COVID-19 Information - Click Here
Skip to Content
Homewatch CareGivers
LocationsIcon of Map Pin
  • Caregiver Jobs
  • Franchise Opportunities
  • Care Community Blog
  • Contact Us
close
  • Back
  • Home
  • About Home Care
    • Back
    • What is Home Care
    • Types of Care
    • Financing Options
    • Cost
    About Home Care Homewatch CareGivers® believes good care should not interfere with your quality of life. We deliver the compassionate care our clients need to help complete day-to-day activities while still maintaining a healthy dose of independence.
  • Types of Care
    • Back
    • Elder Care
    • 24-Hour Care
    • Child Care
    • Respite Care
    • Senior Transportation Services
    • Companion Care
    • Hospital Discharge
    • Chronic Conditions Care
    • Dementia Care
    • Nursing Services
    • After Surgery Care
    • Personal Care
    Types of Care Our clients have many different reasons for requiring care, so we strive to provide services tailored to their individual needs and circumstances. Homewatch CareGivers delivers various types of in-home care that focus on the whole person—not just their condition.
  • Resources
    • Back
    • ALS
    • Arthritis
    • Dementia
    • Developmental Disabilities
    • Diabetes
    • Heart Disease
    • Parkinson's Disease
    • Senior Safety
    • Stroke
    • For Health Care Providers
    • Ask The Experts
  • Our Story
    • Back
    • Team Bios
    • Facts & History
    • National Quality Forum
    • In the Media
    • Home Care Association of America
    Our Story Homewatch CareGivers was founded on the concept of person-directed care: focusing on the specific needs of the individual and treating each client as a whole person, not just a condition. We strive to provide in-home care services that allow people to continue living safely and happily in their own homes.
  • Why Choose Us?
    • Back
    • Our Caregivers
    • Questions to Ask
    • Homewatch CareGivers University
    • Client Testimonials
    • In-Home Senior Safety
    Why Choose Us? Let our family care for yours. At Homewatch CareGivers, we value not only highly qualified caregiving services but also human interactions and relationships. Our people make the difference.
LocationsIcon of Map Pin

National Organ Donor Day

National Organ Donor Day Jan 28, 2014
Blog Categories
  • COVID-19
  • A Business with a cause
  • Addressing Isolation & Loneliness
  • Age at home
  • Age in place
  • Aging at Home
  • Aging Parent
  • aging parents
  • animal therapy
  • Anxiety Support
  • Best Home Care
  • Care for Aging Parents
  • Care for My Aging Parent
  • Caregiver
  • Caregiver Assistance
  • Caregiver Stress
  • caregiving assistance
  • caring star
  • caring star award
  • caring.com
  • caring.com award
  • Coping and Caregiving
  • Coronavirus
  • Cost of Care
  • Dementia
  • dementia care
  • Elderly Parent Care
  • Employee Spotlight
  • Essential Caregiver Skills
  • Events
  • Falls Prevention
  • Family Caregiver
  • Financial Resources
  • Franchise
  • Franchising
  • handling caregiver stress
  • Health & Wellbeing
  • Holiday Celebration
  • Home Care
  • Home Watch Caregivers
  • Homewatch CareGivers
  • how to manage caregiver stress
  • In-Home Safety
  • Job Fair
  • Local
  • Long Term Care
  • Long Term Care Options
  • National Public Health Week
  • New Office in New Haven
  • older parents
  • parents aging
  • Parkinson’s Symptoms
  • Passion of Caregiving
  • Pet Therapy
  • Planning Ahead
  • Provider Choice Award
  • Senior Care & Aging
  • Senior Exercise
  • service dog
  • Social Distancing
  • stress
  • therapy dog
  • top rated home care agency
  • wandering

Every 10 minutes someone in the United States is added to the waiting list for an organ transplant. The fact is, organ donations save lives every day thanks often to the kindness of strangers who have signed up to be organ donors or family members of loved ones who make that choice.

Yet there is still a significant need for organ donors and National Organ Donor Day on Feb. 14 is a reminder to people to consider making this lifesaving choice.

“You don’t have to die to save somebody’s life,” said Anastasia Darwish, Executive Director of the American Transplant Foundation, the only non-profit in the United States that provides financial assistance to some transplant patients and living donors, regardless of their legal status. “I think for years the conversation when we talked about organ donation was always around the registration. People checked that box and said, ‘My job is done, what more can I do?’ Out of the millions of deaths, only about ten to twelve thousand organs are good enough to be transplanted. Now kidney transplantation [from a living donor] is a safe procedure.”

The Gift of Life

For those who make the choice to be living donors, there are many plans to make in advance—including a need for in home care after the surgery. Robyn Leone donated a kidney to her husband in 2013 and was both glad she had asked for help in advance from her family and still found herself in need of help from neighbors.

“We had different recovery issues and needs when we came from the hospital,” Ms. Leone, 45, recalled of how she and her husband, 52, healed after she gave him a kidney. “The prolonged recovery was much different than expected.”

Ms. Leone spent four days in the hospital and her husband was in the hospital for five days. She said their teenage daughter was “impacted a significant amount” by having both of her parents laid up during this time.

In general, Ms. Darwish said that a living donor will leave the hospital within 48-72 hours after surgery (sometimes even in 24 hours). There are other ways for individuals to be living donors—partial liver, partial lung, bone marrow—but Ms. Darwish said the 95% of living organ donors donate a kidney.

“For living kidney donors the complication rate is less than 1 percent and the risk of dying is 0.04 percent,” Ms. Darwish said.

Recovery Reality

Post-surgery, both the donor and the recipient cannot lift anything more than 10-20 lbs. and while they need rest, they are also encouraged to walk and get a little physical activity to heal.

“All this family wants to come and make sure you are okay during the surgery,” said Ms. Leone.” I think you need to pick a main caregiver who really is a doer.” Ms. Leone had her father and stepmother come and help by doing grocery shopping and cooking, including preparing meals that were frozen for easy reheating later.

“We only had people stay with us for two full days,” she said, noting that standing at counter top height, or standing for more than five minutes, and simply bending down to lift pots and pans was “really, really hard” at first. Her family was willing to stay longer, but Ms. Leone was ready to heal privately and quietly. However, there was one day that her husband needed to go to the doctor for a follow-up appointment and when she got in the car to drive him there she found just pulling the seat belt across her body too painful so she instead asked a neighbor to drive them.

“I felt fully recovered at five weeks,” she said. “It started slowly and built up to the point where I could move my legs without pain.”

Ms. Leone works from home and her husband took a leave of absence from his job so they could recover. “One of the most important things is having a really good expectation what you can and can’t do from a work perspective,” she said of the recovery after donating or receiving a kidney. “I had a face to face meeting with my company and they were enamored that I was doing this.”

Posted By Homewatch CareGivers
  • Share
Blog Home - Previous Post | Next Post
More Posts Like This
  • It’s a Match! Caregiver-Client Relationships
    Feb 24, 2021

    It’s a Match! Caregiver-Client Relationships

    Caregiving is about more than just one person fulfilling a list of a tasks; it’s about human relationships and connection.

    Read More
  • Top Five Types of Home Care
    Feb 24, 2021

    Top Five Types of Home Care

    Home care is not just one thing, but instead an umbrella term under which there are many types of care for many different types of needs and people. Learn about elder care, respite care, personal care, dementia care, and after-surgery care.

    Read More
  • Developmental Disabilities and Home Care
    Feb 24, 2021

    Developmental Disabilities and Home Care

    People who are living with developmental disabilities often need a professional caregiver in addition to family member support.

    Read More
Homewatch CareGivers Caregiving Services
Find Your Location Homewatch CareGivers is an equal opportunity provider and employer.
Help & Info
  • About Homecare
  • Types of Care
  • Financing Options & Programs
  • Our Resources
  • Owner Login
Our Company
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Caregiver Jobs
  • Blog
  • Franchise Opportunities
Other
  • National Homepage Homewatch CareGivers University Login Privacy Policy Site Map
  • Accessibility Notice
  • HIPAA Disclaimer
  • Do Not Sell My Information - California Residents
Follow Us On

Part of the Authority Brands Family

Authority Brands is the leading provider of in-home services, building brands that support the success of franchisees as well as better the lives of the homeowners we serve and the people we employ.
/
Copyright © 2021 | Homewatch CareGivers® is a trademark owned by Homewatch International, Inc.™ and licensed for use to independently-owned franchised businesses that offer caregiver services to the public. All personal services, elderly care, caregiving and home care services offered OR provided under the Homewatch CareGivers™ mark are offered and provided only by independently-owned franchises and, where required, licensed OR registered businesses and care agencies. Scorpion Franchise Internet Marketing
x

⚠

Your browser is out of date. To get the full experience of this website, please update to most recent version.

Update My Browser