People 'being killed for their organs'?

Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (BP)--A dangerous precedent was set in Belgium, an ethicist said, when a woman chose assisted suicide and then opted to donate her organs.

Wesley Smith, a bioethics fellow at the Discovery Institute, said agreeing to harvest organs from euthanasia "raises the very realistic prospect that despairing people with terminal illnesses or disabilities (or perhaps, just despair) could latch onto being killed for their organs as a way of bringing meaning to their lives."

"This very dangerous territory, made all the more treacherous by doctors, spouses and a respected medical journal validating the ideas that dead is better than disabled and that living patients can, essentially, be viewed as a natural resource to be killed and mined," Smith wrote on the Secondhand Smoke blog at FirstThings.com in May.

The woman in Belgium was not terminally ill, Smith said. She was fully conscious but completely paralyzed, a state he called "locked-in." She asked for her doctor's assistance in carrying out her desire to die, and the day before the euthanasia procedure, she decided to allow her organs to be transplanted.

In the presence of her husband, Smith recounted, the woman was killed intravenously and her body was moved to the operating table 10 minutes after cardiac activity had ceased. Her liver and both kidneys were removed, and a year later the three recipients have responded well.

"If this doesn't set off alarm bells about how the sick and disabled are increasingly being looked upon not only as burdens (to themselves, families, and society), but potential objects for exploitation, what will?" Smith wrote. "A disabled woman was killed, even though people with locked-in states often adjust over time to their disabilities and are happy to be alive."

The woman's story appeared in the bioethics journal Transplantation, perhaps authenticating the coupling of the two procedures in the minds of some.

"This case of two separate requests, first euthanasia and second, organ donation after death, demonstrates that organ harvesting after euthanasia may be considered and accepted from ethical, legal and practical viewpoints in countries where euthanasia is legally accepted," Smith wrote.

"This possibility may increase the number of transplantable organs and may also provide some comfort to the donor and his (her) family, considering that the termination of the patient's life may somehow help other human beings in need for organ transplantation.

"Taking the organs was the easy decision. Once you've pulled medicine into the forbidden zone of active killing, finding self-congratulatory justifications becomes a most desirable quest," Smith wrote, adding that "once society accepts that the two can be joined, saving others could easily become a frequent motivation for asking to be killed."

Also in May, articles in the Canadian Medical Association Journal said about one in 25 deaths in Belgium is by euthanasia, and of those, 2 percent take place after a direct request of a doctor; 1.8 percent occur without such a request.

Voluntary euthanasia must be performed by a physician in Belgium, but it is done 12 percent of the time illegally by nurses, the report said. In 2009, Belgium officially had 700 euthanasia deaths, a jump from 500 such cases in 2008, according to a March report by Flanders News. These are officially reported figures, and experts say they represent only 25 percent of the actual totals.
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Compiled by Baptist Press staff writer Erin Roach and Washington bureau chief Tom Strode.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue 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 (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help 75 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. 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

Lung transplant in August, graduation with honors on Saturday

By Sarah Newell Williamson Hickory Daily Record

North Carolina girl beats the odds

April Cogdell, 18, from Bunker Hill High School, gets help from her mother, Sherry, during a cap and gown fitting.

CONOVER - April Cogdell has fought her body to get this far in life. Graduation from Bunker Hill High School on Saturday will mean a few more steps on an incredible journey.

The 18-year-old was born with cystic fibrosis and underwent a double-lung transplant 10 months ago. Cogdell didn't show symptoms of the disease until she was 5.

Her mother initially thought Cogdell had allergies or asthma. She'd had bad coughs, mucus, bronchial infections and polyps in her nose — a key symptom of cystic fibrosis. Cogdell's doctor told her to have a sweat test done at the hospital.

"If you have cystic fibrosis, your sweat has more salt in it," Cogdell said.

Two tests at an area hospital yielded negative results. The doctor urged Cogdell to go to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center to get the test done. When she did, Cogdell's results were off the chart.

She was in and out of the hospital occasionally the next few years, usually when pollen was bad. For a few years, Cogdell didn't need to go to the hospital at all. She participated in dance and tumbling.

However, the older she got, the worse her cystic fibrosis became, as well.

Every day, twice a day, Cogdell had to hook herself up to a machine for 30 minutes to improve her breathing. The machine restricted her travel, because Cogdell had to haul it around with her.

"Unless we were going somewhere by car, we really couldn't travel anywhere," she said.

Then, in October 2008, Cogdell had her first collapsed lung. In December, it collapsed again. Cogdell was on oxygen at night from October 2008 through May 2009. She was allowed to go to school only if there was an oxygen tank available for her, in case she needed it.

After May, Cogdell deteriorated, and was placed on oxygen 24 hours a day.

"In June, I was with my friends and I coughed. When I did, I felt something pop," Cogdell said. "I could only breathe if I leaned over on my pillow."

A month later, on July 21, Cogdell and her mother were staying in an apartment in Durham for pulmonary rehabilitation. Again, she started to feel bad.
On Aug. 2, Cogdell's health took a turn for the worse.

"I took a bath and laid down on the bed. I decided that I needed to go to the hospital. I was too weak to walk down the stairs. My boyfriend had to carry me," Cogdell said. "At the hospital, they said my right lung was expanded and so full of air that it was putting pressure on my heart."

Doctors at Duke University Medical Center said she needed an immediate double-lung transplant. Cogdell's need was so dire she was moved to the top of the transplant list. On Aug. 6 at 1:30 a.m., Cogdell was taken into surgery for a transplant. Seven hours later, she had new lungs.

She had to have a vocal cord implant, as well. Because she needed a ventilator for so long, it damaged her vocal cords.

While in the hospital recovering, Cogdell had time on her hands. She had a clinic appointment every week and rehab for several hours a week. However, Cogdell also wanted to keep up with her classmates in school. She spent her extra time with a teacher who helped students in the hospital. She took classes, including U.S. history, honors English and honors anatomy and physiology.

When Cogdell returned home to Conover in November, she was continued her subjects at home until she could return to Bunker Hill for the second semester in January.

"It felt really good to be back, when everyone was changing classes," Cogdell said. "I was a regular high school senior again. I missed homecoming, but I didn't miss prom."

Cogdell said she has no regrets about what happened.

"I would have a lung transplant all over again," she said.

Because of the transplant, Cogdell is currently cystic fibrosis-free in her lungs, although the disease still affects the rest of her body.

Cogdell graduates Saturday a member of Bunker Hill's Beta club as well as an honor graduate. She also has a medal for being a North Carolina Scholar. She said she worked hard to get where she is.

"I had determination. I wanted to graduate with my friends and I didn't want to stay an extra year," Cogdell said.

She plans to go to UNC-Greensboro this fall to become a nurse.

"I want to be hands-on with the patients," Cogdell said.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue 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 (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help 75 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. 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

One of the longest-surviving heart transplant patients dies aged 74

It's sad to learn of this British heart recipient's passing but as his wife said: “It was marvellous to have gone nearly 23 years – people’s life span after a transplant is normally 10 years.”

Salisbury Journal

A SALISBURY man who was one of the longest surviving heart transplant patients has died aged 74.

John Weeks had surgery to get a new heart on New Year’s Eve 1987 and featured in the Journal at the time.

He was again in the Journal in January 2008, when his donated heart was still going strong after 20 years, despite being told at the time to expect to live only five years.

He died on May 29 this year, from several illnesses related to the transplant.

His wife Ellen said: “It was marvellous to have gone nearly 23 years – people’s life span after a transplant is normally 10 years.”

Mr Weeks was born and grew up in Salisbury and worked as a loading manager at an abattoir in Churchfields for ten years. He was forced to stop working in 1987 and was on a waiting list at Southampton General Hospital for five months before a donor heart was found in Germany and flown over.

Mrs Weeks said for the first 12 years after the transplant her husband coped well and they could go on holidays and he could drive. After that he gradually started finding it more difficult to do things and the last few years had been very difficult, but he still enjoyed spending time with his family.

She said: “John was a jolly, natural and happy-go-lucky man. He got on well with everybody and was a real family man, he absolutely adored seeing his great-grandchildren.”

The couple had three children, but unfortunately their son Andrew died 18 years ago. Mr Weeks is survived by his two daughters Marilyn and Dianne, his two grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

His funeral will be at Salisbury Crematorium next Monday, June 14th at 2.15pm.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue 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 (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help 75 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. 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

Expert defines ‘brain dead’ for organ transplant

It's good to see that more and more jurisdictions are embracing organ transplantation as society changes with advances in organ and tissue transplantation. Here we see that The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has approved a law establishing guidelines for multi-organ donation after death that requires that close family members have to agree on the donation even though the donor has given his or her pre-approval prior to death. This will only be superseded by a will clearly stating that donor wishes to donate his or her organ upon death.

By Olivia Olarte Khaleej Times online

The definition of ‘brain dead’ for donors of cadaveric organ transplantation is a critical point and should consider all social, legal and religious aspects, said a member of the National Organ Transplant Committee.

Dr Mohammed Al Zaabi defined a brain-dead patient as one whose brain stem is dead.

“The brain stem is located between the higher brain center and the spinal cord. It controls breathing and heart function and consciousness,” explained Dr Al Zaabi, a liver transplant consultant at the Zayed Military 
Hospital and the Shaikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC).

“A brain dead patient is one who cannot survive without life support 
machines or medical ventilation to keep the circulation going and the heart pumping. We have to make sure that this patient is not going back to life, and this should be confirmed by a team of three doctors, one of them a neurologist,” added the specialist.

Last month, the Ministry of Health (MoH) approved the guidelines on 
the organ transplantation law that 
allows multi-organ donation - including kidney, liver, lung, pancreas and heart - after death.

Dr Al Zaabi said details of the 
guidelines or the ‘executive list’ will be drawn up at the committee’s upcoming meetings.

Some of those being considered include a donor pre-approval to appear on either the health card, driving license or the national ID card, or a separate donor ID system.

The law requires that close family members have to agree on the donation even though the donor has given his or her pre-approval prior to death.

This will only be superseded by a will clearly stating that donor wishes to donate his or her organ upon death.

As this is a new concept in the UAE, Dr Al Zaabi said a nationwide survey may be required to gauge the public’s view on the matter.

“Public awareness is very important. They need to understand that it is probably more rewarding to donate organs to those in need that refusing to do that based on cultural and religious belief. I think we are very much on the legal and religious parameter on this,” said the Emirati doctor.

“The neighboring countries have been performing cadaveric organ transplantation for the past 25 years, (and) we are lagging behind,” stressed the specialist.

He noted that a public awareness campaign will be launched as soon 
as the executive list is up and running and not in conflict with any of the 
UAE’s laws.

“We need to clarify what cadaveric organ transplantation is and to make sure that it is not in conflict with any law,” said Dr Al Zaabi adding that a conflict with any existing law would mean redefining the guidelines once again.

He noted that the guidelines are based on the development of the 
transplantation field and changes in 
the society.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue 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 (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help 75 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. 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

Chinese Organ Trafficking: A Grisly And Lucrative Trade

By MDeeDubroff WeirdAsia News

China’s black market for human organs is endlessly lucrative due to the fact that nearly 1.5 million people require organ transplants every year but according to the Health Ministry, only ten thousand can get what they need. One only has to do the math even if it wasn’t a favored subject in school.

In 2007, China banned organ transplants from living donors (except for spouses, blood relatives and step or adopted family members). Despite this, it was not until last year that a national campaign to coordinate donations after death was launched.

A defendant from one trafficking trial testified last month that half a liver costs 45,000 yuan ($6,590), while an entire transplant including operation and recovery costs, runs about 150,000 yuan, (about $20,000). The penalty for acting as middleman between donors and buyers can run up to five years, although the final verdict remains to be seen.

“This crime could damage society and moral values,” claims the Procuratorial Daily.

“I believe I was helping people, not harming others. I saved the life of the person who received my liver. He was only in his 30s. I do not regret it,” says defendant, Liu Qiangsheng.

Human organ traffickers have helped to raise the percentage of transplants from living donors in China up to 40 percent in the last few years. This number is up from 15 percent in 2006. Despite this, two-thirds of all organs harvested for transplant in China come from executed criminals.

“Executed prisoners are definitely not a proper source for organ transplants,” said Vice Minister Huang Jiefu.

China is trying to move away from the use of executed prisoners and curb illegal trafficking by developing new sources for organ transplants. A voluntary donation scheme is in the works, but may prove very difficult to implement due to China’s cultural bias against removing organs after death.

While change is in the works, organ trafficking remains a dark and grisly aspect of black market operations.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue 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 (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help 75 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. 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

Saving a life by organ donation trumps Jewish dogma

The principle of saving a life is paramount in Jewish law – so why are ultra-orthodox Jews still opposed to organ donation?

By Seth Freedman guardian.co.uk

Supporters of a new initiative encouraging organ donation in the Jewish community face an uphill task convincing certain groups that the practice is compatible with religious law. Even though the ultimate mitzvah (commandment) in Judaism is saving another's life, there is still resistance when it comes to donating organs for just such a cause.

According to the misinterpretations of many ultra-orthodox leaders, a person must be buried intact so as to be in full working order when the Messiah comes to revive the dead. Due to the sanctity of every individual's body – which is viewed as simply a receptacle for the God-given neshama (soul) – it is forbidden to desecrate a body, whether living or dead, either with superficially, as with tattoos, or by more extreme actions such as cremation.

The issue of organ donation has divided the Jewish community for generations. Despite an apparent softening in the approach of many ultra-orthodox rabbis to the subject, there are still vast swaths of the Jewish public who are vehemently opposed to it – to the point that many Haredim carry anti-organ-donor cards expressly forbidding the removal of their organs under any circumstances.

Of course, those same people have no problem receiving organs from other donors, displaying the kind of hypocrisy that earns the Haredi community such opprobrium from their Jewish peers both in Israel and abroad. Their all-take, no-give approach over organ transplants is reminiscent of their refusal to serve in the IDF, despite their expectation that others put their lives on the line to defend Israel's citizens and protect their freedom.

Even those rabbis who have come round to approving organ donation in emergency cases draw the line at direct person-to-person transplants, and refuse to permit organs to be donated to organ banks or used for medical research. Such a stance, while an improvement on previous positions, still falls well short of an acceptable level of interaction with the rest of society.

In effect, future patients are being condemned to suffer for the sake of outdated religious statutes incompatible with advanced medicine. Just as other areas of Jewish law have been updated to accommodate a rapidly changing world, so too must the legislation surrounding death and bodily purity.

The dictum that ought to supersede all other pronouncements on the subject is both simple and unequivocal: "One who saves a single life – it is as if he saved an entire world." Such a ruling ties in with the concept of pikuach nefesh (the saving of human life), a rule that permits all manner of "rule-bending" in its honour, including transgression of shabbat laws and the rules surrounding kashrut. Ambulances may be called for on the sabbath or religious holidays; non-kosher food may be consumed if there is no other option to prevent a person starving.

Pikuach nefesh is invoked in a wealth of "real world" situations such as the Gilad Shalit stand-off in Gaza, with Jewish law playing a large part in the decision-making process of military leaders and politicians when it comes to swapping hundreds of prisoners to secure one man's release from captivity. Given pikuach nefesh's superiority over other commandments, the issue of organ donation ought to be entirely black and white, yet the signs are that the Haredi community are as intransigent as ever in their opposition to the practice.

Superstitious beliefs and dogmatic adherence to religious laws are notoriously impervious to change, but the efforts of the Halachic Organ Donor Society and other similar organisations have the potential to make valuable inroads into ultra-orthodox society. Despite all the prevarication on the part of various rabbinic leaders, Judaism cannot allow archaic thinking to overrule the holiest commandment of all.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue 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 (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help 75 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. 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

Facebook used to find kidney donor and raise funds for transplant

We are gradually starting to see people using social networking sites to seek living organ donors and to fund raise for their transplant costs. I think this is just the beginning of a trend as more patients try to find ways to get their life-saving transplant.

Facebook Plea Yields Old Friend, Kidney Donor

Reported by Neda Iranpour
CBS13 - Sacremento Area Local News

A Citrus Heights man in need of a new kidney turned to the popular social networking site Facebook to ask for help, and managed to connect with an old friend who happened to be a perfect match.

Eli Powell, a father of two boys, learned he has Berger's disease three years ago, which would eventually eat away his kidneys with toxins. For three hours, three times a week, Eli goes through dialysis to help clean his blood.

"It's been rough, it's been hard, but I'm making it okay," Eli said.

With a new kidney, Eli could live a more normal life, so he put a call out on Facebook, "saying I need help, I need a kidney transplant," he said.

His plea caught the attention and compassion of a long-lost friend who he hadn't heard from in a decade. Paul Jones responded to the advertisement and ended up being a match for the friend he met in the eighth grade at E.V. Cain Middle School in Auburn.

"Figured he's young, has a family, and I'd want someone to do that for me if I was in his position," Paul said. "If we can both be healthy and survive, live long happy lives, I don't see how I couldn't do it."

The transplant will happen this August. Paul will have a few noticeable scars and about two months of pain and recovery.

"It's awesome. It's nice to know people out there who are willing to help like that," Eli said. "It's gonna be a life changing experience for both of us, he literally is going to be part of me for the rest of my life."

Eli is also using Facebook to raise funds for the transplant.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue 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 (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help 75 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. 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

Nebraska Medical Center Performs First Heart-Kidney Transplant

It's not very often we hear of a combination heart/kidney transplant. And it was a very long procedure from 5:30am until 1:00am the next morning. That's 19½ hours on the operating table and it's great to see that the patient, David Gildea, is recovering nicely and looking forward to giving away his daughter at her August wedding.

By Carrie Evert ActionNews.com

Omaha, NE - Two weeks ago, an Omaha man received two gifts of life, a heart and kidney. Before the historic transplant, David Gildea had end-stage heart disease and his kidneys were barely functioning, requiring daily dialysis.

"Medically speaking, he was about as sick as a person can get," said Clifford Miles, M.D., nephrologist at The Nebraska Medical Center.

Surgery began at 5:30am on Tuesday, May 18th and continued until 1:00am the next morning.

Today, Gildea, along with his family and his team of doctors sat down and talked about the double transplant, calling it a surreal experience. "I've always tried to be fairly positive, and I'm not a statistician, but the odds of pulling off what happened, they're not even odds." He also said to reporters today, "For somebody that's always been fit, you can't imagine how humbling it is to look at two or three stairs, and just dread the pee out of them."

His daughter says, "I'm beyond grateful for the donor, for their family, for their loss, and I, I can't even begin to thank the doctors."

He says he's now looking forward to giving away his daughter at her August wedding.

Gildea was diagnosed with amyloidosis, a rare blood disease affecting only eight of every one million people. People with the disease have abnormal deposits of amyloid in the their tissue or organs. In Gildea's case, his heart and kidneys were affected. Gildea will now require high-dose chemotherapy followed by an autologous blood stem cell transplant to halt the progression of the disease towards his transplanted organs.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue 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 (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help 75 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. 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

LANDMARK NUMBER OF ORGAN DONORS AFTER CARDIAC DEATH IN ONTARIO

Ontario leads Canada with more than 100 donations after cardiac death

Toronto, ON – Ontario is the nation’s leader in organ Donation After Cardiac Death (DCD). Trillium Gift of Life Network (TGLN) announced the landmark achievement of more than 100 DCD cases performed in 22 hospitals in Ontario.

“As a direct result of 100 cases of DCD, 246 lives were saved through the transplantation of lungs, livers, kidneys and pancreases. As well, 63 per cent of the DCD cases also resulted in donated tissue including bones, eyes, heart valves and skin,” said Frank Markel, President and CEO of TGLN. “DCD is a proven best practice to improve donation performance and has contributed to Ontario’s record success in saving lives. Without the collaboration and strong support of many hospitals and physicians, this improvement would not be possible.”

Historically transplantation of organs and tissue from deceased donors was first done after a person’s death had been determined by cardiac criteria – when their hearts had stopped beating. Later, determination of death for organ and tissue donation purposes was done according to strict neurological criteria (brain death). This became the only accepted determination of death before the first DCD case in Canada in the modern era was performed when Emile and Beth Therien made the decision to remove their daughter, Sarah Beth, from life support. The Therien family wanted to honor Sarah Beth’s wishes to be an organ donor.

"Sarah Beth's legacy as an organ and tissue donor and the wonderful memories we have of her will always sustain us during very difficult times. In death, Sarah Beth became a medical pioneer. For the first time in Canada,in the modern era, cardiac death, not brain death, was the criterion for allowing transplants. We are further consoled knowing that since that historic medical breakthrough at the Ottawa Hospital on June 17, 2006 many more lives have been saved. My family's experience as a donor family really speaks to the importance of the responsibility that health care systems have to honor families’ requests, particularly with donation after cardiac death, as it serves the public good," said the Theriens.

DCD offers families the option of donation in cases where neurological criteria for death have not been met. DCD is carried out only after a prior and independent decision by the family and treating physician has been made to withdraw life-sustaining treatment.DCD follows pronouncement of death, and is based on “irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory function.”

Today in Ontario, 17 per cent of deceased organ donations are a result of DCD, while brain death accounts for 83 per cent. Ontario ranks in the upper quartile for percent of DCD cases among the organ procurement organizations in the United States.

“DCD in Ontario has truly been a remarkable improvement. Lives have been saved through a better organized system. People in Ontario really value the gift of life, and now we are in a better position to help them give that gift,” said Dr. Andrew Baker, Chief of Critical Care at St. Michael’s Hospital.

For a list of Ontario the centers that contributed to the increase in deceased organ donations read the backgrounder

DCD is an opportunity for families to support the wishes of their loved ones to save and enhance more lives at the end of life. TGLN encourages Ontarians to register their consent to donate organs and tissue and talk to their families about their wishes.

In Ontario, you can register your consent to donate your organs and tissue by going to the TGLN web site below or by visiting your local ServiceOntario Health Card Services – OHIP office or outreach center where you renew your health card.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue 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 (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help 75 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. 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

Race-Matching No Help in Heart Transplant Survival

By Michael Smith,
North American Correspondent, MedPage Today

Published: May 31, 2010
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

African Americans do significantly worse after a heart transplant than Caucasians, but not because they were getting racially mismatched organs, researchers said.

In a retrospective review of 20,185 heart transplant patients over a 10-year period, blacks had a 46% increase in the risk of cumulative mortality, compared with whites, according to Ashish Shah, MD, and colleagues at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, Md.

But matching hearts to recipients on the basis of race did nothing to alter the odds of survival in any ethnic or racial group, the researchers wrote online in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery.

"It does not matter whether a white, black, Hispanic, or Asian donor heart is transplanted into a patient of any other particular race," Shah said in a statement. "Other factors must be the reason for any differences in how well people do after transplantation -- in particular, why blacks have poorer outcomes."

Shah added that the finding should reassure patients that they don't need a race-matched heart.

The researchers analyzed data from the United Network for Organ Sharing to analyze a range of factors that might be involved in survival after a heart transplant. The patients were stratified by race and ethnicity, as well as by donor-recipient race-matching.

Most of the patients in the study -- 76% -- were white, followed by 14.6% African Americans, and 6.4% Hispanics, and a handful from other groups. Most of the donors were also white -- some 72% -- followed by 12.1% African American and 13.5% Hispanic.

Of the 20,185 patients, 61% got a race-matched heart, including 74.5% of the whites, 17.5% of the blacks, and 30.3% of the Hispanics.

Over the 10 years of the study, 28% of the patients died, the researchers noted. The 10-year survival for blacks was 45.8%, which was 11.4% lower than the 57.2% for whites and 10.8% lower than the 56.6% for Hispanics. The differences were significant at P<0.001.

In a multivariate analysis, adjusted for a range of risk factors, African-American heart recipients had a 46% increase in cumulative mortality compared with whites (HR 1.46, 95% CI 1.24 to 1.72, P<0.001).

The authors noted that the study was limited by its retrospective approach. In addition, they wrote "the UNOS data set likely does not include all important confounders, such as detailed economic data germane to the question at hand."

Overall, patients getting a race-matched heart appeared to have a 4.4% increase in survival compared with those who did not. But no racial group had a significant benefit when stratified by race-matching, the researchers said.

The apparent discrepancy, they said, arises from the skewed distribution of race-matching -- with African Americans getting a race-matched organ markedly less often than whites.

"It is clear that race-matching does not improve survival" after heart transplant, the researchers argued, and so investigators must look elsewhere for explanations of the excess risk seen for African Americans.

Three possible biological explanations emerge from the data, they theorized -- African Americans were more likely to have hypertension before the transplant, to get a donor heart that had tissue antigen mismatches, and to get a donor heart mismatched for sex, although immune system mismatches lost significance in the multivariate analysis.

But social explanations may also play a role, they wrote. Patients on Medicaid, rather than private insurance, had a 39% higher risk of higher risk of death. And having a college education lowered the risk of issues linked to organ rejection by 12%.

The study's first author, Jeremiah Allen, MD, said the next step is to figure out which factors are different in those African Americans who do well after transplant, compared with those who do not. Allen noted in a statement that the study found that about 45% of African Americans with donated hearts lived longer than 10 years.

"This research is key to correcting the survival disparity in African Americans in surviving heart transplantation and helps us learn how to take better care of some of our most high-risk transplant recipients," he said.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue 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 (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help 75 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. 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

Kimberly Liew, widow of man who died from diseased kidney transplant, fulfilled hubby's dying wish

Egan-Chin/News

Kimberly Liew (r.), with her mother Gim Lian Soh, says all she can do now is 'let go.'

BY PATRICE O'SHAUGHNESSY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Kimberly Liew felt good Saturday for the first time in the nearly eight years since her husband died.

"I have a very heavy burden since his death," said Liew, 46, referring to the promise she made her husband, Vincent, on his deathbed.

"He said, 'Please let people know what happened to me so they don't go through this,'" she said.

Liew spoke a day after a Queens jury found NYU Medical Center not liable for her husband's death seven months after he received a kidney from a woman with uterine cancer.

But she said she still felt victory.

"His wish has been accomplished; that is the most important thing. Donor organs and doctors will be more careful ... patients will be more educated. I believe that.

"There's nobody to be blamed for this," she continued in her cheerful way. "It was hard for [surgeon Thomas Diflo] and hard for me. I sent him a card, saying I forgive him. ... I forgave him eight years ago. Letting go is all I can do now."

Liew, 46, said Friday was a "very difficult day, waiting for the verdict. I thought I was going to win the case."

After the jury announced that Diflo did not commit medical malpractice and awarded Liew no damages, she was stunned.

"I didn't know what was going on," Liew said. "I asked my sister-in-law sitting with me, 'Is that the verdict?' and she said, 'Yeah, you lost the case.'"

The verdict marked the end of a long, sad journey. Liew's 37-year-old husband was her life partner and they did everything together, from mundane housework to hanging out at Starbucks to taking vacations.

After his death, "It was very difficult," she recalled, crying. "I became sick. I went to the doctor many times and they couldn't find any diagnosis. My pastor's wife said I needed therapy and she helped me."

She sniffled and said, "Now my eyes are swollen," and laughed slightly.

When her husband received the transplant in April 2002, the couple thought it was the answer to their prayers, but instead it debilitated him.

His widow said Diflo told the patient he had the slimmest chance of contracting uterine cancer and should keep the diseased organ.

Diflo testified that he explained the risks and the patient insisted on keeping the kidney, but the widow disputes that.

The kidney was removed in August, and he died a month later. "I'm thinking how long would he have lived if [Diflo] removed it [right away]," she said wistfully.

She launched her long crusade to sue shortly after her husband died, but says her first lawyer botched the case.

She then went to lawyer Daniel Buttafuoco in 2008.

Liew was seeking $3 million for her husband's pain and suffering. She insists it wasn't about the money, but her husband's message.

"I went to dinner with my family last night, and everybody felt sorry about the verdict," she said, "but Vincent always said, 'God never makes mistakes,' and if He allowed the verdict, I have to accept it. Maybe He has a better future for me."

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue 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 (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help 75 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. 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

Singapore becoming a liver transplant center

Many desperate patients faced with long wait lists at home with little hope of receiving their life-saving transplant before dying, decide to seek help elsewhere and Singapore is becoming a magnet for transplant tourism. This report notes that 28 foreigners traveled to Singapore for liver transplants last year.

By Salma Khalik AsiaoneHealth

SINGAPORE is gaining a name as a liver transplant center, with increasing numbers of foreigners coming here for the complex surgery.

A decade ago, such transplants were rare. Last year, 28 donor-recipient pairs came for such transplants - or more than one case every fortnight. The numbers were 27 in 2008 and 21 in 2007.

These patients came primarily from the region, but some were from as far away as the Middle East.

The bulk of these transplants were performed at two private hospitals under the Parkway Group: Gleneagles and Mount Elizabeth.

The cost was roughly $300,000.

A spokesman for Parkway said it expects more patients to come for complicated procedures like liver transplants, as Singapore establishes itself 'as a global and premier medical hub'.

The liver is the most difficult organ to transplant because of the intricate blood vessels involved. When the donor is alive, the case is even more difficult, since there is risk to both parties.

The risk to a liver donor is far higher than it is to someone donating a kidney, which is considered relatively safe.

Recipients also face risks. The first month is the most dangerous, when rejection or infection can occur. The Parkway Group claims a 96 per cent survival rate in the 30 days after the transplant.

Countries such as Australia and New Zealand are unable to perform live-donor liver transplants. They perform liver transplants using only dead donors. This was why the Western Australian government gave a young mother of two a A$250,000 (S$294,000) loan to come here for a transplant in March.

Ms Claire Murray had already had one cadaveric transplant done in Australia. But that failed within months. The authorities decided she was not eligible for a second cadaveric organ because of her predilection for drugs.

Her family then turned to Singapore. Although the transplant of part of her aunt's liver was successful, she died a fortnight later from a proliferation of blood clots.

Her doctor, Dr Jeyaraj Prema Raj, who operates at Mount Elizabeth Hospital, said the demand for such transplants is high, though some who want to come do not meet Singapore's stringent rules against organ trading.

He said he performed two transplants last year, but turned down four others for this reason.

'I turned them down as I felt the donors were unrelated and were 'bought',' he said.

This year, he has carried out four, turned down two, and has two lined up in the next two months.

Besides the 28 foreigners who came for new livers last year, eight Singaporeans had a new lease of life with part of a liver taken from a relative.

Another 17 people here received livers from dead donors last year, said the Ministry of Health.

At National University Hospital (NUH), the cost to a recipient - regardless of whether the liver is cadaveric or comes from a live donor - ranges from $60,000 to $100,000.

Any Singaporean can enjoy a subsidy of 50 per cent. Those less well off get a 65 per cent subsidy.

A hospital spokesman said: 'Over the past few years, we have seen an increase in the number of liver transplants, from nine cases in 2007 to 20 cases last year.'

NUH has carried out five adult liver transplants so far this year.

The hospital also performs a number of paediatric liver transplants, where the donated sliver of liver usually comes from a parent.

Last year, it carried out 11 transplants on children, up from seven in 2008.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue 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 (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help 75 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. 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

Man sentenced to 15 years in prison over organ transplant scam

Finally the hard work of the DeWitt, N.Y. police department and investigator Scott Kapral has paid off in the conviction and sentencing of disgraced psychiatrist Jerome Feldman. Feldman, whose license to practice was revoked, scammed one family out of $70,000 and got much more from other dying people. Feldman cast the net wide, using a computer web site to reel in prospective victims, court documents said. He'd promise the amount they paid -- usually around $75,000 -- would cover all their medical expenses. They would arrive in the Philippines and realize no surgeries had been scheduled and the doctor who was to perform the operation didn't exist.

The investigation started when a woman from Edmonton, Canada contacted several police departments saying her husband was duped out of $70,000 in an organ transplant scam and died while waiting for the operation. She contacted the DeWitt, N.Y. police because she had wired the money to a Chase Bank account there. How Feldman was caught reads like a good detective story and you can read it at Disgraced psychiatrist arrested.

The Miami Herald
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
UTICA, N.Y. -- A former psychiatrist accused of duping seriously ill people out of $400,000 with false promises of organ transplants in the Philippines has been sentenced in New York to more than 15 years in prison.

U.S. District Judge David Hurd also ordered Jerome Feldman to repay $2 million to the victims of the transplant scheme and an earlier Medicare fraud in Florida.

The 69-year-old Feldman pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud charges for luring five people to the Philippines for potentially lifesaving organ transplants.

Prosecutors say Feldman never arranged the transplants and kept the money. One person died while awaiting a liver.

Feldman apologized in court Thursday.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue 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 (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help 75 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. 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

Shortage of Transplant Organs Spurs Proposals But No Solution

By Jenifer Goodwin (HealthDay News) -- Organ transplants save thousands of lives every year, but many more people languish on waiting lists because of a serious shortage of organs. While proposals to increase the supply have gained some followers, opinions differ on whether they will work -- or even if they should be tried at all.

"The bottom line is the organ shortage keeps getting bigger," said David Undis, executive director of a Nashville, Tenn., group that would give priority to people who have signed up as donors themselves. His solution is one of several garnering attention.

In New York, a state legislator introduced a bill in April that would assume all state residents were organ donors unless they specifically opted out. Called "presumed consent," the law would be a first for the United States, although similar policies exist in many European countries.

A similar bill introduced in Delaware in 2008 died in committee, said Arthur Caplan, a professor of bioethics at University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

In California, a state legislator has introduced a bill that would set up a registry of people willing to be living donors of kidneys. In many cases, living donors give a kidney to a family member or loved one. But sometimes, the loved one isn't a good match. A living donor registry would help with paired exchanges, in which a living donor could swap with a stranger in return for that person's loved one offering a kidney to theirs.

The registry is being championed by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, the recipient of a donated liver, and is supported by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

While their approaches differ, on one point everyone agrees: There aren't enough organs to meet the need. In the United States, about 100,000 adults and children are waiting for organ transplants, and 18 people die each day while waiting, according to Donate Life America.

LifeSharers -- the group Undis founded -- has run an organ donor registry since 2002 in which members agree to give first preference for their organs to others who have signed up with the registry to be organ donors themselves.

As Undis puts it, "99.9 percent of us would accept a transplant if we needed one to live, but only half of us are signed up to give."

Giving donors priority is a win-win situation, he believes. "If you give them first to registered organ donors, more people will register, and fewer people will die waiting for transplants," he said.

Currently, 13,800 have signed up for LifeSharers. No organ transplants have come of it yet, Unis said.

Under the current system, U.S. residents must "opt in" to be donors. A common way of doing so is on a driver's license application or by an organ donor designation, such as a sticker, on the driver's license.

When it comes to determining who gets available organs, the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) in Richmond, Va., maintains a list of patients waiting for donated organs and oversees organ matching and placement.

While specifics vary depending on the organ, the patient's medical condition, how closely blood, tissue and the donor's size match the donor, time on the waiting list and proximity to the donor are considered, according to Donate Life America.

UNOS, which manages the nation's Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, established by Congress in 1984, takes issue with the LifeSharers' philosophy.

Its approach would "essentially punish transplant candidates who haven't made a particular personal decision," said Mandy Ames, a UNOS spokeswoman. "And while we value that particular decision, we believe the transplant system should neither reward nor punish people for their personal decisions or beliefs," she said.

Caplan said he considers the LifeSharers' concept impractical. With only about one in 1,000 deaths leading to a viable organ for transplant, millions would need to sign up to have enough organs to offer those who pledge to donate.

"I favored presumed consent approach," Caplan said. "The majority of people say they want to donate. They are not looking for priority or money. They do want to do it for altruistic reasons. Under the current system, we're not able to capture all of that altruism."

A recent report in the BMJ said nearly 300 additional organ transplants could be carried out a year if Britain adopted an "opt out" policy like the one proposed in New York.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue 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 (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help 75 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. 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

Double-lung transplant patient to perform opera at Cleveland Clinic summit

I'm continually amazed at the transformation and recovery that people experience after undergoing an organ transplant. Here is a double-lung recipient only 8 months post transplant performing at the Cleveland Clinic and singing Gershwin's "Someone to Watch Over Me" to the doctors, nurses and hospital staff who saw her through it all.

By Kaye Spector, The Plain Dealer

May 25, 2010, 8:00AM

Charity Sunshine Tillemann-Dick went to her first opera, Hansel and Gretel, at age 4. She knew then what she wanted to do and what she wanted to be.

She now sings soaring soprano coloratura, delivering difficult passages of high, rapid notes. She mastered the technique after years of rigorous training.

She hasn't let go of her dream, even though she battled pulmonary arterial hypertension for years before undergoing open heart surgery and a double lung transplant.

Wednesday she takes the stage at the Cleveland Clinic's Patient Experience Summit. She will dedicate her rendition of Gershwin's "Someone to Watch Over Me" to the doctors, nurses and hospital staff who saw her through it all.

The Denver resident began "building a relationship" with the Cleveland Clinic doctors shortly after she was diagnosed in 2004 at age 21.

Tillemann-Dick and her doctors in Colorado and at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore tried to deal with her condition through treatment. But the possibility of a transplant always loomed. She knew she would likely have it done at the Clinic.

"My doctors told me it was the best place to go," she says.

With pulmonary arterial hypertension, the blood vessels that supply the lungs constrict and the walls thicken, so the blood vessels can't carry as much blood. The heart has to work harder to force the blood through and pressure builds up. There's less blood circulating through the lungs picking up oxygen. Patients become tired, dizzy and short of breath.

Pulmonary hypertension was a "daunting prospect" for the coloratura soprano.

"The most important thing is air flow," she says. "It's tremendously demanding work."

Tillemann-Dick didn't tell many people about her condition so she could keep on singing. She wore a pump the size of a cassette tape strapped to her leg or torso.

"When I sang, it was the only time I did not feel challenged by my physical disability. I had this freakish lung capacity," she says. "But the truth was I was very sick."

By 2009, she was having difficulty singing. She had canceled 100 engagements in the course of a year and decided she could not continue.

"I realized I couldn't maintain my good name as an artist," she says.

She had the transplant at the Clinic in September and returned home at Christmastime, determined to sing again.

She took tentative steps toward music by humming. After a few weeks she tried to sing some gentle songs: jazz, folk music. More time passed. She moved on to more demanding music: theater standards. A few weeks later, she was singing her opera repertoire. In March, she began taking lessons again with her regular voice teacher.

"Coming back to Cleveland to sing is really a dream come true, considering I'm not even a year out," she said in a phone interview during a taxicab ride to the Intercontinental Hotel on Monday morning.

"It's a miracle and I'm so glad to share that."

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue 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 (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help 75 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. 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