A 10-year-old boy who was swept into a storm drain while helping his family clean up storm debris is being kept on life support so that his organs can be donated, according to his father.

The boy, Asher Sullivan, “officially passed away” on May 18, but remains on life support to facilitate the organ donation process, his dad, Jimmy Sullivan, wrote in a Facebook post.

“It’s 100% an ‘Asher’ type thing to do in continuing to be selfless,” Sullivan shared  on Facebook. “He will have an honor walk at the hospital in the next few days and be celebrated as he is, a hero!”

    • cobysev@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      My father did this. He signed up for his body to be donated to science. He always told me, the minute he passes, there’s a card in his wallet with a phone number. Just call them and they’ll come out to pick up his body. That’s it; no funeral or anything. He didn’t believe in wasting money on a funeral or burial plot/coffin after he was dead. When they’re done with their research, they’ll return his cremated remains to us.

      Sadly, I had to call that number a few months ago.

    • iAmTheTot@kbin.social
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      6 months ago

      In the US, at least, I believe you cannot specifically donate to medical schools. Generally you indicate that you’d like to be used to medical research or teaching, but that can be a wide variety of things.

      To be clear, I still support and advocate for this, but believe people should be informed.

      • bitchkat@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        That’s what I meant Captain Pedantic. And I’m having a hard time figuring out what you think I meant? My body is going to the local state University for medical training and research. I mean, they sure aren’t going to working on healing my former body.

        • iAmTheTot@kbin.social
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          6 months ago

          I’m not sure why my comment was met with such hostility. As I said, I support it, but wanted to add further context. A lot of people have this idea of donating their body to research meaning that they will be used to train students or something similar, but that is simply not always true and you don’t typically get to decide what they do with it. They may well end up putting your bones on display or doing something else “unsavoury” with it that might surprise a lot of people.

          • bitchkat@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            I really don’t care what happens to my former body once I’m dead. I’m not using it any more.

            • iAmTheTot@kbin.social
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              6 months ago

              That’s great for you; my comments were not necessarily directed to you, they were adding context for any other readers.