Organ Donation which Saved MY DAD’S Life in a Radical Way & My Take on John Oliver’s Coverage this Week

Please watch! It isn’t ALL good, but that is John’s job & I respect him and find him funny.

For the first time I’ve seen him in a slightly different light. I admire first his courage to go against the system including his own network to do DEEP DIVES into Real issues in our country to hold those accountable who are not being held accountable ALL WHILE making it hilariously entertaining.

He does use one offs out of thousands at times for humor like this piece and isn’t really fair, but he & his team can’t possible handle all the issues like the answer the to the “Steve Job’s” issue (see below at 9:15). First, I’ll say, that I’m as close to an expert about this category without being a trained medical professional. It became so by serving thousands or hours on over 5 organ donation related boards the biggest of which is the Houston & Greater Surrounding Area OPO for 7 years, Life Gift which is over a $50M non profit operation facilitating upward of 1,500 life saving transplants per year.

A LOT of this piece is about WHOLE BODY DONATION FOR MEDICAL RESEARCH WHICH I CAN NOT SPEAK TO.

SOME NOTES FROM A BOARD MEMBER OF 7 YEARS (ME) OF HOUSTON’S Organ Procurement Organization (OPO) LIFE GIFT:

During the segment:

2:15 — “90%+ of US Citizens Poled Support Organ Donation while Only 50% have”. ASH YOURSELF WHY THERE IS A GAP BETWEEN 50% registered & 90%+ who support! Answer is supporting believers with ACTION which only takes 60 seconds at TKFoudation.org or DonateLifeAmerica.com. 42K Organ Transplants Per Year in US Estimated 5.6K more could be saved if systems were perfect & in harmony State to State & OPO to OPO which UNOS regulates, but like ALL things is not perfect, but is ONLY improving (I’ve been there myself to audit). 17 People Die Everyday Due To Not Having Enough Organs Available

-3:50 — Please remember the different between living donation for Kidneys & lately Livers with Organ Donation after Dead Body which is all the other organs needed to save lives. BTW, this happen all over the country including Houston for people who can afford to plead to the masses for a live voluntary kidney donation (you have two and can live with one).

-6:00 — The Federal Government just got involved in this category in 1984 & has gotten better as this CONTINUALLY EVOLVING medical science develops.

-6:45 — what they missing about “the list” is that the over all health of patients needing transplants is their over all health so that they are not transplanting organs like a lung into someone who is going to die of a heart attack in several months when their is a patients at that moment in time is healthy except for the needed organ.

-9:15 — There are plenty of places around the country that house patients awaiting transplantation for free near hospitals that do transplantation for FREE. Here in Houston, that place is Nora’s Home which I & my family proudly helped open with money, time, making dinner for residences on Sunday Nights & me hosting their Gala 3 consecutive years raising $700K on average each year.

-11:45 — Please remember only less than 2% of US Deaths result in a qualifying donors

-12:10 — This is why it is SO IMPORTANT for individuals to make this decision for themselves and not leave it to their suddenly bereaved loved ones. Houston’s Life Gift (OPO) is one of the top rated on all counts in the county & has full time employees in hospitals to have those conversations so that hospital staff don’t have to. Roughly 2 out of 3 times they are miraculous successful!

-15:05 — Sounds like she was complicit & has a guilty conscience or is full of it. Not sure, I don’t know her personally, but that smacks of fired employee looking to grind an axe. If you ran it, why didn’t you change it as an executive?

-17:10 — While I can’t speak on this specific situation or personal correspondence, I can tell you it is a FACT that in the Houston Community, Hispanics receive the most % of transplants while having the lowest % of being registered organ donors. No statement here. Just the facts.

-25:50 — IT IS WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT! Human’s are imperfect. Human systems are imperfect. However the GIFT OF LIFE is PERFECT!

29:35 — Oliver’s Personal Believes About Being An Devoted Organ Donor Himself

Check it out:

ORGAN DONATION

STING in Rad Dad Style!

From Sting’s 10/15/23 Concert. Loved that his son opened for him & came back to finish 2 songs with him including the iconic Every Breath You Take. Doubt half the audience there knew that that Joe Sumner was Gordon Sumner’s (Sting) son. Was so cool to see! Also LOVED that Sting used a shot of the same toy we have at home near the end of his show of the Muppets Critics Statler and Waldorf😂😂. Good Stuff!

TOP 20 BANDS I’VE SEEN MOST TIMES LIVE

1. Guns N’ Roses – 4

2. Bruce Springsteen – 5

3. Rolling Stones – 5

4. John Mellencamp – 6

5. Billy Joel – 4

6. Elton John – 4

7. Tom Petty – 4

8. Sting – 3

9. U2 – 3

10. Pearl Jam – 3

11. Neil Young – 3

12. Foo Fighters – 3

13. Red Hot Chili Peppers – 4

14. Counting Crows – 4

15. Weird Al Yankovich – 5

16. Radiohead – 3

17. James Taylor – 4

18. Pink Floyd* – 3

19. Green Day – 3

20. Aerosmith- 3

Having spent 30 years of my career in entertainment, I’ve made it a point (for inspiration & enjoyment) to see most Vegas Shows & Broadway Shows.

Of all those almost 100 shows, I’ve only seen one more than once. It is Les Miserables & this January will make number 10, this time with my sons who will be 2 weeks shy of 15 years old. It gets me EVERY TIME! It is like the Love Actually of Broadway!😏. Those of you who know me well, know I’m not joking. ONE DAY MORE!