Warning: Spoiler Alert (although I wouldn't recommend wasting your money anyway)
Several weeks ago Brad and I went to see a movie, like in a theatre. We never do that. We saw 'Seven Pounds' with Will Smith and I was so disappointed with the inaccuracies that were portrayed there that at times I bordered on livid. As most of you know I work in Organ & Tissue Donation and it is a huge part of my life. A passion you might say. Well, I feel like this movie set the O&T Donation community back by the untruths they told. Here are just a few that really chapped me:
1. Directed donation is a possibility in the event that your loved one is brain dead and the family has chosed to pursure donation. Directed donation is when you have a family member, friend or other person who is in need of a transplant and you wish for a specific organ to go from this brain dead family member to this other specific person where possible. We make every effort for that to happen but certain things have to be met too (like blood type & HLA compatibility, the other person is listed on the UNOS list for a transplant, etc). You cannot commit suicide with the intent to donate your heart or other organ to your loved one. It is irresponsible of the makers of this movie to imply that. Infact, it is ludicris. Unfortunately, directed donation does't happen as often as we would like it to.
2. Will Smith's character, you find out at the end, was a living liver, lung, kidney and bone marrow donor prior to killing himself so that he could donate the rest of his organs and tissues. That is not realistic either. No doctor worth his weight (or credentials) would allow even the healthiest of persons to donate that many parts of their body while alive- it would be unethical not to mention dangerous to the donor. I was a living kidney donor. I am living a healthy life with one kidney but if I were to donate a portion of my liver or lobe of my lung too it might just put too much strain on my kidney. Plus, when you donate a lung lobe it takes two lobes from two different donors to go into one recipient.
3. In the movie Woody Harrelson plays a blind man (with blue eyes). After his cornea transplant he miraculously had brown eyes like Will Smith did. Hmmm. Lets go back to basic human anatomy and remember that the CORNEA is colorless, the IRIS is what contains the color and it is the cornea that is transplanted. So, when you get a cornea transplant you retain your natural eye color.
Those are just a few of the things that irked me and still bug me today. Our office has been inundated with calls from people in the community with questions about this movie. I believe that the movie makers have good intentions when making this movie- they wanted to show a man making restitution for something that he blamed himself for. But divvying up your body and ending your life for someone you love is not the answer. Am I taking it too personally? Probably. Brad liked the movie and didn't see why I was so upset. (Like I said, it's the passion thing).
Did you see the movie? What did you think of it?
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