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ORGAN DONATION: HELPING TO TURN THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF LIFE INTO A MIRACLE

One organ donor can save seven lives and
one tissue donor can help more than 50 people.

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As a life ends, this story begins. It is the story of a child who ended up receiving a second chance at life. It started years ago at about 6:30 on a Sunday morning. That's when Karina (whose name has been changed for confidentiality) received word that a liver had become available for her four year old daughter. Alyssa was going to get the chance at life that her mother had prayed so hard for.

Alyssa, had been on the waiting list for a liver transplant for nearly a year. For months, Karina, 38, watched her daughter struggle to live. As Alyssa's condition worsened, her skin grew a sickly yellow. The whites of her eyes took on a greenish tint. "It's the hardest torment you can think of," Karina says. "You know that if you don't get a transplant, your child is going to die."

According to the statistics, each day 16 people die worldwide because there are not enough organs donated to provide the life saving transplants each individual needs. One organ donor can save 7 lives and one tissue donor can help more than 50 people. More than 92,000 people worldwide are currently waiting for a life saving organ transplant and some 3,700 candidates are added to the national waiting list each month. The number of people needing a transplant continues to rise faster than the number of donors.

What can you do? If you are 18 years or older, you can show that you want to be an organ and tissue donor by signing a donor card. There are no age limits on who can donate. Newborns as well as senior citizens have been organ donors. If you are under age 18, you must have a parent's or guardian's consent. Carry the card in your wallet and make sure your family knows your wishes. Your family will be asked to sign a consent form in order for your donation to occur. You may also want to tell your family health care provider, lawyer, and your religious leader that you would like to be a donor.

"Each year numerous patients benefit from the generosity of families who agree to donate organs and tissues of loved ones. These gifts are truly gifts of life," says Dorcena Nixon, VP of Patient Care Services at Doctors Hospital. "We are hoping that by offering more information about organ donation, more people will consider becoming donors as people often either do not have enough information to make an informed decision, they are never asked, or they don’t make their wishes known."

Under an agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Health Services & Resources Administration (HRSA), the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) maintains a centralized computer network (UNet), which links all organ procurement organizations (OPOs) and transplant centers.

Here is how the system works. When a deceased organ donor is identified, a transplant coordinator from an organ procurement organization accesses the UNet system. Each transplant candidate in the "pool" is matched by the system against the donor characteristics. The system then generates a ranked list of patients, called a "match run," for each organ that is acquired from that donor in ranked order according to organ allocation policies. Factors affecting ranking may include tissue match, blood type, length of time on the waiting list, immune status and the distance between the potential recipient and the donor. For heart, liver and intestines, the potential recipient's degree of medical urgency is also considered. Therefore, the UNet system generates a differently ranked list of patients for each donor organ matched.

The organ is offered to the transplant team of the first person on the list. When a patient is selected, he or she must be available, healthy enough to undergo major surgery and willing to be transplanted immediately. Also, a laboratory test to measure compatibility between the donor and potential recipient may be necessary. If the organ is refused for any reason, the transplant hospital of the next patient on the list is contacted. The process continues until a match is made. Once a patient is selected and contacted and all testing is complete, surgery is scheduled and the transplant takes place. All transplant candidates who do not have the option of a living donor (and even some who do) usually wait for some length of time because there are not enough donor organs for all who need them.

Transplants are one of the most miraculous achievements of modern medicine. But they depend entirely on the generosity of donors and their families who are willing to make this life-saving gift to others. The more people who pledge to donate their organs after their death, the more people stand to benefit. By choosing to join the Organ Donor Register you could help to make sure life goes on for many others.

Many persons are hesitant to donate their organs because of the misconception that doctors will not make every effort to save their life or revive them if they know they have signed up as an organ donor; therefore it is important to note that organs are only removed for transplantation after a person has died. The doctors looking after a patient have to make every possible effort to save the patient's life. That is their first duty. If, despite their efforts, the patient dies, organ and tissue donation can then be considered and a completely different team of donation and transplant specialists would be called in. Death is confirmed by a doctor or doctors who are entirely independent of the transplant team. Death is confirmed in exactly the same way for people who donate organs as for those who do not.

Alyssa now 20 years old and healthy, is planning to become a doctor and is studying to achieve her lifelong dreams. She is a walking miracle experiencing a fulfilling life that she could never have imagined possible before her transplant when she was so young. Her miracle story highlights the truly miraculous gift that she received through the unselfish generosity of others who chose to give the gift of life to others by becoming organ donors.

For Karina, the most important part of the story was the beginning. A family, stricken by the death of their young daughter, made a choice. "They're heroes," she said. "They agreed to organ donation to allow other children an opportunity at life. When you get down to it, those families really did a special thing. Organ donation is an emotive subject. It's not easy talking about your death or the death of those you love. But I would encourage everyone to think about organ donation and to share their wishes with loved ones. It’s only because someone was kind enough to want to help someone else to live when their child had died that I have my daughter back.” A tearful Karina added, “Please choose to become an organ donor and remember to speak to your family about your choice. Help turn the circumstance of life into a miracle.”

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