April Awareness: Donate the Gift of Life

April is both National Donate Life Month and Organ Donation Awareness Month making it the perfect time to consider registering to be an organ donor. If you are already and organ donor, congrats! And thank you! Maybe this is a great time to spread the word and share your decision with friends and family...you just might inspire someone to register.

There are many misconceptions about being an organ donor. From personal experience, there is one misconception I'd like to clear up.

Myth:
If you're not in great health, you shouldn't or couldn't sign up or be an organ donor.

This is absolutely not true and couldn't be farther from the truth.

While it is true you may not be able to donate certain organs, there are other organs and/or even tissues that may be perfectly fine and usable.

The day my brother lost his battle with cystic fibrosis, the first thing I thought about was organ donation. We had actually been right in the middle of fundraising for his double lung transplant and we had learned so much about organ donation and transplant. It just seemed like the right thing to do.

Unfortunately, at that time that I was fundraising for him, I was also working a full-time job, a part-time job and taking college courses part-time. I know.....when did I possibly have time to do fundraising?! I will not lie. It was not easy. But, I did it.

Having all that responsibility......I just never thought to have that conversation with him. You know, the one that would answer that question, "Do you want to be an organ donor?" I guess a part of me figured he would have most certainly had that conversation with his wife -right?!

That day when I got the dreaded call...Eddie was losing his fight. I was completely heart broken and devastated that he passed before I got to his room. I never got to say goodbye; to say it was okay to go; or to say I was sorry that I couldn't do more to have changed his circumstances.

As I stood next to him in his bed, the nurse had come in and asked my mother if she wished to have him be an organ donor. Her response, "I don't think there is anything (organ) good he could donate." I glared at her and said, "That's not true!" But, in the end, she was listed as his health proxy, so I didn't have a say.

At that time, I was angry with my mother for thinking he (my brother) could in no way be an organ donor. It was almost as if she was saying he was damaged. He was not damaged! Looking back, now, I think her response came from a place of fear/uncertainty and lack of knowledge. I knew, he may not have been able to donate his lungs or pancreas, possibly a few other organs -but, he could donate organs and even tissue(s).

The point of sharing my very personal experience with you is to educate through experience, as my grandmother always said, "Knowledge is power." Yes, my brother had cystic fibrosis but that did not disqualify him from being an organ donor. Please talk with your health care provider, transplant clinic and family. Educate yourself, and above all, please consider being an organ donor.

Fact:
One organ donor can save up to eight (8) lives! That same donor can also save or improve the lives of up to 50 people by donating tissues and eyes!¹

Remember -you can save a life -register to be an organ donor and Donate Life, today.

Learn how to register and become an organ donor from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Donate the Gift of Life.

¹LiveOnNy: Organ Donation Facts and Information.

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'Presumed Consent' for Organ Donation

Westchester County assemblyman, Richard Brodsky (D-Greenburgh), whose daughter is a two-time kidney transplant recipient wants to flip New York's organ-donation system on its head by presuming people are donors unless they indicate otherwise. The reason: he feels "New York is a completely failed system".

Statistics show:
-The majority of New Yorkers would like to be donors, yet just 13% of residents 18 and older are on the state Donate Life Registry
-More than 9,600 people in the state need organ transplants (New York Organ Donor Network)
-There were just 423 deceased organ donors in New York in 2009

But because both individuals and religious groups have raised legitimate concerns on this subject, he will not be pushing the proposal this session. However, he co-sponsored legislation that would let people consent to giving an anatomical gift through an electronic signature. It has passed both houses and now goes to Gov. David Paterson for his consideration. Right now, 45 states allow electronic signatures for donor registries (New York Organ Donor Network).

Other organ donation reforms he is working on includes requiring the state Department of Motor Vehicles to provide information on organ donations and creating an organ donation tax credit.

In an April Donate Life America report, data showed other states with low donor-registration rates are Texas (an estimated 2 percent), South Carolina (9 percent) and New Hampshire (10 percent), compared to 73 percent in Alaska.

No states have "presumed consent" laws, although there have been attempts in several of them, including Maryland and Pennsylvania. Legislation is under consideration in Illinois. A bill was introduced in the Delaware Legislature two years ago. And a number of European nations, including France, Austria and Spain, have this kind of system in place, and they have seen an increase in organ availability.

It is felt by some that since the majority of New Yorkers and Americans want to donation organs and tissues when they die, the burden should be on the minority to opt out.

The Long Island Coalition for Life Inc. opposes Brodsky's legislation. "This legislation opens up the door to abuse via hastened death of vulnerable people and overriding of family concerns," Jerome Higgins, chairman of the coalition, wrote in a memorandum to lawmakers. "It also goes a step further toward turning human organs into commodities. The sick and disabled need to be protected, not exploited for their body parts."

Mary Ann Baily, a fellow of the Hastings Center, a bioethics research group in Garrison, Putnam County, who once sat on an Institute of Medicine committee that looked at how to boost organ donations, stated that even if all available organs were taken, it wouldn't eliminate waiting lists. Hospitals may not get the maximum number of organs possible if they and organ banks aren't well organized, she said.

Cara Matthews
Gannett Albany Bureau



So what do think about presumed consent? Leave a comment below, we'd love to hear your thoughts!

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Potential organ donors should be sure to register

Monday, October 25, 2009 -Friday's front page Tri-City Herald story should have had a disclaimer on it that warned readers to keep a box of tissues nearby.

Herald reporter Annette Cary wrote a piece about one local girl that now will live because another died tragically.

Alex Hatley-Flores and Taylor Tefft, two middle school cousins from Richland, both died from injuries in a collision on Interstate 182.

Kayla Jackson, a Pasco teen in need of a double lung transplant, was likely one of nine organ recipients from these two young donors.

Kayla has been on the transplant list for eight months. Her lung capacity was down to 10 percent and had been told that without a transplant, she would only live a few more months.

It is an awful and wonderful, grief- and hope-filled story.

Our hearts go out to the parents of all of these girls.

There are some interesting statistics about organ donation. According to Donate Life Today:

* More than 100,000 men, women and children currently need life-saving organ transplants.

* Every 11 minutes another name is added to the national organ transplant waiting list.

* An average of 18 people die each day from the lack of available organs for transplant.

And here's a statistic that is easy to change. Although 90 percent of Americans say they support organ donation, only 30 percent know the essential steps to become a donor.

It's easy to register as a donor in Washington. If it's something you are interested in, you should indicate your wishes on your driver's license or state ID.

Out of courtesy to your loved ones, you should also let your loved ones know of your wishes.

Washington does not require family consent for donation, but filling out a family notification card will help avoid and confusion or delays. This form can be printed from www.donatelifetoday .com.

From this same site you can also register to become a donor, update (or remove) your profile or register your child as a donor.

What many would-be donors may not understand is that everyone can be a potential donor, regardless of age, race or medical history, and there is no cost to the donor's family.

They may also be concerned that if they sign up for organ donation, their own life becomes less valuable. Thankfully that's just not the case.

Even if you are a donor, when you are in an accident or become seriously ill, the first priority will always be to save your life.

Each life is precious. Timothy Woodall, Alex's stepfather captured this sentiment beautifully when he said, "(God) takes one under his wings and saves another."

Becoming an organ donor is a personal decision, but those who favor the idea should take the necessary steps to register. You never know when your chance to save a life will come.

Source: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/962/story/767366.html

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One Living Reason to Donate Your Organs

By Eric Ernst

When she was 18 and undergoing a Navy physical, Bette Luksha-Gammell got the shock of her life.

"You'll never have children, and I'm surprised you're still walking," a doctor said. He later told her parents she probably wouldn't live past 20.

Unknown to her, Gammell had pulmonary hypertension, and her lungs and parts of her heart were three times normal size.

Following that news, a gradual decline left Gammell hooked to an oxygen tank for too much of her days.

Eighteen years ago, doctors transplanted two lungs into Gammell and sewed up a hole in her heart. In 2000, after her body rejected those organs, she received a single lung transplant. Then, about four years ago, she received a transplanted kidney after hers was damaged by the medicines she took for her lungs.

She now lives in North Port with her husband, Larry. On Sunday, she'll celebrate her 50th birthday.

Gammell may have lived a life of struggle and pain, but she doesn't ask, "Why me?"

"Never question God," she says. "You might not like the answer."

Instead of wallowing in self-pity, Gammell adjusted her goals and went to work for Disney cruise lines and as a baggage handler (no kidding) for Continental Airlines.

"I'm one of those people, I have to be doing something. I can't sit at home and collect a check every month," she says. "I'd love to be back at work, but I know the risk I take."

Gammell settles for teaching a wire jewelry class at the Cultural Center of Charlotte County.

She's also an advocate and ambassador for organ transplants. At Disney, she started a support group called Second Chance. She records her daily struggles at www.survivinganorgantransplant.blogspot.com. She writes letters with suggestions for Medicare reform.

And she has traveled across the country to talk with potential recipients filled with doubts, fears and conflicting emotions.

At 9 p.m. Sundays, she watches a new CBS television series, "Three Rivers," which follows the lives of organ donors, recipients and surgeons at a fictitious hospital in Pittsburgh.

Gammell calls the show the first national platform for organ donations.

"It certainly starts a conversation, " says Jennifer Krause, public affairs manager for LifeLink Foundation.

The foundation, which arranges organ donations from Tampa Bay through Fort Myers, reported 584 transplants in its coverage area last year. Another 437 donors provided tissue for such uses as bone grafts and heart valves.

Gammell sees donors as the real heroes. "I try to do something, each day, to honor donor families," she says. "At the most grief-filled time of their lives, they gave up someone they loved to give life to someone that someone else loves."

To recipients and donors, she offers, by her own example, a simple creed: "You have all these issues, but you have to stay positive. Being positive keeps you alive, whether you've had a transplant or you're healthy."

To become an organ donor, register online at www.donatelife.net.

Eric Ernst's column runs Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Contact him at eric.ernst@heraldtribune.com -or- (941) 486-3073.

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