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

Public dialogue on organ & tissue donation & transplantation in Canada

A public meeting (view agenda) will be held this coming weekend in Toronto to give Canadians a chance to have their say and give input to the design of a new system for Organ and Tissue Donation in Canada Saturday, May 29th, 8am to 4pm (Four Points by Sheraton – 6257 Airport Road, Mississauga, ON).

Advance registration (below) is required to accommodate the needs of the participants and adequately prepare and plan for food and refreshment.

Canadian Blood Services has received a new mandate from the Federal and Provincial governments to look at designing a new system for improving Organ and Tissue donation.

Some of the following information is taken from a Background report prepared last year for Canadian parliamentary committees. (Reading this pre-meeting will bring you up to speed on the current situation in Canada).

This is a great opportunity to have your voice heard on this very important topic for organ and tissue donation and transplantation in Canada. Anywhere from 140 to 250 Canadians die each year while waiting for an organ transplant. Canada’s cadaveric donation rate is reportedly lower than that of most of the countries to which it is compared. The cadaveric donor rate in Canada has declined slightly over the past 10 years from approximately 15 to 13 donors per million population (PMP).

International comparisons of organ donor rates usually include Spain and the United States, whose donor rates are reportedly 33.4 and 21.4 PMP respectively. Underlying this unfortunate statistic is the fact that Canada has one of the lowest rates of organ donation in the industrialized world. And yet studies show about 50% of Canadians are unaware of what their loved ones wanted regarding organ and tissue donations.

Please register for the event
http://www.blood.ca/speakup

You can also register by calling:
Debbie White
OTDT-PA Coordinator
Canadian Blood Services
1800 Alta Vista Drive
Ottawa, ON K1G 4J5
e-mail: debbie.white@blood.ca
Telephone: (613) 739-2404
Fax: (613) 739-2400

“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

Families of organ recipients meet Canadian donor's family

By Chang jung-hsiang and Fanny Liu Focus Taiwan News Channel

The husband of a kidney recipient, identified only by his family name Liu, presented a bunch of flowers to Sandra Lammens Monday at the National Cheng Kung University Hospital, where the organ transplant surgery took place on May 13.

Tainan, May 17 (CNA) Families from three of six organ recipients expressed their thanks to the family of a retired Canadian physical education teacher in southern Taiwan's Tainan City on Monday.

Hans Lammens, 67, who lived with his wife Sandra Lammens in Tainan since last summer, fell off his bicycle on May 7 and was declared dead five days later.

Lammens' wife, an English teacher at National Nanke International Experimental High School, decided to donate his organs, including his heart, kidneys, liver, cornea and sclera, which is the white part of the eye.

The husband of a kidney recipient, identified only by his family name Liu, presented a bunch of flowers to Sandra Lammens Monday at the National Cheng Kung University Hospital, where the organ transplant surgery took place on May 13.

"Finally, my wife does not need to live in the hospital anymore," said Liu, whose wife was required to visit the hospital three times a week for kidney dialysis.

Lammens' family also gave the organ donor's funeral and burial subsidies to charities. His ashes will be flown to Canada.

“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

Death Row "Waiting" Videos Brings Life to UK Organ Donor Crisis

These YouTube videos are powerful ads for organ donation. Hopefully more jurisdictions around the globe will consider similar campaigns to help increase organ and tissue donation. Click on the links and be prepared for an emotional impact. If you haven't already registered to be an organ & tissue donor links are at the end of this post. Thanks.

By Dennis Campbell UK Progressive

Gwent Police made global headlines when their graphic, viral video showed the consequences of driving whilst texting. Donate Wales has released a similarly powerful advert called "Waiting" showing transplant patients, including 30-month old baby boy Morgan, sitting in "Death Row" prison cells whilst awaiting scarce donor organs.

Filmed in Cardiff's dungeon-like Clifton Street Police Station, familiar to many for its use in episodes of Dr. Who and other dramas, the "actors" are real patients in urgent need of organ donations. Shot in stark shadows, each patient stares at the camera whilst their name and organ(s) needed flashes on the cell wall. Two of the patients provide voiceovers, then the announcer gravely intones, "one person in Wales dies every 11-days waiting for an organ transplant... please help others on Wales' invisible Death Row," accompanied by the distinctive sound of a cell door locking. The advert closes with a child's voice plaintively asking, "please join the organ donor register."

If you are not rocked to your very roots, one could question your humanness. Having watched it several times for this article, every element of this Freshfields and Paul Cleverly produced advert is jarring.

And that's the point.

Most of us ignore adverts that politely and cleverly ask one to join. Donate Wales has always gone for your heart and jugular at the same time. Last year it was the plaintive and haunting young Sian awaiting a kidney and saying, "please don't let me die," now... Death Row.

Donate Wales' chairman Roy Thomas said:

"The UK has one of the lowest organ donor rates in the developed world. This is why we have shown real patients in our advert and not the actors used by government agencies. Real people have told us that they are on their own personal death row. Actors are for Hollywood movies. I challenge anyone to deny these real, fantastic people a proper life.

In 15-years of UK registration, 16 million people or roughly 25% of the UK's population have opted-in, signing an organ donor card placed on their driving license. The debate and fight now is over a campaign to change this to an assumptive, automatic registration system that gives people the right to "opt-out" of rather than requiring that they "opt-in."

This has become a libertarian privacy issue and both sides have dug-in with force while people continue to die. The UK Organ Donor Task Force asserts NHS 'efficiencies' will increase the number of donors by 50%. The British Medical Journal insists an opt-out programme would have already added 3,000 donor organs alone in the last year.

Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones (Labour) and his Health Minister Edwina Hart are on record for wanting an opt-out system in Wales by the end of 2011. That would still leave some 40+ million people across the UK in the old opt-in system.

The advert is gaining international coverage for its abrupt starkness. The young crying Morgan is the most disturbing image. He cannot have a transplant for another six months and his father (pictured with him) is a corrections officer so, as Donate Wales' Alison Goldsworthy said, "he is used to seeing the inside of jails. All voiceovers were recorded in the studios of Real Radio, so he was well cared for throughout."

All but the last patient who was so very ill (a 34 year old diabetic who needs a kidney and a pancreas) were filmed in the cell. Elliw is so ravaged by her diseases she looked much older and was filmed having dialysis and then placed in the cell using CGI. The patients all consented to appear because they want Westminster to change the law on organ donation in the UK.

Patient Concern, the opposition group protesting opt-out sent a written e-mail statement from their co-director Roger M. Goss directing me to three paragraphs of a letter he wrote in 2002. It said that without informed consent, "the subtle coercion inherent in 'fake' consent, would risk a serious backlash against organ donation. That would be a disaster. [In other countries (without substantiation beyond the statement)] ...the family refusal rate increased sharply in outrage on disclosure that organs were routinely being taken for research behind families' backs." Patient Concern then oddly warns that "comparisons with other countries was an attempt to sway the debate by speculative statistics" yet are they not doing the same thing without providing any statistics?

Donate Wales' Chairman Roy Thomas counters: "The Organ Donor Register is important but the policy of carrying a card is outdated. We did this in the 1980's. Times have moved on, as have most developed countries to save more lives with an opt-out organ donation system."

Continued Mr. Thomas, "we are holding back success in transplantation. Leading EU countries with opt-out systems are ahead of us - Belgium, France and Spain have higher rates of deceased organ donation per million as opposed to the UK."

For or against, the advert has achieved its intended purpose and raised the profile of both the issue and those in greatest need. According to Alison Goldsworthy, Communications Director for Donate Wales, "the harsh reality is these people need transplants and there are not enough organs out there. The public supports an opt-out system 2:1 and two major political parties Plaid Cymru and the LibDems are behind it. Conservative AM Jonathan Morgan, however, is on record against it."

In a statement from his blog in late-December, Mr. Morgan said: "My concern with hav(ing) an opt-out system is that it relies on people being lazy, perhaps having never uttered what they feel about organ donation." Attempts to reach AM Morgan by phone and e-mail for further clarification of his position were unsuccessful. It also adds another interesting difference to Westminster's shining new Conservative/LibDem marriage as Welsh coalition members are divided.

More than 100,000 people watched several versions of the Gwent Police YouTube video on various channels and it was further seen by millions of others on news programs around the world.

Yet another Welsh campaign seems destined for a similar showing.

“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

In the U.S. No Health Insurance, No Organ?

Nebraska TV

Love it or hate it health care reform is here and it's bringing massive changes to America's health insurance system.

That could mean changes for the way our country approaches organ donation too. The reform plan extends health insurance to millions of Americans who don't have any sort of coverage right now.

With that insurance lifesaving organ transplants could soon be available to thousands of Americans who simply can't afford them right now.

Depending on the organ costs can exceed a million dollars according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. Without insurance not only is funding your transplant unlikely so are your chances of making the list.

Despite Isabel Fermin Desangles husband's death the medical bills keep coming. "We found out February 16th that he needed a liver transplant."

Her husband, Raul Desangles, never got the chance to have a liver transplant. Isabel said it wasn't because of the short period it took for liver failure to claim his life, but because a recent job loss left them without health insurance. "I don't want anyone living with this wonder I have. I wonder if Raul had health insurance if he would be alive."

Currently, more than 100,000 people wait for a transplant, but there are less than 15,000 donors every year. This leaves officials at transplant centers with the tough task of deciding who gets an organ. "It's a scarce commodity. There's not enough organs to go around. It seems hard and cruel. We'd love to transplant everyone, but we just can't," said Sue Miller of the Nebraska Medical Center.

Each of the just 256 organ transplant centers across the country has its own set of criteria for making the list. For many ability to pay is taken into consideration. With a potential million dollar procedure someone has to foot the bill. "It's hard to say things should be paid for. It's easy to say that, but I can understand it's hard to accomplish that. In a perfect world everyone's procedures should be paid for," said Raul's son Chris Desangles.

According to a report by ABC News, one in four willing to donate their organs don't have insurance. This means despite their willingness to give many could never receive. "I'm still a donor, but I want to find out how my organs are going to be used," said Isabel.

It should be noted not every transplant center turns away those unable to pay.

“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

Teen heart recipient gets trip to Disney World thanks to Children's Wish Foundation

When paying at the cash register I'm often asked to donate a dollar to Ronald McDonald House or the Children's Wish Foundation and I usually say yes. The following article about a boy from Newfoundland tells me I did the right thing by giving to these charities.

Transplant gives teen, family new hope

By Krysta Colbourne The Advertiser

A little more than a year ago, the community was rallying support to help Sheldon King's family deal with expenses.

Having a heart attack as a teenage, it seems, can be quite costly.

And now a year later, Sheldon is living a fairly normal life - no small feat considering what he has been through.

In the summer of 2008, at the age of 15, Sheldon King suffered a heart attack. After spending three months at the Janeway Children's Hospital in St. John's, it was determined he has a congenital heart defect.

It soon became clear than his heart condition was more serious than expected and if he were to survive, he would need a heart transplant.

On Nov. 11, 2008, Sheldon was flown to the Hospital for Sick Children (Sick Kids) in Toronto where he received a new heart two days later.

Sheldon and his mother Jackie spent the next four months at the Ronald McDonald House.

With a Ronald McDonald House in the fundraising stages in this province, Ms. King said it will be beneficial to a lot of people.

"I think that is great," Ms. King said. "You get to meet a lot of people who are going through he same situation."

In the past year, Sheldon has been back to Sick Kids six times, with the next trip scheduled for July and has been to the Janeway at least a dozen times to see neurologists and cardiologists - not including his doctor visits and regular blood work in Grand Falls-Windsor.

"She wants to move up to Brampton to be close to the hospital," Sheldon said pointing to his mother.

Ms. King said the family's plans for moving to Ontario are still up in the air but it is something she would like to do in the near future.

"For him, I want to be closer to Sick Kids Hospital," she said. "I would feel more comfortable myself."

Ms. King said the trips depend on the kind of tests the doctors want to do.

"He has different tests done," she said. "He has biopsies done on Toronto; regular blood, EEGs, echocardiograms.'

The good news - the results are always positive.

"He is doing wonderful," his mother said. "He is doing really good."

Sheldon said he is still taking medication and he has to drink a lot of water - at least 2 liters of water a day - something he will have to do for the rest of his life.

"He is allowed to do mostly everything but he is not allowed to do contact sports. But basically he can do anything that anybody else can do."

Now 16, Sheldon said he has been feeling fine. He likes to do things any teen would like to do - ride his bike, play video games and going outside running around with his friends. He said his favorite sport is handball and he has an ambition to become an airplane pilot.

For now, Sheldon can enjoy a plane ride to Florida with his family on May 22 as his wish from the Children's Wish Foundation.

"His wish was granted about a month or so after his transplant but there were a lot of things that came up that had to be taken care of before he actually got his wish," Ms. King said.

Now the family is ready to go to see Mickey Mouse, sunshine, and all the other adventures that are in store for them.

Sheldon said he is excited and can't wait to see the Hollywood stunt show to see cars blowing up. He is looking forward to playing mini-golf at the village and in the Magic Kingdom, too.

The trip includes, but is not exclusive to three days in the Walt Disney World Park, two days in Universal Orlando, one day in Sea World.

The family will be staying at Give Kids the World Village, which is located on the outskirts of Disney World, where they will have its own personal villa, accommodated with its own kitchen, bedrooms and everything a home would have.

"Give Kids the World resort is for wish kids," Ms. King said. "For children that have terminal illnesses or went through organ transplants and are having wishes."

Meanwhile, Sheldon's new heart continues to allow him to experience a full life - a trip to the doctor last week garnered yet another favorable report.

“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

Canadian Boy, 8, receives double-lung transplant

Tahir Asif is Alberta's youngest transplant recipient

CBC News

An eight-year-old Edmonton boy will get to enjoy the "amazing gift" of a typical childhood after becoming Alberta's youngest double-lung transplant recipient.

Tahir Asif, who was born with cystic fibrosis, received new lungs during a seven-hour surgery at the Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton on April 21.

While his transplant does not cure the cystic fibrosis — there is no known cure for the genetic disease — doctors say it will allow Tahir to be a normal young boy again.

"I feel more energy," he told CBC News from his hospital room before he was discharged Thursday.

Tahir's parents, Asif and Nabila Jutt, are grateful their son will have a chance at a normal childhood.

The Jutt family, which includes Tahir's siblings Tayyeb, 10, and Afra, 6, moved from Yellowknife, N.W.T., to Edmonton last summer to be closer to Stollery.

"The people at the Stollery who cared for Tahir were so good," Asif Jutt said. "You just can't get better than that type of care. They were there for us every step of the way, medically and emotionally. We will never forget them."

Tahir was only the fifth patient under 17 years old to receive a pediatric lung transplant in Alberta. He will receive care at Stollery's pediatric lung transplant program throughout his childhood.

He said he is looking forward to September, when he's expected to attend public school for the first time in almost two years. He is also looking forward to swimming with his brother and sister and playing in his room.

Tahir was born with the often fatal disease, which causes mucus to build up and clog some of the organs in the body, mainly the lungs, making breathing extremely difficult.

Wasn't expected to live beyond summer

Tahir has battled severe chest infections and required regular intravenous antibiotics since he was four.

When his deteriorating health became critical in November, he was referred for a lung transplant. By March, he required a full-time ventilator to breathe.

Without a lung transplant, doctors said they didn't expect he would live beyond summer.

"He was going downhill rapidly in the last two months," said Dr. John Mullen, surgical director of thoracic transplantation at the University of Alberta Hospital, who performed the transplant with a nine-member team.

"These children are really our gifts for our future. It's a great privilege and honour to be able to help them because they are literally dying from lung disease, every breath is a struggle."

"To go from being able to not breathe and struggle with every breath to be like a normal child again is just an amazing gift for these children."

Stollery's first pediatric lung transplant was performed in 2002.

“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

Treadmill helps kids with troubled hearts

Caleb Schroeder received a heart transplant when just 22 days old in 1996. He's still going strong and does a lot of running at age 14. Amazing!

By: Melissa Martin Winnipeg Free Press

The machine clicks on, the purple-striped soccer jersey comes off, and 14-year-old Caleb Schroeder stands patiently while white-coated technologist Joy McCort tapes electrodes against his skin. "How do you feel?" she asks, straightening the wires that dangle from the teen's chest. "Are you ready to go?"

He's ready to go, and he's off, marching on a treadmill. McCort hovers nearby but the teen, toned from time spent playing soccer and street hockey, doesn't even break a sweat. If it wasn't for the electrodes and the wires and the jagged lines zipping by on an attached computer screen, you'd think he was just a kid going for a walk on his basement treadmill. But for many of the 4,000 children who come through the Variety Children's Heart Center each year, this is no home gym replacement. Rather, it's state-of-the-art technology that fills a missing piece in a sometimes overwhelming testing and treatment puzzle.

On Thursday, the Health Sciences Center's pediatric cardiology department unveiled the $35,000 industrial-strength treadmill, its latest gift from children's charity Variety. When kids like Schroeder use it, the signals streaming in from those chest electrodes can tell doctors how their hearts are holding up. For kids suspected of having heart problems, the data can help make a diagnosis. For children diagnosed with heart problems, or recovering from surgery, it could detect problems that could save their lives.

It came at just the right time. The department's old treadmill was suffering under 22 years of wear-and-tear. Its clunky, pre-digital printouts forced doctors to make a host of manual calculations. "It was really on its last legs in terms of being able to function," said Dr. Reeni Soni, who heads the department.

By contrast, the new machine offers instant paperless results and a plethora of programming options. "It makes our jobs a little easier," McCort said. "Equipment... gets outdated very quickly, because there's always something new. Now we have the latest."

The capabilities of the new machine are a boon to families of kids with heart problems. Schroeder's been hanging around the pediatric cardiology center his whole life, ever since he was born with a severely underdeveloped heart. On Valentine's Day 1996, when he was just 25 days old, Caleb got a heart transplant; he's healthy now, but it takes rigorous annual testing to ensure he stays that way.

Right now, the teen's family has to travel to Toronto each year to take those tests. But each time the Variety Children's Heart Center gets a new piece of equipment, it's one step closer to keeping Caleb home. "Travelling is fun at first, but after awhile it starts to wear off," chuckled Caleb's father, Harry Schroeder.

Within six months, the hospital hopes to acquire another $35,000 attachment that will measure kids' total exercise capacity. And that, in turn, could help more young transplant recipients and kids with troubled tickers build up their strength.

"I do a lot of running," Schroeder said. "I hope this gives other kids a chance to do some running, too."

“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

Canadian woman forced to go to U.S. for surgery

Here's another story about Canada's government run health care system. I think such incidents are very rare because I know many, many patients whose lives have been saved by Canadian doctors and Canadian hospitals, including me. I had a lung transplant at Toronto General Hospital and the care was so fantastic that I thought they had mistaken me for a celebrity or visiting royalty and found out that they treat every patient the same way. It's 8 years later and I'm still singing the praises of the Canadian health care system, even with the flaws critics like to highlight. 

By KEVIN CONNOR, TORONTO SUN

Joan King, 74, left, had a life-threatening brain aneurysm on Sunday, but no doctor in the province was available to treat her.

After a futile check with several hospitals, the Mississauga woman had to be airlifted to Buffalo for emergency surgery.

King is one of thousands of Ontario patients who are sent to the U.S. for health care — at a price to the taxpayer of more than $100 million a year, according to the Ministry of Health.

King’s daughter-in-law, Charmane Burton, said she was in shock that not one single doctor in the province was available.

She said the money spent on sending patients to the U.S. should be spent on hiring more doctors in Ontario.

“It all started after we had my mother-in-law over for dinner on Mother’s Day,” Burton said Tuesday.

“When she was going home she bent over to put on her shoes and it was like a bomb went off in her head and we called 911. She was taken to Credit Valley Hospital for a CT scan and they found two aneurisms that had erupted.

“Credit Valley didn’t have a neurosurgeon and neither did Trillium Hospital. There was one at Toronto Western but he was in surgery. Then 40 minutes later we found out there wasn’t a bed there and they couldn’t take her.

“We were told if we wait she was going to die because it was a massive hemorrhage. We were told ... the closest hospital that could take her was in Buffalo.”

The family was told OHIP would cover the cost of the surgery and treatment in the U.S.

Luckily, King had a valid passport and she was airlifted to Buffalo’s Millard Fillmore Gates Circle Hospital.

“Thank God she had a passport,” Burton said. “Not all of us did. (Other family members) drove to Buffalo and were shocked because we got there before she did — easily a half an hour before she did. We were shocked because time was of the essence. She could have passed away it was so serious.

“We are told she has a 50/50 chance — and that is if she does well in recovery. People think we have this great health care system because it is paid for, but what good is it if there are no doctors? How is this possible? In the U.S. the price of health care is astronomical, but at least they have doctors.”

Wendy Johnson at Credit Valley says the hospital doesn’t perform neurosurgery.

“It was clear she was going to need neurosurgery, so we called Trillium Hospital, who we partner with, but they couldn’t accommodate her either,” Johnson said. “We called CritiCall Ontario to ask where this patient could be placed. It was a very unfortunate situation because no hospitals in the province could take her. Now the Ministry of Health is looking into the situation and the capacity throughout the province.”

The Ministry of Health is aware of the Burton family’s complaint, but won’t comment on the situation because of patient confidentiality rules.

Last month, another Ontario woman, Dorothy Neal, died and it was her wish to donate her organs.

She was kept on life support for days but no surgeon could be found to harvest her organs — that could have saved seven lives — and the hospital pulled the plug and let her die.

“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

Restaurant Fundraiser to Help Liver Transplant Patient

If you are in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area here's a chance to help with a fundraiser for Debbie Richards who desperately needs a liver transplant. The transplant will cost $500,000 and medications will cost approximately $5,000 a month. Thanks to the National Foundation for Transplants for helping Debbie in her time of need just as they've done to for other patients during their transplant journey, assisting more than 1,000 patients.

GTR Newspapers - Debbie Richards desperately needs a liver transplant but faces significant expenses. Community members can help with the costs by eating out May 14 and 21.

Richards, 55, was diagnosed with a life-threatening liver disease in 2003. Last year, she also was diagnosed with liver cancer, and doctors say a liver transplant is critical to her survival. She was added to the transplant waiting list in 2009.

A liver transplant costs approximately $500,000. Richards will lose her health coverage in 2011, and she faces significant medical expenses. For the rest of her life, she will need follow-up care and daily anti-rejection medications. The medications can cost as much as $5,000 per month, and they are as critical to her survival as the transplant itself.

Because of her declining health, she was released from her job, adding to her financial strain. When she receives her transplant, she will have to relocate more than 100 miles from her home in Tulsa for at least three months to be closer to the transplant center during recovery.

To overcome these financial challenges, Richards turned to the National Foundation for Transplants (NFT) for assistance. NFT is a nonprofit organization that helps transplant patients raise funds to pay for medical expenses.

On Friday, May 14 and Friday, May 21, Rib Crib, 3022 S. Garnett will donate 10 percent of sales to help with Richards’ expenses. Diners must mention Richards to their server to ensure their meals are included. For more information, please contact Stacy Richards at tsdj2005h@aol.com or 918-829-3807.

To make donations in honor of Richards, please visit http://www.transplants.org/ and click on “patients we help” to search for her. If you prefer to mail your contribution, please send your gift to the NFT Oklahoma Liver Fund, 5350 Poplar Avenue, Suite 430, Memphis, TN 38119. Be sure to write “in honor of Debbie Richards” in the subject line.

NFT is a nonprofit 501©(3) organization based in Memphis, Tenn. that has been helping transplant patients overcome financial obstacles since 1983. NFT provides fundraising expertise and advocacy to transplant patients by organizing fundraising campaigns in the patients’ own communities. In the past 27 years, NFT’s fundraising campaigns have generated more than $56 million to assist patients.

For more information about NFT, please call 800-489-3863 or visit http://www.transplants.org/

“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

Heart transplant patient celebrates a Mother's Day miracle

If you haven't already registered to be an organ donor I hope this story will inspire you to do so. Links are at the bottom of this post. Thanks.

..."when Addison grows up, her mother plans to tell her all about the donor who gave them life."She not only saved my life, but she helped to create this one," Lowrance said.

by CYNTHIA IZAGUIRRE WFAA

DALLAS — Sunday was a special day for thousands of moms across North Texas. But for brand-new mother Becky Lowrance, the day took on even more significance.

The heart transplant patient never thought she'd celebrate a Mother's Day.

Lowrance and little Addison were recently at Medical City Dallas for their two-week checkup. "She's two weeks old, and I told her we're just gonna have to put a rock on her head already... she's growing too fast!"

For most moms, a trip to the doctor's office is pretty routine, but for Lowrance it is so much more.

"I didn't know if I would ever get to be a mom," she said.

But on April 22, Lowrance gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl.

"It's an amazing experience," she said. "I'm just so overwhelmed with happiness and joy."

It was a moment Lowrance thought she'd never experience, but thanks to a heart donor, she got the transplant and a chance to conceive.

"When I look at Addison, I just think of her as my little miracle," she said.

And when Addison grows up, her mother plans to tell her all about the donor who gave them life.
"She not only saved my life, but she helped to create this one," Lowrance said. "I know God has a plan for this little thing."

The heart donor was a young girl whose mother has kept in close contact with the Lowrance family.

On this Mother's Day, Becky Lowrance and her husband paused not only to celebrate their happiness, but also to think about her donor's mother and the sacrifice she made on behalf of strangers.

"Thank you," said Lowrance, choked with emotion.

“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