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Offline Clark

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The Moms Who Lived Bonnie Raitt’s Grammy-Winning Song
« on: February 11, 2023, 11:50:32 AM »
https://www.thedailybeast.com/bonnie-raitts-grammy-winning-song-just-like-that-shines-light-on-organ-donors

The Moms Who Lived Bonnie Raitt’s Grammy-Winning Song

“Just Like That” was inspired by the story of a cardiac transplant recipient who let his donor’s mother listen to her dead child’s heartbeat.

Michael Daly
Special Correspondent

Updated Feb. 06, 2023 9:36PM ET / Published Feb. 06, 2023 8:35PM ET

As Bonnie Raitt tells it, the inspiration for her Grammy-winning Song of the Year, “Just Like That,” was a TV segment in which a mother listened to the beat of her dead son’s heart in a transplant recipient’s chest.
“I was so inspired for this song by the incredible story of the love and the grace and the generosity of someone that donates their loved one’s organs to help another person live,” Raitt said in her acceptance speech Sunday night. “And the story was so simple and beautiful for these times.”
She sings:

I lay my head upon his chest

And I was with my boy again

Raitt has not said which transplant news story in 2018 led her to pen those lyrics, but there have been plenty since then. The grief and hope she wrote about has been on display in more than a dozen encounters chronicled by local TV stations.
Unrelated directed kidney donor in 2003, recipient and I both are well.
629 time blood and platelet donor since 1976 and still giving!
Elected to the OPTN/UNOS Boards of Directors & Executive, Kidney Transplantation, and Ad Hoc Public Solicitation of Organ Donors Committees, 2005-2011
Proud grandpa!

Offline Clark

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Bonnie Raitt's song of the year spotlights organ donation. Too often, we waste
« Reply #1 on: February 11, 2023, 11:58:55 AM »
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2023/02/09/bonnie-raitt-grammy-awards-song-year-inspired-organ-donation/11170917002/

Bonnie Raitt's song of the year spotlights organ donation. Too often, we waste that gift.

More than 100,000 men, women and kids are on the national transplant waiting list. We need to expand options for transporting donor organs to reduce risk of organ delay, damage or loss during transit.

Dr. Maureen McBride, Opinion contributor

In the spotlight at the Grammy Awards, Bonnie Raitt accepted her song of the year award for “Just Like That” by turning the spotlight on the modern miracle of organ donation and transplant. Her song was inspired, she said, by “the love and the grace and the generosity of someone (who) donates their beloved's organs to help another person live.”

Such love, grace and generosity has led to more than a million transplants since America’s first transplant surgery in 1954. Yet there have always been more patients waiting for transplants than there are organs available. The gap is shrinking, but not rapidly enough.

While the United States has seen a record number of deceased donor transplants each year for the past decade, more than 100,000 patients are still waiting. Sometimes, the gift of life takes too long to arrive – as it did for poet and advocate Tonya Ingram, who died waiting for a kidney in late December.

Donated organs become less viable with each passing hour in transit

Many would be surprised to learn, then, that the number of donated organs that are recovered and matched to patients is actually growing. Unfortunately, transplant programs end up declining many of these organs for a variety of reasons, including medical complexity of the organ, logistical issues and other factors. The transplant professionals who help place donor organs must then race against the clock to find other recipients, while the donor organs become less viable with each passing hour.
Last year, nearly 20% of organs recovered from selfless donors were not transplanted. This includes more than a quarter of recovered kidneys. Most of those organs come from older donors; these can be more medically complex to transplant but remain safe for patients.

The trend of organ non-use has been rising and was well-documented in a comprehensive report last year by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

Every stakeholder in the system, from transplant hospitals to United Network for Sharing (UNOS) leadership, knows that calls for change must be met with action.

How to increase acceptance rates of donor organs

Take transplant programs, for example: On Jan. 31, the biggest gathering of transplant programs to improve organ offer acceptance took place in Orlando, Florida. A third of the country’s transplant hospitals participated in this kickoff to a six-month project sponsored by the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN). During this time, they shared best practices and committed to addressing ongoing issues and working together to increase acceptance rates of donor organs.

United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) is the nonprofit that serves as the OPTN. We work with hospitals, organ procurement and transplant professionals, physicians, patients, lawmakers and federal agencies to enact a variety of policies. When it comes specifically to the non-use of donor organs, we’re pursuing specific actions and advocating for the federal government to make these changes in the next OPTN contract:
   Expand options for transporting donor organs, reducing risks of organ delay, damage or loss during transit. This includes working with the Department of Transportation to allow organs to travel in the cockpit again instead of as cargo, a post-9/11 change. [/color]   Utilize ventilated death data directly from hospitals to conduct near real‐time performance reviews of organ procurement organizations, pinpoint underperformance and implement corrective action.[/size][/color]   Make data on organ procurement organizations and hospital performance publicly available so patients can understand how their transplant program compares with others. Publicly available data would include organ recovery rates, non-utilization rates and regional trends, educating patients and giving policymakers and regulators a clearer picture of how programs and hospitals are performing.[/size]
A recent study published in the American Journal of Transplantation found that the median waiting time for kidney transplantation is decreasing – by more than a year compared with 2018.

However, we should not evaluate the transplant system by what it has done, but rather by what it needs to do.

Kendall Ciesemier’s recent article on Ingram’s death and her advocacy addresses some of the same concerns shared by the organ donation and transplant system. Like the author, we want an organ for every patient who needs one.

Bonnie Raitt sang so beautifully about a life saved by an organ donor. Thousands of Americans are alive today because of transplants. Thousands join them every year. Nonetheless, we must take decisive action to best serve the thousands more who are still waiting. These and other actions we are pursuing will help create the kind of system that the poet Tonya Ingram deserved.

Dr. Maureen McBride is the interim CEO of United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the mission-driven nonprofit managing the nation’s transplant system. She has been with the organization since 1995, serving in numerous key leadership capacities and has contributed to over 50 research manuscripts and publications.
Unrelated directed kidney donor in 2003, recipient and I both are well.
629 time blood and platelet donor since 1976 and still giving!
Elected to the OPTN/UNOS Boards of Directors & Executive, Kidney Transplantation, and Ad Hoc Public Solicitation of Organ Donors Committees, 2005-2011
Proud grandpa!

Offline Clark

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Bonnie Raitt says she’s ‘been so deeply moved’ by outpouring love
« Reply #2 on: February 11, 2023, 12:04:33 PM »
https://www.today.com/popculture/music/bonnie-raitt-writes-message-thanking-fans-grammy-win-organ-donation-rcna70215

Bonnie Raitt says she’s ‘been so deeply moved’ by outpouring love after major Grammys win

After winning song of the year, the singer thanked those who have shared their stories and experience with organ donation.

Feb. 10, 2023, 11:22 PM EST / Source: TODAY
By Liz Calvario

The 2023 Grammy Awards was a night to remember for Bonnie Raitt.

The singer-songwriter won song of the year for “Just Like That,” surprising audiences and even herself. Raitt, 73 — who was up against artists like Lizzo, Taylor Swift, Harry Styles and Beyoncé — was visibly shocked to hear her name being announced during the Feb. 5 telecast.

Her win touched many people’s hearts including those who related to the song’s lyrics, which were inspired by a true story about an organ donor.
In a Feb. 10 message posted on her website, Raitt began by sharing how she wanted to respond to “the incredible outpouring of messages that have come in” since her big win.

“I’ve been so deeply moved, often to tears, reading the personal stories of hundreds of you, some of whom have had no familiarity with me or my music before I won that Grammy, and were curious why this song had won,” she wrote. “After listening, many of you wrote that you were moved to tears, even inspired to share your own heart-wrenching stories of either having your loved one’s life saved by an organ donation, or having decided at the height of the terrible shock and loss of losing a beloved, that you would donate their organs so that others could live.”

The artist thanked everyone for their kind messages, before sharing that she’s also received “messages from nurses and doctors in the field involved with transplants as well as people who were tragically not able to get an organ in time to save their loved one’s life.”

“There are messages from the family members of people who wanted their organs to be donated, but are now living with the guilt when that wish, for whatever reason, was not able to be fulfilled,” she continued. “These stories run the gamut and I’m just blown open by the vulnerability and power of each of them.”

Just like she mentioned in her Grammy's speech, she went on to share the story behind the song.

“A few years ago I saw a segment on the evening TV news where they followed a woman who was meeting the man who had received her son’s heart for the first time,” she explained. “It was very emotional, but when he invited her to put her head on his chest and listen to her son’s heart, I just lost it.”

The story stayed with her for weeks and inspired her to write “Just Like That.” She also gained inspiration from John Prince’s music and his song “Angel From Montgomery.” The two musicians were longtime collaborators and friends. Prince, who died in 2020, wrote the song in 1971, with Raitt covering to acclaim since 1974.

“I wrote about a fictional woman, Olivia Zand, torn by grief and guilt at the loss of her young son, who finds redemption and grace through the loving act of another,” she continued, adding that she hopes the song brings more awareness and motivation for people to support organ donation registration and infrastructure.

Additionally, the singer noted her message was inspired by an op-ed written by Dr. Maureen McBride, the interim CEO of United Network for Organ Sharing, for USA Today that was published the day before.

“More than any award, fame or commercial success, knowing what my song means to so many may be the greatest gift of all,” she concluded, before directing people to the comments section of her lyric video to read people’s inspiring and heartbreaking stories.

Raitt also won two additional Grammys that night in the best American roots song and best Americana performance categories, bringing her total to 13 total wins.
Unrelated directed kidney donor in 2003, recipient and I both are well.
629 time blood and platelet donor since 1976 and still giving!
Elected to the OPTN/UNOS Boards of Directors & Executive, Kidney Transplantation, and Ad Hoc Public Solicitation of Organ Donors Committees, 2005-2011
Proud grandpa!

 

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