PINELLAS PARK – When an individual dies the remains can be buried or cremated.
Or body parts can be removed to save the lives of others.
Entire corpses, scientifically called cadavers, often are donated to medical centers for education purposes or research. Some even are used in simulated automobile and plane crashes so scientists can study the results.
Ed Taylor, a city councilman, is a fifth generation Floridian who began work as a teenager in his father’s funeral homes. So intrigued he was with the business of death that he went on to graduate Miami-Dade Community College with a degree in mortician science. Since 1994 he has owned and operated the Taylor Funeral Home.
“Various body parts are donated, but the process of removing and shipping them is an exact process,” Taylor said.
Harvested organs include the heart, intestines, kidneys and pancreas. They are taken from brain dead donors that are sometimes kept artificially alive for successful organ removal. Other parts such as bones, tendons, eyes, skin and heart valves can be extracted after a person has died.
Taylor said there was a time when funeral directors themselves were trained to remove eyes. They were placed in special containers, surrounded by dry ice and handed over to a Florida highway patrol officer for transportation to a hospital or medical center.
Organs are available shortly after death. An auto accident victim, for example, is too traumatized to make a good donor because internal parts often are damaged or destroyed.
Taylor said clinically dead people are placed on life support systems. That means they are flatlined, dead for all intent and purposes, but artificially kept alive to keep blood flowing through the veins and otherwise sustain simulated life. That gives doctors an opportunity to remove the organs and transplant them to wherever they are needed.
In charge of that process is an organization called LifeLink, a nonprofit Tampa-based organization dedicated to the recovery of organs and tissue. There are LifeLink chapters in Georgia and Puerto Rico.
More than 90,000 Americans need organ transplants and thousands more require tissues, a large number of those being burn victims. Harvesting organs depends on the type of death. Those with “crushing injuries” such as falls or other accidents and those with highly communicable diseases or autopsied bodies are disqualified.
Cadavers are sent to the University of Florida’s College of Medicine in Gainesville or the University of Miami where they are used for educational purposes.
“They are kept for up to two years,” Taylor said. “They are used to train students who will someday become doctors.”
The bodies, or what is left of them, are then cremated. Ashes are returned to families or spread into the Gulf of Mexico.
Taylor recalls one man who was insistent on taking his deceased wife “for her last ride.” He used the family station wagon to move her remains to Gainesville where it was used for educational purposes.
Eyes often are taken at funeral homes by specifically trained technicians who then transport them to wherever they are needed. Sometimes entire brains are removed for research.
“The human skin is the largest of all organs,” Taylor said. “It and bone marrow are the most harvested portions.”
LifeLink states that all major religions support organ transplants, but it is also a federal crime to sell body parts. In other countries, however, organs such as livers and kidneys are sold for between $800 and $10,000 each. China is among the countries that allow organs to be removed from executed prisoners.
The best way to ensure that your organs will be donated for educational or transplant purposes is to inform loved ones of your decision. Further information is available by calling LifeLink at 813-932-8808.
To donate your entire body contact the University of Florida at 352-392-3588 or the University of Miami at 305-547-6691.
