PLEASE DON'T READ THIS THREAD IF YOU DON'T LIKE DISCUSSION OF POST-MORTEM TISSUE DONATION, I'd hate to upset anyone.
Thanks to all of you who commented on the post I made on Sunday after Mother had died. I'm just so relieved that this silent heart attack released her before the dementia progressed to a stage where she would have been unhappy, and that she never had any other serious illness to cause her pain and distress. One lady from the home said "It'll be very lonely in the lounge in the evenings, your Mum was the only other person who used to stay up and watch the 10 o'clock news". Not that she'd have understood much or remembered anything, but watching the 10 o'clock news was a long-established routine and the care home didn't mind how late residents stayed up!
One lovely thing is that she had enthusiastically agreed to sign up to donate her brain for research after her death, through Brains for Dementia Research (http://www.brainsfordementiaresearch.org.uk/), which is a partnership involving the Alz Soc. I just had one extra piece of paper to sign and take to the undertaker's, and thereafter Steve from BDR dealt with everything. If the hospital where she died hadn't been able to do the procedure he'd have arranged to move her to Manchester and back again, all very respectfully and at their expense and with no trouble or delay for us and the funeral arrangements. None of our family want to "view" Mother's body, but apparently the operation leaves no visible damage so even that is not a problem. He'd visited her once a year to gently interview and assess her, to get information to add value to the postmortem brain for research by knowing more about how it was functioning in life.
They also want "normal" brain donations for comparisons, and if you're over 65 they'd love you to sign up and will come and assess you every 2-3 years.
I do urge you to think about donating your own brain if you're old enough, and to consider discussing it with the person you care for. Lots of info on the BDR website. It's one practical thing we can do to help those who are researching this dreadful disease.
We also learned, from the Organ and Tissue Donation Team, that (a) there are age limits for all sorts of donations, though they can use corneas (from eye) up to age 85, but (b) they can't currently accept any organ or tissue donations from people with a diagnosis of dementia, because they don't know what causes dementia so it just might be something which lurks in all the cells. Sad but interesting.
Best wishes to you all,
Pam
Thanks to all of you who commented on the post I made on Sunday after Mother had died. I'm just so relieved that this silent heart attack released her before the dementia progressed to a stage where she would have been unhappy, and that she never had any other serious illness to cause her pain and distress. One lady from the home said "It'll be very lonely in the lounge in the evenings, your Mum was the only other person who used to stay up and watch the 10 o'clock news". Not that she'd have understood much or remembered anything, but watching the 10 o'clock news was a long-established routine and the care home didn't mind how late residents stayed up!
One lovely thing is that she had enthusiastically agreed to sign up to donate her brain for research after her death, through Brains for Dementia Research (http://www.brainsfordementiaresearch.org.uk/), which is a partnership involving the Alz Soc. I just had one extra piece of paper to sign and take to the undertaker's, and thereafter Steve from BDR dealt with everything. If the hospital where she died hadn't been able to do the procedure he'd have arranged to move her to Manchester and back again, all very respectfully and at their expense and with no trouble or delay for us and the funeral arrangements. None of our family want to "view" Mother's body, but apparently the operation leaves no visible damage so even that is not a problem. He'd visited her once a year to gently interview and assess her, to get information to add value to the postmortem brain for research by knowing more about how it was functioning in life.
They also want "normal" brain donations for comparisons, and if you're over 65 they'd love you to sign up and will come and assess you every 2-3 years.
I do urge you to think about donating your own brain if you're old enough, and to consider discussing it with the person you care for. Lots of info on the BDR website. It's one practical thing we can do to help those who are researching this dreadful disease.
We also learned, from the Organ and Tissue Donation Team, that (a) there are age limits for all sorts of donations, though they can use corneas (from eye) up to age 85, but (b) they can't currently accept any organ or tissue donations from people with a diagnosis of dementia, because they don't know what causes dementia so it just might be something which lurks in all the cells. Sad but interesting.
Best wishes to you all,
Pam
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