It is a well-known phenomenon in organ donation patients to feel strange influences, cravings, and other impulses surfacing after the person has received a new organ from an unknown recipient.

Although not scientifically proven, these people often insist that the new organ they have received comes with 'baggage'.

James Baker of San Diego experienced renal failure and it was determined that he should get a new kidney. Being a fairly routine operation, James came out of it with a new kidney and a new life.

However, James experienced very strange and unexplainable cravings after the surgery, for foods like pizza, strawberry ice cream, licorice whips, and Captain Crunch cereal. There were days says James, when he could eat nothing else except those foods.

After researching into his organ donator, James discovered the reason for his quirky cravings. His kidney had been the kidney of a 12-year-old Colorado boy who died in a freak accident.

The boy, upon further research, which James undertook with the young boy's family, revealed that indeed, little Bradley had been crazy about pizza, his favorite ice cream was strawberry, he always had licorice whips in his back pocket, and he would only eat Captain Crunch cereal for breakfast.

James Baker says that little Bradley seems to be living through him, and James says that is fine with him. In fact, he has come to enjoy Captain Crunch cereal and he is never out of liquorice whips.

Some sixty years ago, scientists were on the edge of an exciting scientific breakthrough. In the preceding decades, researchers were achieving a degree of success transplanting organs in lab animals, and there had also been a few not so successful attempts at human organ transplants. A number ofstudies revealed that human organ transplanting was feasible, and that it would be very beneficial to many thousands of patients, but doctors had been unable to make it work.

In the 1950s success was finally achieved when several kidney transplants soon began to give brand new life to needy patients. In the subsequent decades, doctors learned how to transplant a number of organs successfully, and they radically improved recovery rates. Nowadays, the majority of organ transplants are safe, routine procedures, and transplantation is now considered to be the optimal treatment option for thousands of ailing persons every year.

Doctors now however are confronted with a new obstacle: demand for transplants has grown far beyond the supply of donated organs. To put it simply there aren't enough available organ donors, so patients must wait weeks and months, and even years, for their organs to become available.

Screening listing and matching organs

Organ transplants are one possibilitywhen a particular organ is starting to fail. Some of the conditions which might be successfully treated with organ transplants are: Kidney failure, heart disease, lung disease and cirrhosis of the liver. In the cases dealing with the heart, the lungs and other exceedingly sensitive organs, a transplant is usually the choice of last resort. However, if all other possibilities have been looked into then transplantation is a good, viable option.

A living donor can provide a liver or a kidney. Often a patient will find a family member who can provide these organs if needed. If the donor is a match, they can go on with the surgery procedure..

Mild-mannered 55 year old Edith Harwood of Paris New York, needed a new liver and found a distant relative that she didn't, previous to her operation, know existed, and who elected to provide her with the organ.

Soon Edith began to imagine impulses that were very frightening and totally unlike her. She became angry with people easily, and several times stopped herself in the middle of raising a knife above her head with the intention of stabbing someone simply because they disagreed with her political views.

Upon advice from her friends she sought out psychological counseling. Her doctor, having been informed of her recent surgery tried a hunch and located her donor's identity.

As it turns out the relative was her father's stepbrother, who had never been known to the family until recently had been because he had spent most of his life at Riker's Island for murder.

Edith Harwell was able to have organ removed and replaced with another, more law-abiding family member and she has been well and happy and quite lacking in aggressive behaviour ever since.

One of the most bizarre cases of organ donation and it's affect on the donee, is that of Tom Jerit of Beaupre in Quebec, who, since his new corneas were inserted, has been seeing what can only be discribed as supernatural and extraordinary phenomena.

Mr. Jerit, who makes a living carving small wooden figures which he sells at his Beaupre roadside stand in the summer to tourists who visit the nearby St. Anne de Beaupre shrine, says that he has seen what he calls 'light orbs' that hover around the cemetery as well as ghostly, transparent persons dressed in clothing from at least 200 years ago.

"I have never seen such things before my corneas were given me by the doctor" says Tom, "but now it's as if I have special ability to see what others don't.

Upon further investigation by the local doctor, who Tom Jerit asked for advice, it turns out that his cornea were donated by a woman who, before her death, was reputed to have psychic abilities and a special talent in extrasensory sightings.

Was it this woman's eyes, perhaps genetically predisposed to seeing ghosts, that are the cause of Tom's new paranormal perceptions? Who can say...but if so, then maybe the persons who claim to see things others don't, are not being dishonest and lying--maybe they have true biological reasons resident in their bodies (perhaps left-over from our Neolithic ancestors)  that  allow for such unusual endowments.

Organ and Tissue Donation Initiative
Access to US Government Organ Donation/Transplantation Information. 

Donate Life America
There are unique organ donation and transplantation issues that affect minorities. ... Organ and tissue transplants offer patients a new chance at healthy, ...

How to become a donor
The Organ Donation and Transplantation Directorate of NHS Blood and Transplant supports organ transplantation, providing donor organ matching and allocation ...

Donate Life America
A not-for-profit alliance of national organizations and local coalitions across the United States dedicated to educating the public about organ and tissue donation. 

United Kingdom Transplant Support Service Authority
The Organ Donation and Transplantation Directorate of NHS Blood and Transplant supports organ transplantation, providing donor organ matching and allocation ...-

Organ donation: Don't let these 10 myths confuse you - MayoClinic.com
organ donation fact from fiction? Get the truth about organ donation. ... Organ and tissue donation doesn't interfere with having an open-casket funeral. ...

Organ Donation
according to the official U.S. government Web site for organ and tissue donation. ... Organ donation gives life and costs nothing. How Can You Become an ..

United Network for Organ Sharing: Organ Donation and ...
matching donated organs to patients registered on the national organ ...