Happy Thanksgiving Weekend

My very best wishes for a happy Thanksgiving weekend to my American friends. For us in the transplant community Thanksgiving takes on a very special meaning. Transplant recipients, their families and friends have much to be thankful for. Those of us who received transplants, such as myself, have been given a "second chance" at life and we will always be thankful and grateful to our donors and donor families for the extra time we've been given.

In the U.S. 18 people die every day while on the waiting list for a transplant. Here are the latest statistics
on waiting list numbers and transplants year to date:

The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN)

Waiting list candidates 120,965 as of today 1:56pm

Active waiting list candidates 77,586 as of today 1:56pm

Transplants January - August 2013 19,262 as of 11/22/2013

Donors January - August 2013 9,446 as of 11/22/2013

“You Have the Power to Donate Life – Sign-up today! Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Donor Registration Links

ONTARIO, CANADA SEES RECORD NUMBER OF TRANSPLANTS IN 2012

In 2012, 95 people on the transplant wait list died. 196 families, in the absence of registered consent, declined to donate their loved ones’ organs. Had their family member been registered, an estimated 370 additional lifesaving transplants could have been performed.

A record-breaking 1,053 lifesaving organ transplants were performed in Ontario in 2012, an increase of 11 per cent over the previous year and the third year in a row the province has reported growth in the number of transplants performed. Over 253 deceased organ donors and their families gave the gift of life in 2012, an increase of 15 per cent over the previous year. Deceased Ontario donors contributed to 385 kidney transplants, 189 liver transplants, 104 lung transplants, 74 heart transplants, 23 kidney pancreas transplants, 20 pancreas transplants and one small bowel transplant.

Despite the increase in donors, according to Trillium Gift of Life Network, lives are still being lost because only 22 per cent of Ontarians have registered their consent to organ and tissue donation. What shocked me was the number of families who refused their consent to donate their loved one's organs for transplant. When promoting organ donation awareness we have to continue to encourage donors to talk to their families about their wishes and to emphasize the fact that one donor can save up to eight lives and enhance the lives of up to 75 others through the gift of tissue. Click here for list of organs and tissues that can be donated.

If I ever have the honor of meeting my donor family I would be sure to tell them that their loved one did not die in vain because they were still living within me and that our lives have merged and continue to lead a happy and rich life.,

Despite the increase in donors, lives are still being lost because only 22 per cent of Ontarians have registered their consent to organ and tissue donation.

In 2012, 95 people on the transplant wait list died. 196 families, in the absence of registered consent, declined to donate their loved ones’ organs. Had their family member been registered, an estimated 370 additional lifesaving transplants could have been performed.

“You Have the Power to Donate Life – Sign-up today! Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Donor Registration Links  

Man helps improve public education for organ transplants in Ontario, Canada

Richard Hutton, NiagaraThisWeek.com

One man has made a difference.

After the death of a close family member in March 2010, Joe Menna thought there could be a better way to make sure patients who are possible candidates for organ transplants have the proper information available to them to make informed choices when it comes to their medical care.

“It’s about empowering patients and their families and the public at large,” the Niagara Falls man said of changes he would like to see in the way the Trillium Gift of Life Network can improve data availability and public education when it comes to organ transplants. “How to do that is through public education.”

Joe Menna - Photo: Richard Hutton
In the fall of 2011, Menna put pen to paper and wrote a proposal outlining changes he felt are necessary. Among those changes are things such as available data on gender, blood type, age demographics (for wait list and transplantation), wait times by organ, removals from waiting list (by death or other reason) and life expectancy after transplant.

Menna came up with his list simply by researching what is available in other areas including British Columbia (B.C. Transplant) and south of the border through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Organ Transplant and Procurement Network.

“Ontario lags behind other jurisdictions,” Menna said.

With the help of Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor, Menna was able to set up a meeting with the staff from the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care as well as representatives from TGLN.

“They agreed to accept some aspects of the proposal,” Menna said.

TGLN has agreed to begin posting data on gender, blood type and age demographics “in the next few weeks” on TGLN’s website.

That’s according to TGLN’s president and chief executive officer Ronnie Gavsie.

“It’s a great example of what can be done,” Gavsie said. “We will continue trying to improve and expand on our reporting. We’ve accelerated or work in certain other areas as well.”

The TGLN will be implementing all of Menna’s ideas in the coming months, Gavsie added.

“We are grateful to him. It’s a step forward.”

Menna, meanwhile, said he would continue working with TGLN on how to improvements can be made to how to best get information out to the public.

“I know this is going to help a lot of people,” Menna said. “They’re going to have all of the information they need.”

According to Gavsie, there are more than 1,500 people awaiting organ transplants of some kind in Ontario.

“You Have the Power to Donate Life – to become an organ and tissue donor Sign-up today!
Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

New Zealand, register at Organ Donation New Zealand

Canada - Ontario beadonor.ca
other Canadian provinces

South Africa, http://www.odf.org.za/

United States, donatelife.net

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You.

Transplants in Ontario Year-to-Date

Here are the total transplants performed in the Province of Ontario this year to date followed by waiting list totals, as posted on the Trillium Gift of Life Network (TGLN) web site. Check this site often as figures are updated daily.

At the Trillium site you will find more statistics and you can also compare this year's transplants to the 10-year history and get an idea of the progress that's being made in increasing the rate of organ donation. For example, the lung transplant team at Toronto General Hospital performed 104 lung transplants in 2009, setting a new record for lung transplants at TGH in a single year.

Liver - From Deceased Donors 126
Liver - From Living Donors 31
Heart - 47
Kidney - From Deceased Donors 214
Kidney - From Living Donors 143
Lung 58
Heart - Lung 1
Pancreas 11
Small Bowel 0
Kidney - Pancreas 15
TOTAL TRANSPLANTS PERFORMED 646

WAITING LIST YEAR-TO-DATE
Liver 240
Heart 63
Kidney 1093
Lung 65
Heart Lung 1
Pancreas 19
Small Bowel 3
Kidney Pancreas 45

TOTAL ON WAITING LIST 1528

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be a donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save up to eight lives with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants. One tissue donor can help up to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant.

Spain leads the world in organ transplants

By Think Spain

Spain leads the world in terms of the number of organ transplants carried out with 34.2 per million inhabitants, almost twice the EU average (18.2) and eight points ahead of the USA (26.3).

According to the latest issue of the Transplant Newsletter, official publication of the Council of Europe's Transplant Commission, 14.3% of all transplants carried out in the EU in 2008 were performed in Spain.

99,321 organ transplants were carried out across the globe in 2008, a 2.6% increase on the previous year. 68,250 of all transplants were kidney, 19,850 liver, 5,179 heart, 3,245 lung and 2,797 pancreas.

Europe, which had seen a downward trend in organ donation over the past few years, seems to have reversed that trend with 18.2 donations per million inhabitants compared with 16.8 the previous year.

The number of organ donors is on the rise in Spain and in the UK, but conversely is dropping in Germany, Holland and Belgium.

Despite the verall rise in the number of donors in the EU as a whole, the number of transplants being carried out has stagnated at around 28,000 per year, because of the progressive ageing of the donor population.

The report also cites the number of people waiting for donor organs. On 31st December 2008 there were 63,107 Europeans waiting for a transplant (61.905 en 2007).

It is estimated that on average 12 Europeans die every day waiting for a transplant.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save up to eight lives with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants. One tissue donor can help up to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ transplant.

FDA Launches Center for Tobacco Products

It's gratifying to see the FDA taking it's first steps to reduce illness and death caused by tobacco products.

Cigarette smoking causes an estimated 438,000 deaths, or about 1 of every 5 deaths, each year, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Adults who smoke cigarettes die 14 years earlier than nonsmokers. The leading cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD, including emphysema, is tobacco smoking. COPD is projected to be the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2020 due to an increase in smoking rates and demographic changes in many countries.

As a lung transplant recipient I have an opportunity to meet and chat with other recipients and those on waiting lists on a regular basis. COPD is one of the major reasons they require a transplant in order to live. It's easy to see from the following table how big a role smoking plays in lung transplantation.

As of 2005, the most common reasons for lung transplantation in the United States were:

• 27% chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD, including emphysema;


• 16% idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis;


• 14% cystic fibrosis;


• 12% idiopathic (formerly known as "primary") pulmonary hypertension;


• 5% alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency;


• 2% replacing previously transplanted lungs that have since failed;


• 24% other causes, including bronchiectasis and sarcoidosis.

Medscape Pulmonary Medicine

August 20, 2009 — The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced the launch of a new division, the Center for Tobacco Products, "in an historic effort to curb the hundreds of thousands of deaths caused by those products each year."

The new center will oversee the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama in June 2009. The law requires that the FDA set performance standards, review premarket applications for new and modified-risk tobacco products, and establish and enforce advertising and promotion restrictions.

The Center for Tobacco Products' first director will be Lawrence Deyton, MD, MSPH, an expert on veterans' health issues, public health, and tobacco use, and a clinical professor of medicine and health policy at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, DC.

Between 1999 and 2007, Dr. Deyton revamped the Veteran Administration's smoking and tobacco use cessation programs. Current smoking rates among veterans enrolled in the programs fell from 33% to 22% during his 9-year tenure.

"We are thrilled to announce Dr. Deyton's appointment as director of the Center for Tobacco Products and look forward to him joining the agency," said FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg, MD, according to an FDA news release announcing the center's launch. "He is the rare combination of public health expert, administrative leader, scientist, and clinician."

Cigarette smoking causes an estimated 438,000 deaths, or about 1 of every 5 deaths, each year, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Adults who smoke cigarettes die 14 years earlier than nonsmokers.

The Center for Tobacco Products "will use the best available science to guide the development and implementation of effective public health strategies to reduce the burden of illness and death caused by tobacco products," the FDA said in the release.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save up to eight lives with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants. One tissue donor can help up to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ transplant.

Longest survivor of heart transplant dies

San Francisco Business Times

Tony Huesman died of cancer 31 years after getting a heart transplant at Stanford Hospital & Clinics. He was the longest survivor with a single heart transplant.

Huesman, from Dayton, Ohio, got his transplanted heart in August 1978 in an operation by surgeon Norman Shumway, M.D., in Stanford’s then ten-year-old transplant program.

He died Aug. 9, Stanford said. He was 51.

In high school Huesman was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, a progressive disease that weakens the heart.

Though experts told Huesman he would likely live five years after the surgery, he went back to Dayton, worked in a sporting goods store, and got married in 1997.

His sister, Linda Lamb, also got a heart transplant at Stanford in 1983. She died in 1991.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save up to eight lives with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants. One tissue donor can help up to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ transplant.

African Americans, Latinos and Asians Donate and Receive Organs in Equal Measure, But Kidney Waiting List Continues to Grow

Association of Organ Procurement Organizations
Salutes Givers of Life, Urges Donor Designation on National Minority Donor Awareness Day, Aug. 1

July 31 Press Release -- On the eve of National Minority Donor Awareness Day, the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations (AOPO) called attention to the important role that minorities play in saving the lives of transplant candidates and addressing the ever-growing need for donation in multicultural communities impacted by a high prevalence of kidney failure.

In 2008, a third of all deceased organ donors were African American (16% of the total), Latino (14%), Asian (2.4%) or members of other major ethnic groups. These percentages are similar to those among the nearly 28,000 individuals who received life-saving transplants last year, reflecting the equitable distribution of organs that distinguishes the U.S. organ allocation system.

However, the need for donated kidneys continues to grow, especially among minorities. Among the 102,950 patients currently on the OPTN National Organ Transplant Waiting List, 80 percent are in need of kidneys; among these more than six in ten are minorities. In light of these daunting statistics, the need for minority donors is critical because the chance of matching a donated organ is greater when donor and recipients are of the same ethnicity.

The need for kidneys is especially great among minorities because of the high incidence of hypertension, diabetes and other medical conditions that lead to renal failure. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, Native Americans are four times more likely than Whites to suffer from diabetes. African Americans, Asians and Pacific Islanders, and Latinos are three times more likely than Whites to suffer from kidney disease.

While the rates at which African American, Latino and Asian families consent to organ donation on behalf of loved ones is at or near all-time highs in some communities, some minorities are reluctant to designate themselves as organ and tissue donors on state donor registries. Studies often cite distrust of the medical community, adherence to misconceptions, and low prioritization as reasons for not registering. In the face of these challenges, organ procurement organizations nationwide employ specialists to educate multicultural communities regarding the opportunity to donate, while highly trained family care specialists guide families in a culturally compassionate manner as parents, children and siblings face the loss of loved ones, frequently under sudden circumstances.

About AOPO

AOPO is a non-profit, national organization representing all federally designated organ procurement organizations (OPOs). The association represents and serves the OPOs through advocacy, support and development of activities that will maximize the availability of organs and tissues and enhance the quality, effectiveness and integrity of the donation process. The Executive Committee of AOPO consists of seven elected officials - President, President-Elect, Medical Advisor, Secretary-Treasurer, Member-At-Large, Medical Advisor-Elect, Immediate Past President and AOPO's Executive Director.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save up to eight lives with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants. One tissue donor can help up to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ transplant.

Ohio State University Hospitals Closes Lung Transplant Program

This post suggests that patients seeking a lung or other organ transplant should verify the number of transplants a center performs each year and how many are on the waiting list. As far as lung transplants go, Toronto General Hospital, where I had my lung transplant, is one of the world's leading transplant centers with 50 lung transplants already performed this year and 54 patients are on the waiting list at present.

From the Surgery Blog by Jennifer Heisler, RN
Surgery and Transplant News: The Ohio State University Hospitals Closes Lung Transplant Program and What Transplant Patients Need To Know About Transplant Centers

The Ohio State University lung transplant program made an important announcement this month. The program will be closing its doors on July 1st. While the decision was made voluntarily, the low number of lung transplants being performed might have eventually caused regulators to close the program had it not been done by the hospital.

So, what does this mean for you? If you are a patient waiting for an organ transplant, there are important questions you need to ask the transplant center. Otherwise, you may find yourself waiting for a transplant that performs very few surgeries. For example, the Ohio State program did one lung transplant last year and two this year. At that rate, the 15 people waiting at Ohio State could have waited 8 years or longer for a transplant. Contrast that with the Cleveland Clinic which, on average, performs a lung transplant every three days. Certainly, there are more people on the waiting list at the Cleveland Clinic, but the odds of getting a transplant more quickly are much higher.

So, back to those question you should be asking, regardless of what organ you are waiting for.

1) How many people are on your waiting list?

2) How many transplants do you perform a year? What is your average for the last 5 years?

What is your one year survival rate? (It doesn't matter how many they perform if people aren't surviving the surgery!) and finally

Should I consider being listed at multiple centers? That last question may be one you have to answer for yourself, after weighing the costs and benefits, but your transplant center should be able to help provide you with essential information you need to make your decision.

***

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“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network
For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save up to eight lives with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants. One tissue donor can help up to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Gift of Life Celebrates 35th Anniversary as National Leader in Organ Donation

Congratulations to Gift of Life, which is the organ procurement organization for eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware. I have had the pleasure of meeting some of the people who work at Gift of Life and their commitment and dedication to organ and tissue donation is inspiring.

The Earth Times

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Paulie Penkala might have been the toughest kid on the football field, but he spent his life helping others and had aspirations of continuing that after he graduated high school. For a 16-year-old from Hazleton, Pa. to be contemplating missionary work or the Peace Corps is certainly unique. But as his father Paul Sr. talked about it, his son's aspirations seemed like the perfect fit.

"I always used to tell him, 'you're a catalyst - when you're around, good things happen,'" the father remembered. "He was quiet, but he always had a smile, and always was there to help. He liked to right the wrongs."

That is why Paulie's father knew his son would have been proud to be an organ and tissue donor and have the ability to save lives. Paulie passed away on October 3, 2008 following a car accident, and the generosity he and his family exhibited - including mother Diane and sisters Nicole, Rhiannon and Lucy - helped save five lives and provide hope to others. Knowing that Paulie was able to help others has comforted his family and allowed them to find some meaning in his death. It also reminds them of Paulie's focus on doing the right thing and thinking of others.

As with every transplant done in this region, it is only possible through the generosity of the donors and their families, who continue to make the decision to save or enhance lives through organ and tissue donation.

And in 2008, they did so in record numbers. In 2008, the gifts given by 428 generous organ donors allowed Gift of Life Donor Program - the organ procurement organization for eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware - to coordinate a total of 1,152 life-saving transplants over the course of the year. Gift of Life and its hospital partners lead the U.S. in the number of donors for the year, furthering this region's commitment to patients in this region and remaining a national leader in donation and transplantation.

Also unprecedented were the number of tissue donations given over the past 12 months, with more than 1,900 tissue donors. The gifts recovered from these generous donors provided 878 gifts of bone, which can help rebuild a damaged limb and save it from amputation, 1,752 cornea donations, which can be used to restore vision, and countless other tissue recoveries that will greatly improve the life of thousands of tissue recipients.

This record-breaking success comes as Gift of Life celebrates its 35th anniversary in 2009.

"We continue to see such a strong commitment from the people in this region, showing their dedication to saving lives in record numbers," said Gift of Life President and CEO Howard M. Nathan. "But our true success is giving second chances to the more than 1,100 patients in 2008, because of the inspirational acts of donors and their loved ones.

Additionally, 2008 proved to be a very successful year in other facets of the organization. In 2008, Gift of Life was proud to recognize the work of all of our hospital partners who help support donation and worked diligently to ensure every family has the opportunity to donate. The outstanding efforts of 18 of these hospitals were honored with Medals of Honor from the federal Department of Health and Human Services this past October - the most hospitals of any region in the nation.

New Jersey also took a significant step toward fostering greater education about donation within its state while making it easier for residents to become donors. On July 22, Acting Governor Richard J. Codey signed into law the New Jersey Hero Act, a groundbreaking piece of legislation that would help foster a greater understanding of donation while also empowering state residents with the means to say yes to organ and tissue donation. The proposal has two components - one that would create a curriculum about donation that would be taught throughout state high schools, and the other that would focus residents on saying "Yes" to donation. An online registry for residents to add the donor designation will be in place by April of this year.

On the public awareness end, 2008 saw Gift of Life organize its most successful Dash for Organ Donor Awareness to date, with more than 5,000 people participating. Success was also the name of the game for Team Philadelphia, which rallied the largest team at the 2008 U.S. Transplant Games in Pittsburgh, coming home with the most medals in the history of the Games.

2008 also marked development on the Gift of Life Family House, a new Ronald McDonald House-type program being designed for out-of-town families with a loved one who is a patient at an area hospital awaiting transplant, patients being evaluated or receiving follow-up care after a transplant, and those giving the gift of life as living organ donors. This year will serve as a springboard for the formal capital campaign focused on raising the necessary funds to support this critically needed project. To date, meal and food programs are being introduced by the Family House with local transplant centers to provide comfort and support to the families of patients awaiting transplant.

Gift of Life's work is far from complete, however, and 2009 will see a continued focus on more lives being saved. Currently, more than 6,000 people in Gift of Life's service region still await organ transplants, joining more than 100,000 patients remain on the transplant waiting list nationwide.

Since 1974, Gift of Life has served as the link between donors and patients awaiting life-saving transplants in the eastern half of Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware. In that tenure, the OPO has coordinated more than 27,000 life-saving organ transplants and hundreds of thousands of tissue transplants. For more information on organ and tissue donation, please call Gift of Life at 1-800-DONORS-1 (1-800-366-6771) or visit our website at http://www.donors1.org.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network
For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save up to eight lives with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants. One tissue donor can help up to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

At times of grief, organ, tissue donors ease pain of others

By Melissa Heckscher, Staff Writer dailybreeze.com

For Yolanda Coffey, a successful day at work is as much about tragedy as it is triumph.

The 40-year-old El Segundo resident works as a family care coordinator for OneLegacy, a Los Angeles-based agency that finds organ and tissue donors for the nearly 100,000 men, women and children nationally who desperately need them to survive.

But for one life to be saved, another must be lost.

"A lot of people ask me, `Why would you do this job? You're talking to people who have just lost somebody they love; death is all you see,"' Coffey said. "But if they say yes to donation, we know that somebody else is going to have a chance to continue their life."

Since most organ and tissue donors are the victims of catastrophic accidents, organ donation isn't discussed as an option until all efforts to save the patient have been exhausted and he or she has been declared brain dead (the medical and legal definition of death).

It is then - while the body is still on life support to keep the heart pumping and the organs alive - that Coffey must approach the legal next of kin to ask them to consider donating their loved ones' organs.

"As hard as it is - at 3 o'clock in the morning, when I'm emotionally drained because we've been dealing with somebody that has died traumatically and dealing with grief - I leave there honored and just humbled by the experience," .

Often, Coffey said, she is faced with having to speak with family members who are registered as donors but who, for one reason or another, don't know the wishes of their hospitalized loved one.

"They are then faced with having to make that decision for them," she said.

It's a tragic trade-off, but a worthy one. According to organ donor groups, a single organ donor can save the lives of up to eight people, while a tissue donor may save or enhance the lives of more than 50 people.

Organs that can be donated include the kidneys, heart, lungs, liver, pancreas and intestines. Tissue donation can involve the corneas, middle ear, heart valves, bone, veins, cartilage, tendons and skin.

Organs or tissue that aren't used for transplants are used for research (unless the donor or family member has specified otherwise).

"We have been called in on patients who were on the transplant list themselves and they've had a stroke or had cardiac arrest," Coffey said. "We still have to approach their family members about donation, even though they, themselves, did not get an organ. Usually, the family will say, `You know what, because somebody didn't say yes, we have to say yes."'

Sometimes, the decision to donate stems from the desire to keep a loved one alive. Somehow.

That's how Faiez and Christina Ennabe of Diamond Bar saw it two years ago when their 19-year-old son, Andrew Ennabe, died after being struck by a car.

It was heartbreaking: Their son was dead, but his organs could be used to help people.

"We had never thought about it before," said Faiez Ennabe. "Initially, it was a selfish thing - I was not thinking about helping other people, I was just thinking, `If I can keep his heart beating, if I can keep his lungs breathing."'

He continued: "We decided that, yes, we want to donate as much as possible of Andrew to keep him going, to keep him alive" said Coffey, who worked as an EMT before starting at OneLegacy four years ago Mourning the loss of a loved one is hard enough. To then have to make the decision whether to donate his or her organs can be too much for some families to bear.

According to OneLegacy, 20 percent to 40 percent of those approached to donate a loved one's organs say no.

When 18-year-old Brandi Renee Guereca died of a rare brain aneurism in 2006, her mother, Denise Guereca, did not want to donate her youngest daughter's organs to anyone.

"My mom was like, `No, we're not donating, you're not going to open her up, you're not going to take her organs,"' said Brandi's sister, Briann Guereca, who is now 27. "I told her, `Brandi wanted this. We should honor her wishes."'

As it turned out, Brandi already had given legal consent to donate. Just months before her death, the young Montebello resident had become the first person to sign up online with the California Organ Donor Registry.

And, according to legislation enacted July 1, 2006, registering with the Donor Registry via its Web site http://www.donatelifecalifornia.org or through the California driver's license application, is considered legal consent.

Historically, signing a donor card and placing a pink dot on your license was considered only an "intent" to donate; familial consent was still required.

"My sister and I had already discussed that we would donate our organs," Briann Guereca said. "She was kind of cocky about it. She had said anybody who had her organs would be so lucky because they came from her."

And they were. Brandi's organs saved six people and helped more than 70 others.

"We heard from the man who has her liver - he had been born with a liver disease," her sister said. "We can't help but feel like we did something good, to save his family from the pain that we went through." Those who do say yes aren't quickly forgotten.

OneLegacy keeps in contact with the donor family for several years, offering support and keeping the family aware of how their loved one's donations were used. If both parties agree, OneLegacy will help arrange meetings between the donor family and the transplant recipients.

"It is still difficult for me to believe that there is something of Andrew living somewhere even though he's not here," Faiez Ennabe said. "But once you get that emotion out of the way it's an unbelievable feeling. I feel good because his death did not go to waste. He is still going strong and he's helping someone live a normal life."

According to OneLegacy, Andrew Ennabe's donation helped more than 50 people.

"I would love to meet every one of them, to see the difference he is making in their lives," said Ennabe, who has since started a charitable foundation in his son's name. "He did not die in vain."

According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, 18,659 organs have been transplanted in the U.S. from 9,490 donors so far this year.

It's not enough. There are about 100,000 people on the national organ transplant list - 20,000 of them in California - and a third of these people will die before getting the transplant they need, according to Donate Life California.

"There are people who are on the kidney list for 10 years," Coffey said. "We haven't been able to cure cancer, we haven't been able to cure diabetes, we don't have a cure for AIDS, but this is the one thing that people can actually say yes to and people could live."

THE FACTS

Myths about organ donation may be preventing people from becoming donors.

Here are the facts:

• Myth: A person can be "too old" to donate.


• Fact: Almost anyone can be a donor. The oldest organ donor was 92; the youngest, sadly, just 18 days.


• Myth: Someone with diabetes or hepatitis cannot be a donor.


• Fact: People with pre-existing health conditions, including hepatitis and diabetes, may still be able to donate. However, some conditions, such as HIV and actively spreading cancer, would disqualify a person as a potential donor.


• Myth: "If I am a donor, doctors will not try as hard to save me."


• Fact: It is only after every attempt has been made to save your life that donation will be considered. In fact, patients must receive the most aggressive life-saving care in order to be potential organ donors; if the heart stops, for instance, blood flow to the organs will stop and the organs will begin to deteriorate.


• Myth: "Donating my organs will prevent me from having an open-casket funeral."


• Fact: The organ donation operation is done under surgical, sterile conditions, in a hospital operating room, with all incisions made in locations that would be covered by clothing. Doctors go so far as to insert prosthetics into the body if bone is removed.


• Myth: Only the major organs can be donated.


• Fact: Though the major organs - including the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, pancreas and small bowel - can save lives, the tissues (including skin, tendons, veins, muscle, cornea and bone) can be just as important. Skin, for instance, can be used to graft onto burn victims or to repair cleft palates.


THE NUMBERS


• Every 12 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.


• Approximately 1 million tissue transplants are performed annually. Source: Donate Life California/

FIND OUT MORE

To learn more about organ and tissue donation in California, or to register as a donor, go to http://www.donatelifecalifornia.org.

In the rest of the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network
For other Canadian provinces click here

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Your generosity can save up to eight lives with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants. One tissue donor can help up to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Kidney transplant recipient and donor celebrate 25 year anniversary

We receive many requests for information about the average length of survival for various types of organ transplants. This story about a living kidney donor and her recipient who just celebrated 25 years of active lives following their historic transplant gives us something to be hopeful about.

By Monica Laganparsad The Times Johannesburg,Gauteng,South Africa

Twenty-five years ago when organ transplants were new and rare, a Durban woman took the bold step of donating her kidney to her ailing brother.

Yesterday, siblings Madanathan Reddy, 57, and Savi Pillay, 64, celebrated the 25th anniversary of their milestone transplant.

In 1983, Pillay became the country’s first kidney donor and her brother the first recipient.

“I was very sick and had a 50/50 chance of surviving. I could barely walk and without the transplant I would not be here today,” said Reddy, a father of four.

Unable to see her brother suffering, Pillay, despite her apprehension, decided to donate her kidney.

She said: “I was scared because taking an organ from one person to give to another was something strange to us.”

The siblings were flown to Cape Town’s Groote Schuur hospital for the transplant.

“My sister would not have been able to do it if it wasn’t for her late husband.

“He was supportive. Back then many husbands would not have allowed their wives to take that step. And she wasn’t a perfect match, it was about 85%, but she did it anyway” said Reddy.

Pillay said she left her three children in the care of her husband and late mother.

“My youngest son was only two years old and I left him. But I was so worried about my brother.”

Reddy said his operation took seven hours while Pillay spent four hours in surgery.

“The staff and doctors at the hospital were so wonderful ... when I flew back, they had a wheelchair waiting for me at the airport. But I refused to sit in it.

“I was perfectly fine after that,” said Reddy.

The siblings said their wheelchair-bound mother had helped to make their recovery easier.

“She prayed for our speedy recovery. She took a vow and fulfilled it until the day she died,” said Pillay.

Three months after the operation, the siblings returned to work and today both are healthy, although they have to undergo regular checkups by their doctors. They will celebrate the milestone with a small family gathering.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network
For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

Your generosity can save up to eight lives with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants. One tissue donor can help up to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Without a donor, Jim Telson would be another heart disease statistic

From the Longmont Times-Call in Colorado:

By Pam Mellskog

LONGMONT — Jim Telson’s lifesaving heart transplant experience began at 11:30 p.m. when the phone rang as he soaked in the bathtub at home reading information about what to expect.

As the seventh person then waiting in Colorado for a new heart, Telson, 48, figured he had six months to a year before he got the call.

Staff at the University of Colorado Hospital in Denver, one of four transplant hospitals statewide, gave him that timeline after he completed the screening process there.

Then they promised to mail him a pager.

“We got the pager the day after he got the heart,” said his wife, Tina Telson, 38, smiling through damp eyes at the four-day turnaround.

The couple and their daughter, Danielle, 16, recently shared their story of that September day in 2006 to show how a donor’s death changes life for a sick person waiting on a list.

Earlier this month in Colorado, 1,765 people waited for an organ transplant — 38 of them for a heart, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing, which manages a national waiting list.

During a physical examination related to bronchitis when Telson was 15, his family doctor heard a heart murmur and referred him to a cardiologist.

That murmur turned out to be hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a progressive condition that thickens the walls of the heart and eventually ruins the organ’s ability to contract and relax properly.

As a teenager, Telson felt fine and looked good.

“Because it happens gradually, I thought, ‘Well, I’m just getting older,’” Telson said of his mounting fatigue. “But the doctors told me I didn’t know how sick I was.”

When they spelled out in 2006 that he would need a heart transplant as soon as possible, it still struck the salesman as surreal.

“‘Is there not a Plan B?’ That’s exactly what I told him,” Telson said.

There wasn’t. There was only a Plan A. So Telson took the 11:30 p.m. notification call, drove with his wife and daughter from Longmont to Denver, and walked onto the hospital’s transplant floor just before 1 a.m. to be prepped for surgery.

At 9:30 a.m., he underwent the six-hour transplant. He woke up looking immediately better for it, Tina Telson said.

“The second I walked in after surgery, his lips were bright red,” she said. “I had not ever seen him with that much color in 16 years of knowing him.”

Doctors can transplant six organs: the heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine.

“But a single donor can save up to eight people,” Donor Alliance spokeswoman Jennifer Moe said, referring to kidneys and lungs, which come in twos.

One tissue donor can help up to 100 people in need of skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves, she said.

The Denver-based Donor Alliance is one of 58 organizations designated by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services to facilitate the donation and recovery of organs for those in need of transplants.

Jim Telson’s donor turned out to be a 17-year-old boy killed in an accident in Casper, Wyo.

After the boy’s death, authorities in Wyoming contacted Donor Alliance. The organization then registered the heart with UNOS to find a match in the database.

With his universal AB blood type and body size, Jim Telson’s name came up.

The University of Colorado Hospital took on the transplant and made the call to the Telsons.

Many people don’t register as organ donors because of myths, Moe said. Some, for instance, fear doctors might not work as hard to save a life if they know that person is an organ or tissue donor.

“Doctors involved in the patient’s care before death are not involved in the recovery or transplantation of organs and tissue after that death,” she said. “It’s two separate (medical) teams, so there’s no conflict of interest.”

As for religious objections, most world religions consider organ and tissue donation an act of charity, she added.

Jim Telson, whose daughter was diagnosed with the same heart condition within one week of her father’s transplant, views it that way and that act has gone a long way toward improving his quality of life.

Before the transplant, he needed an oxygen mask and had lost 50 pounds. He could barely walk a block and relied on a neighbor to mow his lawn.

“Now, it’s no problem,” he said. “I just zip through it.”

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network
For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

Your generosity can save up to eight lives through organ donation and one tissue donor can help up to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

VT Media Produces New Series on Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplants

Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplants.
Press Release:

Boca Raton, FL, September 09, 2008 --(PR.com)-- In order to raise public awareness as to the importance of Organ and Tissue Registration and Organ and Tissue Donation, the producers are putting together a series for global distribution.

According to information provided by “Gift Of Hope”, a non-profit donor network, “Nearly 100,000 people are waiting for Organ Transplants Nationally. Every 13 minutes someone is added to this list and an average of 18 people will die while waiting, and 1 in 20 Americans will require some type of Organ or Tissue transplant over their lifetimes”. “One donor can save, prolong life or assist as many as 50 people,” said producer Mike Rawlinson. The key is educating the public in a respectful and tasteful manner when broaching what can be uncomfortable subject matter. It is much more efficacious to propagate a living decision for an individual to become a donor, as opposed to approaching the deceased’s family during their time of grieving. One must see or speak with only one family whose loved one’s life was spared, in order to know that one person can truly make a difference.

According to the United Network of Organ Sharing, “as of 8/28/08 there were 99,501 waiting list candidates, 11,517 transplants and only 5,805 donors”. In the same light, Donate Life America states that “there has been a 10% increase in donor designations over the last 18 months bringing the total number of registered donors to nearly 70 million. Still only 35% of licensed drivers and ID card holders have committed themselves to donation by registering to be donors through their state registry or Motor Vehicle Departments, leaving the donor shortage as a leading public health crisis”.

About VT Media:

VT Media is a privately owned and operated television production company that is on the leading edge of documentary television industry. For more information go to our web site.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network
For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

Your generosity can save up to eight lives through organ donation and enhance another 50 through cornea and tissue donation