was 27 I
was doing fine
I did my therapy I was studying I
started full-time work I thought I would
have either someone else an honor a
sudden after row of low infractions
treatments with medicine
I keep autumn with the lung capacity of
25% and 24 hours of oxygen it is
challenging to manage your daily life so
to give you a feel for it I’m bearing
really high heels today I really know
that I couldn’t have at the time because
it would have cost me too much oxygen
to wear those shoes I am wearing a very
tight deafness I couldn’t avoid it
because I would have felt tiny that I
would have
last year then it felt like getting to
my parents second floor with the series
let me tell you I know how it feels like
to climb Mount Everest but I didn’t have
to save you in the end I just gotten to
the second floor so that was the
situation I was in
Brissac and that was the moment I
realized it’s someone else it’s done
it’s about me and now you might all seem
well right now sorry about your story
but you have a gene defect
I don’t well order in the nation it’s
not just a topic for people with a gene
defect maybe you’ve taken your last to
not secrecy enough and your heart muscle
has very bad information maybe you were
in an accident and you lost your kidneys
and all of a sudden you’re in need of a
new kidney maybe an illness fits you out
bet that neither will a Kaiser silly
have Gomes / Steve Jobs had seen a comic
that they’d be waiting for a loan for a
kidney for a liver and they were all
transplanted in the end
so now just in case some of you have the
thought about well you’re talking about
stars that’s different
well let me tell you in the case of
Coulomb Kaiser in Germany I can charge
it does not matter that you have money
or you’re famous we have to say doctor
and I know the room he
and transplanted and let me tell you
it’s coconut flavor and there are three
applications and this is one situation
in your life where the CV does not
matter it does not matter whether you’re
rich it does not matter whether you’re
smart it’s just nothing how do you take
your medication
or whether you find the perfect match in
this case and let me tell you I think we
can do better we can do better here in
Germany in Spain more than four times as
many people serve as organ donors after
why is that well the answer I think one
of the possible answers there are always
more reasons gosh
in this case I’d say one day’s the
default setting you all know your
default setting from facebook from your
mobile phones from wherever you have to
call setting well in Spain the setting
sense once you’re born yes I want to be
an organ donor but you can opt out
anytime you want and this is de setting
also in Austria in Croatia and Portugal
in more than seventeen European
countries what does the note say in
Germany it says maybe it says maybe in
doubt No so you need to decide
throughout your lifetime and you need to
document it on a little piece of
for example like this one you need to
document it whether you want to become
an organ donor or not and if you don’t
your close ones get to decide after
you’ve passed away you know how many
people in Germany have documented their
decision 36 percent I think we can do
better than that I think we can all make
a decision and I think we should because
by wasting time in this case we’re using
people to be exact you’re using three
people each day so let’s make our
decision now let’s change the default in
the future and make it easy to also for
everyone to adjust to their own opinion
because I have the greatest respect for
everyone who does not want to become an
organ donor but who has important than
wealth and not based on fake facts but
on real facts and who still comes to the
conclusion after asking him or herself
how would they act in either one of the
waiting lists
how would I’d like my friends my family
and others to act if I were on the way
to this because as I said in my first
point don’t think it’s only about
someone else so my third point back to
the future already three past fifty
years
organs have been transplanted in Germany
and it’s even so many people so many
years to live but if I had the chance to
sit right next to Michael J Fox in his
time machine and travel to the few
and maybe they’re having a print up
printing a new pair of lungs I do it
because this is the solution I’ll be
hoping for and I’m sure that one day
this debate and this talk will be
obsolete because there will be a
different solution but today there is no
different solution the more than 10,000
people on the waiting list today just
have the challenge if people actually
decide what they want to do with their
own organs actually passed away so this
is just one aspect of the system we
still need to improve the structures in
our Hospital and the organ system itself
this is also something which needs to be
more transparent and we need to reboot
trust there still needs to be more
information out there and cocaine so
everyone feels well important and
everyone has the feeling he or she who
made the decision tree based on facts
and ideas on whatever they needs to take
that but I also say we need to change
our default because changing one after
another and then observing how it works
or not as you might do it often in
science doesn’t work you it doesn’t
apply because of this during that time
we are using people and here we actually
have a chance of saving them we actually
can do something each and every one of
us I’m looking for you if you like to
dance
as much as I do if you like the fresh
air next to the ocean as much as I do if
you like being in the mountains
and sleeping through the night after
exciting thing of adventure as much as I
do here direct mastery of the 27th of
July 2015 I got by sailing home I was
successfully transplanted that very same
day a double lung transplant after pain
medicine and following loads of rules I
am so grateful because if they need a
chance of celebrating my 32nd birthday
it gets me the chance of being maid of
honor at my best friend’s wedding and
dancing crazy because the new lungs
which are building it gave me the chance
and make me scientists going to work
every day it’s still giving me the
chance of spending holidays and planning
at all I got the chance
we’re in 10,000 people just in Germany
[Music] [Applause]
Please follow and like us: