Woman's treatment while on liver transplant list was tragic, inquest told

20 to 30 percent of patients on the wait list for an organ transplant die before a donor is found for their second chance at life. However, in this case it would seem that the patient's death was the result of human errors at the hospital.

The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
A Sydney mother was discharged from hospital after falling victim to a "comedy of errors" that ended in her death from multi-organ failure, an inquest has been told.

Marie Haywood, 43, was admitted to Campbelltown Hospital on December 21 when she had fluid drained from her abdomen due to a chronic liver condition.

Mrs Haywood, who had been on the liver transplant list since August of that year, was also diagnosed with pneumonia and given increasing levels of morphine and other pain medication, a coronial inquest heard on Monday.

By Christmas Day she told nurses that she was "always in pain", counsel assisting the coroner Kristina Stern told Glebe Coroner's Court.

On Boxing Day, when she was discharged, Mrs Haywood reportedly complained of chest pain and having a red, pussy wound where a cannular had been inserted.

She had also vomited and was having trouble walking.

On the same day, blood test results showed a clear deterioration in her renal function.

"It appears that no one actually checked those results ... and they were not taken into account," Ms Stern said in her opening address.

"The only doctor that had physical contact with her was an intern who had no experience of her case."

She was discharged despite test results showing that her "overall condition had clearly deteriorated during her admission", Ms Stern added.

Mrs Haywood wasn't given a discharge summary or plan, and the doctor who signed off on her discharge did not physically review her.

Her condition worsened and she returned to hospital with her husband 16 hours later.

When she died on December 29 her primary cause of death was listed as multi-organ failure.

In a report read to the inquest, Professor David Morris described Mrs Haywood's time in hospital from December 21 to 26 as a "comedy of errors" that ended in her "spiralling into multi-organ failure".

He said the lack of co-ordination and communication between medical staff was "tragic", and the managing of her urine was "seriously inadequate".

Speaking outside the inquest, her husband John Haywood said he hoped the coronial investigation would result in improvements to the way hospitals are run.

"I would like to come out at the end and see that people can't be discharged without being seen," he told reporters.

"I always believed that when you went to hospital, you went there and you would be okay, but it doesn't always happen that way."

The inquest before NSW Deputy State Coroner Hugh Dillon continues.

© 2012 AAP

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

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

Kidney market hopes for broad appeal to potential Vancouver donors

There's no limit to the unique ways motivated people come up with to promote organ and tissue donation. This is a fine example that will hopefully be copied by others.

Five-year wait the norm for recipients

BY KIMIYA SHOKOOHI, CONTRIBUTING WRITER The Vancouver Courier

Years ago if you wanted to be an organ donor, placing a decal on your CareCard or driver’s licence would do the trick. Not anymore.

That decal was annulled 15 years ago, but there’s a large misconception that the system still applies, said Heather Johnson, director of programs at the Kidney Foundation of Canada, British Columbia branch.

The foundation states that while 85 per cent of people from B.C. surveyed are in favor of organ donation, only 17 per cent are registered to become donors. “People would say ‘I already have it on my driver’s licence,’” Johnson said. “People like the notion of organ donation, but to actually take action seems to be a problem.”

To become an official organ donor, anyone with a B.C. CareCard can register at the B.C. Transplant website. Donors can also decide which organs they’re willing to provide.

With the highest demand being kidney transplants—the wait time averaging about five years—the kidney foundation has decided to run a community event this weekend to highlight the misconceptions.

And the event is the brainchild of a Vancouver student. Second-year Langara College biology student Scott Haig, 21, entered the kidney foundation offices one day in May and made his pitch.

“Scott walked in our door. He was wonderful as soon as I met him,” said Barbara Valentine, special events coordinator with The Kidney Foundation B.C. branch. “He’s a great guy with fantastic energy who really wants to make a difference.”

He got the job, and as a volunteer spent four months organizing the first Vancouver Kidney Market Fair. Haig proposed that rather than holding a garage sale-like event, as the foundation had done in small communities in other parts of the province, it should incorporate local businesses into the Vancouver event and up the all-ages entertainment appeal.

“I wanted to involve the community,” Haig said. “Our biggest conquest was to really provide a reason to be there. We’ve bolstered food, political leaders, musicians, art.”

Among attractions, Stock Up Cafe will be giving away free samples and Senova restaurant will distribute discount coupons. Debra Sparrow, who designed Team Canada’s 2010 Olympics hockey jersey, will showcase her art. There will also be live music, as well as other booths geared towards children and adults.

The message Haig is trying to send with all this: anyone, any age, can sign up to be an organ donor. (Children under 19 need parents to sign them up.)

Haig, who was inspired after hearing a friend’s story about how a donation for a kidney transplant changed her life at the age of eight, decided to turn the garage sale fundraiser into an all-ages event so the foundation could reach people at an early age.

“That is one of our biggest messages,” Haig said. “We have to encourage children, so they grow up paying attention to how important the kidney foundation organ donation is.”

The event is Aug. 13 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Shannon Station at 57th Avenue and West Boulevard.

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

Canada Ontario,
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United States, organdonor.gov

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

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

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

Californa woman is behind 400 people on waiting list for kidney transplant

A life on hold

Transplant hopeful yearns for a life free of dialysis treatment

By Lori Gilbert Recordnet.com
Shirley Garrison envisioned traveling in her retirement, to riding to the top of the Space Needle with her grandchildren who live in Bellingham, Wash., and visiting Disneyland with those who live in Southern California.

Instead, the 64-year-old Stockton woman is lucky to make it to the local grocery store.

Garrison suffers from end stage renal failure, a kidney condition that requires nine hours of peritoneal dialysis every night. The illness and treatment leave her weakened and nauseous. There's no cure. Her only hope is a kidney transplant, and the waiting list she's on at University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center has more than 400 people ahead of her.

According to the California Transplant Donor Network, the Oakland-based nonprofit that links donors with those in need of transplants at 175 hospitals in Northern and Central California and Northern Nevada, 505 of the 583 people waiting for organ transplants in San Joaquin County need kidneys. Statewide, 17,522 of the 21,755 awaiting organs need kidneys. Unlike other organs, which, when they are available, are awarded based on greatest need, kidneys are disbursed to those who've waited the longest.

The organ that removes a body's waste products, balances body fluids and controls the production of red blood cells has long been the most needed organ among transplant recipients.

"It's been that way for years," said Anthony Borders of the CTDN. "There's been an increasing trend, probably because of the increase in hypertension and diabetes."

Garrison has had other health issues, including hypertension, which she attributes to highly stressful jobs with San Joaquin County, and she suffered heart attacks in 1995 and 1997, but her kidney failure is hereditary. By the time it was diagnosed by her Kaiser doctors, it was too advanced to be treated with medication; dialysis will sustain her until she can receive a transplant.

"I was told I would not get a kidney for six to seven years," Garrison said. "I'll be 70, 71 at that time and I'm afraid they're not going to want to give a 70- or 71-year-old person major surgery. If I could find a donor, we could do the surgery sooner."

The likely candidate for kidney transplant is an immediate family member. Garrison's two daughters, whom she raised as a single parent, are unable to donate. Both show signs of the same disease that has struck Garrison. Her lone sister has only one properly functioning kidney. Her 82-year-old mother offered one of her kidneys, but doctors rejected it because of her age. Garrison's 87-year-old father has kidney disease, too, but doctors discovered it soon enough to treat it with medication.

"My mom said, 'I'd be the first in line to give you my kidney,' but they won't take her kidney because of her age, and I wouldn't risk her life for that," Garrison said.

Another daughter, whom Garrison adopted as a single mother, has an autoimmune condition and isn't a candidate either.

That leaves Garrison waiting along with hundreds of others, some of whom have been on the list longer than she.

Her spot in line was established in Oct. 7, 2010, seven months after her kidney disorder was diagnosed.

"It started in 2008," Garrison said. "I didn't know it was my kidneys. My back was hurting. It turns out it was because my kidneys weren't functioning correctly."

Her body was losing calcium as a result of her kidney condition, and it caused her spine to deteriorate, Garrison said. Her back pain got so bad she was forced to retire after more than 20 years working for the county. The condition left her walking with a cane. She doesn't have complete feeling in her feet, calcium deposits on her spine having affected the nerve endings.

She began nightly dialysis in February.

On good days she can clean the house, maybe do a little cooking in the hours leading up to those nine-hour sessions, for which she has a tube inserted in her stomach.

During that time she also waits.

She can't bring herself to ask friends to donate a kidney to her, but she hopes someone out there will do so.

The number of volunteers willing to donate organs upon death has grown since 2006 when the California Transplant Donor Network began soliciting them. More than 8.5 million Californians are registered and the number is expected to pass the 9 million mark early next year. In San Joaquin County, 33 percent of those eligible to be donors have registered.

"We always tell people that making donations are probably the least amount of time you can invest in doing something for the most people," Borders said. "It takes five minutes to register to be an organ donor, and down the road you can possibly save eight lives and many more through tissue donation.

To become a donor, visit www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org or www.doneVIDAcalifornia.org.

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

Canada Ontario,
Canada - British Columbia, other Canadian provinces

United States, organdonor.gov

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

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

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

Waiting hard part for many needing organs

BY ANNE GEGGIS, STAFF WRITER news-journalonline.com

EDGEWATER -- Kayla Crouser is 24 and she needs a kidney.

A genetic flaw caused polycystic kidney disease and turned the former New Smyrna Beach High School student, who once played every sport she could, into a young adult who can barely get out of bed on some days. Going to dialysis is just about all she can accomplish -- a three-hour procedure repeated three times a week.

"I'm just stuck right here, not going anywhere," she said.

She is one of 470 patients on a waiting list for a kidney transplant at Florida Hospital Orlando, where Florida Hospital sends its patients in Volusia and Flagler counties for transplants. Halifax Health Medical Center, which operates the only transplant center in Volusia and Flagler counties, has 45 people on the waiting list for its kidney transplant program.

Crouser's mother, Donna Nichols, has been ruled out as a donor. But just watching her daughter's strength fade since she was diagnosed in 2006 is more than she can take.

Nichols raised $5,000 for her daughter's transplant and is now asking the community for something money can't buy.

They are looking for someone with O-type blood willing to be tested to see if his or her kidney would make a match with Crouser's body. Nichols has written letters to newspapers, posted a plea on Facebook and started a blog in the effort.

"I want to give her a life again, but I can't," said Nichols, 49, shaking her head as tears rolled down her face.

About 89,350 Americans are on waiting lists for the same fist-sized organ that filters waste from the bloodstream, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. For them, a new life could be just one phone call away, but that call might never come.

An estimated 18 people a day die waiting for an organ transplant -- 12 of those are waiting for a kidney, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

In that regard, though, patients in Florida are more fortunate, according to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients. Patients at the majority of New York transplant centers have a median wait of more than six years for a kidney transplant, the most common type of transplant. In comparison, Florida's kidney transplant centers have wait times less than 24 months and only Shands Jacksonville and the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville have median waits longer than 24 months.

Mike Mulrooney, Halifax's transplant coordinator, said Florida's elderly population means more donated organs are available. If someone dies in this area who is an organ donor, the organ is tissue typed and matched against people on the waiting lists at transplants centers from Indian River County to Jacksonville.

If no match is found, lists statewide are checked, and then in regional states, continuing on until a match is found, perhaps going across the country.

But locals get dibs first.

Begun in 1973, Florida Hospital Orlando has watched its kidney transplant caseload skyrocket from 20 per year in the late 1980s to 177 transplants last year. The services have expanded to include pancreas and liver transplants. And the hospital hopes to add heart transplants in a few months once it finds a heart transplant surgeon.

Florida Hospital could not say how many of the 470 patients on its waiting list for kidney transplants in Orlando are from Volusia and Flagler counties.

"As more people came to this area, that increased the percentage of the population who were experiencing renal failure and were in need of a transplant," said Leigh Ann Burgess, administrative director of the Florida Hospital Transplant Center in Orlando, on the growth of that hospital's program.

By contrast, Halifax Health's program is in its infancy. Twenty-seven transplants have been performed there since its kidney surgeon, Dr. Rod Mateo, came on board nearly two years ago.

The majority of organs have come from cadavers. Halifax has a high success rate in getting usable organs from cadavers to offer to transplant candidates, which helps explain why wait times are shorter here than elsewhere in the country, Mulrooney said.

"Eighty-three percent of our donor opportunities occur," Mulrooney said of Halifax's success rate in getting usable organs.

Still, the wait can be agonizing. This month marks two years since Wayne Madigan, 56, of Holly Hill got on the kidney transplant list at Halifax. He said he's itching to do more than just get through dialysis treatments, which leave him too drained to do much else.

"This is driving me crazy," he said, of sitting around. He said he'd love to put his 30 years working on machine equipment to use again.

High blood pressure landed him in kidney failure after a heart attack in 2006. Now, dialysis is keeping him alive, but the waste that it fails to remove during the filtration process builds up. As a result, his skin is thin and full of blisters and bruises.

He said he sleeps with a cell phone at his side. If the caller ID lights up with the word "Halifax" on it, his pulse starts racing, he said. So far, though, he's only had a call to be the back-up recipient -- an opportunity that he decided to pass on because of the donor's previous history of cancer.

Sometimes, he said, he looks around at the dialysis room and feels a twinge.

"It's really hard watching people die," he said. "First they come in using walkers, then wheelchairs and they don't come again."

Over in Edgewater, Crouser said she's tired of being a frequent visitor in the emergency room at Bert Fish Medical Center in New Smyrna Beach. She's had numerous problems with blood infections that have required hospitalization and intravenous antibiotics.

"I want to be able to get a job, go to work, take a walk," she said.

Her mom, looking on, just shook her head, "It's the little things that we take for granted that she can't do -- it's unbelievable."

Anyone with O-type blood who might be interested in giving a kidney to Kayla Crouser can call her mother, Donna Nichols, at 386-409-0910 or email dcrouser@hotmail.com.

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

Canada Ontario,
Canada - British Columbia, other Canadian provinces

United States, organdonor.gov

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

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

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

Hong Kong wife makes urgent plea for liver donor for husband

By Natalie Wong thestandard.com
A wife has made a tearful plea for those with blood types B or O - and under the age of 50 - to come forward on a life-saving liver transplant mission.

Emily Tsui Yee-wan said a doctor at Queen Mary Hospital fears her husband, Ricky Cheng Kan-kong, may slip into a coma and die by tomorrow because his liver toxicity has risen to a life-threatening level.

Tsui said the few close relatives her husband of 14 years has in Hong Kong are unsuitable donors because they either have the wrong blood type or suffer from hereditary hepatitis, which also afflicts Cheng.

"Everything has happened all of a sudden. His health deteriorated rapidly over the past few weeks and we have not been able to find a suitable donor," Tsui said.

Cheng, 42, is an optometrist and runs a business in Sha Tin.

Tsui said Cheng was taken to hospital two weeks ago suffering from severe heartburn.

His condition worsened and he was transferred to Queen Mary Hospital three days ago.

He is now suffering bouts of disorientation and fatigue and his skin has turned yellow, according to niece Crystal Ku Wing-yin who said relatives are taking turns to look after him. "The situation is very grave. Doctors say the chances of him receiving a liver within these few hours are next to none even though his name is top of the list."

Ku said the normal waiting time for a patient in such a condition is more than three months.

During a typical transplant, about 55 percent to 70 percent of a liver is removed from a healthy donor and what remains of the organ regenerates and approaches 100 percent of its function within four to six weeks.

Ku pleaded: "I urge you to spare a tiny portion of your precious time to help save a life. If you happen to know any suitable donors of blood types B or O, please contact Emily Tsui at 9045-2016 or me at 6390-2512 immediately.

"Your decision may help save a life and we would hereby like to express our gratitude.

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

Canada Ontario,
Canada - British Columbia, other Canadian provinces

United States, organdonor.gov (Select your state - top right)

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

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

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

Organ transplant waiting times soar in the UK

Despite a growing number of people signing up to donate their organs when they die, the donor register is failing to keep pace with the rising demand Photo: REX FEATURES

By Nick Collins, Science Correspondent The Telegraph
Waiting times for organ transplant operations have risen by as much as six months because of the burden created by our unhealthy lifestyles, according to NHS figures.

Patients requiring an organ transplant now wait an average of three years for a suitable donor to become available, according to NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT).

Despite a growing number of people signing up to donate their organs when they die, the donor register is failing to keep pace with the rising demand due to conditions like diabetes, liver and heart diseases.

The average waiting time for an adult donor kidney – which make up 85 per cent of all transplant operations – rose from 995 days in the five-year period between 2002-06, to 1191 days in 2005-09, the last period for which figures are available.

For children the waiting time rose from 241 days to 354 days during the same period.

Median waiting times for other organs were measured in four-year periods between 2003-09.

The average waiting time for an adult non-urgent heart rose from 109 days to 184 days; for a lung from 416 days to 511 days; and for an adult liver from 113 to 138 days.

Sally Johnson, director for organ donation and transplantation at NHSBT, said the rising number of people on the organ donor register could not meet the growing need for organs.

Some 29 per cent of the population are on the register, but only one in every 200 will be a suitable donor.

There are more than 7,500 people in Britain waiting for an organ transplant, with three dying every day.

This demand is in part due to conditions like heart disease and diabetes, which can be influenced by diet, and liver disease which is linked to obesity and alcohol intake, Ms Johnson said.

She added: "The end point for these diseases is there is nothing that can be done apart from a transplant, and that is why numbers continue to go up.

"There are a whole range of factors in society in terms of the way we live that contribute to that need and our ability to meet that need."

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

Canada Ontario,
Canada - British Columbia, other Canadian provinces

United States, organdonor.gov (Select your state - top right)

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

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

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

UK 3-year-old dies while waiting for a heart transplant

Mum's heartbreak following death of 'cheeky' Paige

by Liz Perkins Health Reporter this is South Wales

THE mum of a "cheeky" three-year-old Swansea girl has spoken of her shock after she died suddenly from a rare heart condition.

Paige Thomas died at Birmingham's Children's Hospital on May 10, while she was on a waiting list for a heart transplant.

Her mum Lynzi Thomas, 23, of Ravenhill, was told by doctors at 21 weeks into her pregnancy that her unborn daughter had the rare condition — hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

It is a rare condition which affects around one in 5,000 babies and accounts for one per cent of all congenital heart disorders.

Shortly before Paige's death, medical experts told Miss Thomas her daughter's heart valve pump was no longer working.

She said: "It was a shock when she died. She meant the world to me and she still does now.

"Paige was brilliant, she was a cheeky little thing.

"You wouldn't think there was anything wrong with her.

"She looked like any other child."

Miss Thomas said she was given the option to abort her pregnancy by doctors when they discovered she had a heart complaint.

But she was adamant she was going to have Paige, despite the warnings she would need further medical help during her life.

"I was just devastated when I found out she had a bad heart," she said.

"Paige was my first child.

"They said if I carried on with the pregnancy, the baby would have to have numerous heart operations.

"I was told when she was older she would have to have a heart transplant.

"The doctors asked me if I wanted to have an abortion but I didn't want that to happen."

From the moment she was born in the women's unit in Birmingham, her mum was only allowed to hold her for a couple of minutes before she was whisked away to be taken into intensive care.

Doctors had to ensure they kept the valve in her heart open and at just three days old she had to undergo an operation. Paige had to have another heart operation when she was just two-and-a-half months old and spent most of her young life having to see medics at Singleton Hospital.

"It's a rare condition which is found mainly in boys," Miss Thomas added.

"She was on medication when she was born."

It was three months ago when the three-year-old took a turn for the worst.

"Paige was sent up to Birmingham and I was told her heart valve pump had gone," she added.

"The doctors offered her a heart transplant or said they could leave it as it was."

Miss Thomas said she wanted her daughter to undergo a heart transplant.

But she added: "Paige didn't get the transplant.

"We were up there for two months and in the ninth week she passed away."

She said she had hoped to celebrate her 24th birthday and Paige's fourth birthday this year.

But she was full of praise for her family's support following her daughter's sudden death.

The youngster's funeral was held at St Illtyd's Church, in Fforestfach, on Friday, May 20, before she was buried at Morriston Cemetery.

Miss Thomas added: "My family has been really good."

elizabeth.perkins@swwmedia.co.uk

“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 at beadonor.ca
For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at organdonor.gov (Go to top right to select your state)

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

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

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

Donating the gift of life

Donating the gift of life. Cambridge resident Pam Ditner, who is on a waiting list for a new heart, says while conversations about becoming an organ donor can be difficult, the decision can save lives.LISA RUTLEDGE, TIMES STAFF

“If you’re ever faced with having to donate, it’s going to be the worst day in your life.” - Pam Ditner

By Lisa Rutledge Cambridgetimes.ca, Cambridge, Ontario

There really is no easy or polite way to wade into a conversation about becoming an organ donor.

But somehow, braving that brief awkwardness pales sharply when compared to the realization that consenting to be an organ and tissue donor could save up to eight lives and enhance 75 more.

Cambridge resident Pam Ditner will be one of several local volunteers hoping to make discussions about organ and tissue donation a little easier to entertain.

As a volunteer with the local chapter of the Life Donation Awareness Association of Waterloo Region, Ditner will be at the Cambridge Center community kiosk Friday as a way to educate the public about the subject and kick off National Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Week (NOTDAW) in Canada, April 16 to 22.

“It’s never a great topic,” admits Ditner.

“If you’re ever faced with having to donate, it’s going to be the worst day in your life.”

Still, perspective is everything, she maintains. It’s more about thinking about giving the gift of life.

And as strange as it may sound, making those decisions ahead of time can be comforting, especially for those left behind when a loved one dies. Knowing wishes in advance can deliver a little peace in the midst of tragedy.

Volunteers with the donation association will be at the mall, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., and will answer questions, as well as dispel medical and religious myths relating to donations.

They’ll also have consent forms available for the new health card linked forms from the Trillium Gift of Life Network, a provincial government organization that matches those on waiting lists for donations and those who have consented to be donors.

While the 45-year-old Cambridge resident is devoted to raising awareness about organ and tissue donation, her role is much more personal. As she sits on her family room couch explaining the benefits of “giving”, Ditner holds a purse-backpack containing two batteries that keep her alive.

Ditner, who was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in 1995, is waiting for a new heart and is currently kept alive thanks to a surgically implanted heart pump called a left ventricular assist device or LVAD.

She’s had two close calls, one in early November and another last month. The first couldn’t proceed due to issues with antibodies, which would have caused rejection.

High hopes were dashed, however, Ditner never lost sight of the big picture.

“It was a good heart and somebody else got it, so it’s OK,” she said with a smile.

The second time fell through because of the donor heart showed signs of heart disease. Those occasions never transpired in a new heart for Ditner, but they do provide encouraging signs that chances are getting better every day for those on waiting lists.

Thanks to changes made by Trillium Gift of Life Network and increased awareness, the 1,700 people on waiting lists on any given day has dropped to 1,500. But sadly, on average, one in three dies waiting.

It’s a ratio that volunteers like Ditner hope to see change. That’s why they’re reaching out to communities to raise awareness. That includes correcting assumptions that signing a driver’s licence is enough. But it’s simply not, explained Ditner.

“The reality is that when you’re at the hospital, somebody has taken your wallet home.”

New donation consent forms ensure hospitals have access to databases that will increase chances of ensuring that donors’ gifts help save lives.

Friday’s community event at Cambridge Center won’t focus on generating more consent forms, though. It will be about starting discussions.

“Even if you don’t sign a form at the mall, we’d like you go home and have a conversation.”

For more information about local Life Donation Awareness Association, visit www.lifedonationawareness.com.

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

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

Transplant candidate can only wait it out

Waterville, Nova Scotia woman has been in Toronto for nearly a year hoping for new set of lungs

By GORDON DELANEY, Valley Bureau The ChronicleHerald.ca

It has been 10 months since Crystal Taylor-Beals moved to Toronto for a double lung transplant.

But the 47-year-old Waterville, Kings County, woman hasn’t lost hope as she waits daily for the donor lungs and surgery that will save her life.

"I’m taking it one day at a time," Taylor-Beals said Wednesday in a telephone interview from her temporary apartment near Toronto General Hospital.

She was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in 2006, the same disease that killed her father.

Taylor-Beals moved to Toronto almost a year ago to await surgery. Doctors told her she had to be nearby when donor lungs became available.

But it has been a long wait and her health has deteriorated. She spent two recent bouts in hospital when she needed help breathing.

Taylor-Beals is back at her apartment now but makes daily trips to the hospital for physiotherapy.

She had one close call for a lung transplant recently when a matching set of lungs became available. But they went to another patient on the waiting list.

"I try not to let this overcome my life," she said. "I just try to live as normal a life as possible, not thinking about the reason I’m here."

Her husband, Tim Beals, is with her and provides full-time care because she is not able to do things on her own.

"I get out of breath just walking from my chair to the bathroom," Taylor-Beals said. "I can’t walk anywhere."

She said she carries a pager and cellphone with her at all times, in the event a set of lungs becomes available and she is called in for the 14-hour surgery.

Taylor-Beals is also on medication, including heavy doses of antibiotics to deal with infections.

Her highlight of the week is going to the weekly taping of George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight on CBC-TV. The two have gotten to know each other and become friends.

"I go every week, and George has been fantastic."

Taylor-Beals, who has two grown children, said it is her family and three-year-old grandson, Braedon, back home in Nova Scotia who keep her hopes alive.

"I have to make it back home. . . . He means everything to me. . . . He’s my world and the reason I’m fighting this."

Taylor-Beals collects a $1,000 monthly pension, and health insurance pays for her apartment in Toronto. But she has struggled to make ends meet with other costs, including food and upkeep on her house in Waterville.

Last year, a fundraising campaign helped, but the money is running out as her stay in Toronto gets extended. A Waterville church held a benefit breakfast recently to help her with the costs.

"It means the world to me when people ask how my mom is doing and still having fundraisers for her," daughter Natasha Beals said Wednesday.

She said she is taking care of her mother’s home. But there will be additional costs in renovating the house so that it can accommodate her mother’s wheelchair when she returns.

"I just want people to understand that my mom means the world to me and I am thankful for all the wishes and I am doing everything I can to bring her home," she said.

Donations can be made to Crystal Taylor-Beals at the Cambridge branch of the Valley Credit Union Ltd. Its phone number is 902-538-3905.

A Facebook group called Help Support Crystal Taylor-Beals Get a Double Lung Transplant has also been set up. It has more than 300 members.

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

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

British girl, 12, loses liver disease battle

Sophie Thatcher

By Tracey Fowler, Reporter TheWestonMercury.co.uk

A FORMER Portishead schoolgirl has lost her battle with liver disease after a suitable organ donor could not be found in time to save her.

Sophie Thatcher knew a liver transplant was her only chance of survival when she became unwell in December. She was admitted to Kings College Hospital in London on Christmas Eve, but a suitable organ could not be found and the 12-year-old died on January 15.

Sophie’s family is now appealing for more people to carry organ donor cards so others can avoid the heartache they are suffering.

Sophie, who attended St Peter’s Primary School, was born with the rare liver disease, biliary atresia, where bile builds up in the liver and poisons it.

She received her first liver transplant at the age of 14 months when she was given a part of her dad’s liver and this allowed her to lead a near-normal life for 10 years.

In 2009, test results suggested problems were beginning to occur with Sophie’s liver again and she was put on the waiting list for a new transplant.

Mum Sharon said: “Sophie knew how ill she was toward the end but kept a smile on her face throughout.

“She was adamant if she did not make it, we should continue to campaign for families to talk about organ donation and actively encourage more people to carry donor cards.”

In June, Sophie organised a Big Yellow Monday at St Peter’s Primary School, when everyone wore yellow and made a donation to the Children’s Liver Disease Foundation, the organisation that has worked closely with the Thatcher family throughout Sophie’s life.

Sharon added: “We knew Sophie may get poorly again and so we always made the best of every day and made sure we found something to make her smile.

“She was a happy, positive child who always thought of others despite her own ill health.”

St Peter’s Primary School headteacher Sharon Roberts said: “Sophie was a very kind and thoughtful person. We are proud of the way she organised the Yellow Monday and explained to others students about liver disease in children.”

The Thatcher family moved to Weston in July and in September Sophie enrolled at Wyvern Community School making new friends but staying in touch with her Portishead pals.

St Peter’s Primary School will hold a special assembly on February 2 at 3.30pm. Year seven pupils and their families who knew Sophie are invited to attend.

Sophie’s funeral will be held at Christ Church in Montpelier, Weston, on February 3. Her family hopes it will be a celebration of Sophie’s life and achievements.

After the funeral, at around 4pm, friends and family will be releasing balloons from Weston’s Grand Pier in Sophie’s memory.

To find out more about the organ donor scheme visit www.uktransplant.org.uk or call the 24 hour hotline on 0845 6060 400

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

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

Restaurateur, football great dies in hospital

ctvottawa.ca

Val Belcher, 57, passed away while waiting for a heart transplant, Sunday, Sept. 12, 2010.

Family and friends are mourning the death of longtime Ottawa business leader and football great Val Belcher who passed away while waiting for a heart transplant in hospital.

Belcher, 57, died Sunday morning at the Ottawa Heart Institute.

He was named a CFL all-star three times in the 1980s. He played for the Ottawa Rough Riders and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Belcher also founded the Lone Star Texas Grill and Big Daddy's. Two years ago, he opened the Big Easy restaurant on Preston Street.

Belcher retired from the restaurant business in August. He leaves behind his partner and three children.

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

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

Stars turn out for cystic fibrosis sufferer, Jess

Jess Wales

Kentnews.co.uk

Popstar Natalie Imbruglia has starred in a concert to raise funds for a seriously ill girl desperate for a double lung transplant.

Jess Wales, 20, from Westgate in Thanet, suffers from cystic fibrosis.

But that hasn’t stopped her winning hearts with her determination to survive the debilitating condition.

The singer performed an acoustic set at the Save Jess-tival show held in Shoreditch, east London, on Friday.

It is to raise awareness of organ donation because even today, the number of people needing transplants far outstrips the availability of organs.

Jess is fighting for her life, with 11 per cent of her lung capacity left. She has waited more than four years for the operation, despite being told she would be dead in 24 months.

She met the Aussie singer last year, and the celebrity was deeply moved by Jess’s plight.

The 34-year-old said: “I told her to let me know if there was every anything I could do to help.

"I was sad to learn that Jess is now so ill and running out of time waiting for her transplant and so was delighted to be asked to take part in this gig in honour of her and to raise awareness of organ donation."

Other celebrities who have offered Jess their support include the Prime Minister’s wife Sarah Brown, comedians Dara O Briain (SEE DAVE), Bill Bailey, David Baddiel and Phil Jupitus, TV presenter Jonathan Ross and Limp Bizkit singer Fred Durst.

Jess has been running an internet campaign to encourage more and more people to sign up to donate their organs in the event of an accident so some good can come from tragedy.

Also taking to the Village Underground stage were The Yeah Yous, plus Canadian comedian Glenn Wool and Mock the Week panellist Ed Byrne.

Recently Jess attempted to complete 20 per cent of the gruelling five kilometre Adidas Challenge run in London’s Hyde Park by walking, but her condition is so bad she was not able to finish.

She relies on an oxygen supply 24 hours a day and a non-invasive ventilator to keep her lungs going when they regularly start to tire.

Jess said: “A lung transplant for me will be literally life changing. It will mean the whole world to me.”

A recent survey found 80 per cent of people agree with donating their organs, but a mere 25 per cent have actually done anything about it and signed up.

For more information see http://www.savejess.org.uk.

My son waits, while hearts are buried

This article posted on a newspaper opinion page exemplifies the worry, frustration and anxiety that people experience while waiting for news of their loved one's call to receive a life-saving organ transplant.

From The Atlanta Journal Constitution

By Deborah Hicks
When I became an organ donor many years ago, I didn’t have a particular person in mind.

I wanted to do it because I knew my organs could save a life or help someone. I knew that my organs would be of no use to me after I died. There was no reason for me not to be an organ donor.

I didn’t study the statistics about how many people are waiting for organ transplants or how many parts of the body can be harvested.

Those numbers did not matter to me at the time. Now, they do.

My son, Shannon Leach, is one of the 37 people in Georgia and 2,898 in the United States who is awaiting a heart transplant. Doctors at Emory University Hospital put him on the transplant list in February of this year after four hospital visits for heart failure.

I check the list every day to see how many people are waiting for a heart, knowing that one of those numbers represents my son.

Maybe if you knew more about my son, you would make the choice to be an organ donor, too. At every fund-raiser, we provide information from LifeLink for people to become donors.

We are using every opportunity to let people know of the great need for donors and how easy it is to become one. People are dying every day just because there are perfectly good organs being buried in the ground!

Shannon, who is only 28 years old, was born with congenital heart disease. On the day he was born, we were told he would not live and then that he would only live with immediate surgery.

To make a long story shorter, he did not have to have surgery until he was 6. He had a procedure called a Fontan, which was relatively new at the time. At 16, he had to have a second surgery.

In spite of his heart defect, he was able to play baseball, basketball and golf, the sports he loves. He was able to go to college and finish with a degree in sports management. He worked in sports jobs in Florida and here in Atlanta.

But, now his life is on hold. He cannot work at all because he has a tube constantly dripping medicine into his heart so it will keep beating. He has to wear a defibrillator vest all the time in case his heartbeat becomes irregular. He has to watch his sodium and liquid intake. He cannot go more than four hours from Emory in case a heart becomes available.

A nurse comes once a week to change the bandage around his drip line and check his blood. He has to send a report from his vest via telephone once a week. He goes to the doctor at least once a month for a check.

In addition to the physical aspects of his condition, he must also deal with financial issues. Trying to acquire disability status with Social Security is an ongoing obstacle. He must also raise money to help with the anti-rejection medicine he will have to take for the rest of his life.

In spite of all he has to handle, my son has an excellent attitude. He may have a broken physical heart, but his soul heart is very strong.

His sense of humor keeps all of us upbeat. He is full of hope and faith that he will get a new heart and have a new life that is full of the things we take for granted.

He wants to be a husband, a father and a grandfather. He wants to start his own foundation to help those needing transplants. He wants to return to a job in sports, the field he loves so much. He wants everyone to become an organ donor.

He designed a bracelet that reads ALL HEART, which we are selling to help raise money. So far, we have sold over 1,000 of them.

We have had several very successful fund-raising events that have proven the kindness of strangers.

Even in this economy, people are opening their wallets to someone they don’t even know. It is hard for us to ask others for money, but we have no choice.

We are thankful to the Georgia Transplant Foundation for their assistance with this need. This foundation is helping so many people like my son.

I know I am prejudiced here because I am his mother, but go to his page on Facebook, “A Heart for Shannon Leach,” and you will see I am not the only one who thinks my son is a great guy who deserves a chance to live.

I cannot control when or if my son gets a new heart. I cannot stop him from dying if he doesn’t get one in time.

What I can do is love him, support him, help him raise money and help lead people to become donors to help the 112,300 people in the U.S. who are waiting for any kind of transplant.

It doesn’t take much of your time. It won’t hurt you. There is no red tape or long forms to complete. The life you save could be my son’s. Leave a legacy that will live on in someone else.

Deborah Hicks, a retired English teacher, lives in Oxford, Georgia.

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

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

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

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

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

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

'Frustrating' waiting for transplant

British Columbia father of two-year-old needs new heart to play with his little girl

By John Colebourn The Province

Chris Kirby has big plans for his little girl when he gets a new heart.

Like any young dad, Kirby, 34, wants to one day play in the park with his two-year-old daughter Morgan. He would also like to go jogging with his wife, Tanya, the way they did just a few years ago. But first he has to wait. And he has no idea how long it will take to get his life-saving heart transplant.

"It is very frustrating," Kirby said Wednesday from the Port Moody home he is confined to while his wife goes to work and his daughter to a babysitter because he is too ill to care for her.

"I'm not one to sit back and watch things," said Kirby, who was healthy enough to run a half-marathon just two years ago.

"It's all very restricting," he explained of the sedentary lifestyle he now leads with a heart that works at about 20-per-cent capacity.

"I can't lift my daughter up and I can't run after her. I don't have the energy to look after her. She's fast," he said of life with Morgan while waiting for a heart donor.

"It's a matter of life and death for me waiting like this," said Kirby who can't walk more than a block without getting light-headed.

"Heart disease can happen to anyone," he added. "Please, we just need more people out there to be donors. It could be your daughter or son or a newborn with this disease."

Kirby waits knowing that fewer organs in B.C. are available for people in desperate need. Better surgical procedures, people being more careful on the roads and using seat-belts and taking better precautions such as wearing a helmet when riding a bike are some of the reasons those in need of an organ often have long waits.

Despite 85 per cent of B.C.ers saying they support organ donations, only 17 per cent are registered, B.C. Transplant spokesman Ken Donohue said. Donohue pointed out that one organ donor could potentially save numerous lives by providing two kidneys, a heart, two lungs, a liver and a pancreas. Less than one per cent of all deaths result in potential organ donations. "I think part of it is we lead busy lives and don't think about organ donations because it doesn't impact us," he said. "It just isn't on their radar."

The median wait time for a heart transplant in 2006 was two months, in 2007 three months and in 2008 it was one month. But Donohue said the wait time in 2009 will be much longer.

Kirby has been told it could be a year or more before there is a match.

People can register their decision about organ donations on the Organ Donor Registry at B.C. Transplant.

Despite his limited mobility, Kirby plans to join Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and others in a kick-off event by the City of Vancouver and B.C. Transplant to encourage the public to become organ donors.


TRANSPLANT WAITING LIST

B.C. patients waiting for organs

Kidney 225

Liver 29

Single lung 15

Heart 13

Pancreas -- kidney 9

Pancreas islet 9

Pancreas 7

Double lung 6

Total 313

source: B.C. Transplant Society

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

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

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

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

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

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

Steve Jobs liver transplant - how did he get it so quickly?

There's been a lot of speculation in the media recently about Apple CEO Steve Jobs secretly receiving a liver transplant in Tennessee. Did he by-pass others on the waiting list? Did he receive special treatment because of his celebrity status? One of the best discussions of this was posted by reporters for the New York Times. To read their story about how patients can get a high position on the transplant waiting list without cheating the system click here.

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

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network

NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org
Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today!

For other Canadian provinces click here

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

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

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