Whole Body Donation Blog

If you or someone you know is close to passing and they or their family has decided to make a body donation here are some useful tips.

1. Openly discuss your desire to donate with your family. Your family must be informed and give their consent in order to make the donation possible. If you have no survivng family please contact us for assistance.  Consent means two things. You (the donor) self consent, AND your legal next of kin consents as well. We must have both of these forms filled out to accept a donation. If the potential donor is too sick to consent, only the next of kin consent form is needed and only the legal next of kin may consent. Our forms are available for download by clicking here.
2. Call Life Quest Anatomical 866-799-2300 as soon as possible to record your medical interview and biographical interview. Again, if the donor is too ill to do so a family member or the next of kin may do so on their behalf. Have all of the donor's biographical information ready. Such as: date of birth, social security number, place of birth, parents names (including mother's maiden name), marital status, educaitonal status, armed forces veteran (if donor is a veteran we will need discharge papers in the event their state offers free death certificates. An LQA rep will research this and take care of this for you.) and type of employment. The telephone interview takes 15 minutes and gives us all the information we will need at the time of need to handle transportation and paperwork. Once this step is completed and completed forms are in our possession we will be ready for when you and your family need us. Our phones are answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The LQA rep assisting you will provide a fax or email for you to return your completed forms.
3. Advise your care provider of the arrangements you have made. Advise your care provider that we are to be called to report the date and time of death and that this must happen immediately. The care provider should also provide the attending physician's name and telephone number so that our local mortuary representative can contact the physician for a signature on the death certificate. This is very important as we cannot file a death certificate without this information AND the doctor's signature. If you have any trouble getting this information please give the LQA representative what ever information you have and they will work throught the process for you. You caregiver will almost always have this information. Please also advise them of your desire to release you medical history to us when we request it.
4. Advise the care provider that we will arrange for local transportation. They do not have to call a funeral home or mortuary service. This is very important as the caregiver will likely ask who the mortuary service is and want to know when they will be arriving. Our donor network partners and mortuary services follow our strict protocols to call the residence, nursing home or hospital. Advise the caregiver/family who they are and give an estimated time of arrival.

Our program is designed to take control of the calls, the arrangements, the logistics, the paperwork and the stresses of managing the death of a loved one. A  Life Quest Anatomical representative will walk you and your family through every step of the donation process and ensure all paperwork is filed quickly and correctly the first time to assure prompt delivery of death certificates to your family. Our job is not done until we have taken care of the donor and their family by keeping our promise to match the donor with projects that support medical science for the betterment of humankind. We must also ensure that cremated remains are quickly returned to the families who choose to have returns. We feel so strongly about the importance of body donation we also have a memorial page we hope you will visit. We feel donor's who have donated to Life Quest should have a place where they can be acknowledged and  remembered for the legacy they leave and in so doing give more depth and meaning to the importance of body donation.

www.lifequestanatomical.com

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