In recent years, progress has been made in creating awareness of the need for organ and tissue donation.
Although most Americans indicate they support donation, only about 50 percent of families asked to donate a loved one’s organs agree to do so. Thousands of opportunities are missed each year because families do not know what their loved one wanted.
And while medical advances now enable Americans to receive lifesaving transplants, not enough families donate to help those in need. About 6,000 people die in the U.S. each year—about 17 every day—while waiting for a donated kidney, liver, heart, or other organ.
More than 79,000 Americans currently are waiting for organ transplants, and more than 30,000 people each year are diagnosed with diseases that a bone marrow transplant could cure.
—
The first U.S. organ transplant was performed in 1954 when surgeons removed a kidney from one identical twin and placed it in the other twin. With the use of tissue matching and improved surgical and organ preservation techniques, the number of kidney transplants reached 3,400 by 1980.
By 1983, the immune-suppressant drug cyclosporine reduced the threat of organ rejection and made the successful transplantation of organs, especially hearts and livers, even more common.
In a single four-year period from 1994 through 1998, more than 3,000 children between the ages of 11 and 17 received a new heart, lung, intestine, kidney, liver, or pancreas.
As of Dec. 1, 2005, there were 91,468 people listed in wait of organs. By the year 2010, experts predict that one in 20 Americans will need some form of an organ, corneal or tissue transplant.
—
Healthy people who donate organs to those desperate for transplants enter a world of unknowns, however.
Even the medical community does not know how big a risk they face.
Some get hurt. Some die. Some need transplants later in life.
No one knows how many donors have died or suffered serious injuries or complications, because donors are not systematically tracked by transplant researchers or hospital officials.
In other words, the lack of comprehensive data makes it impossible for donors to assess the risks of what is portrayed as an ultimate altruistic deed.
The government does not regulate organ donations from living donors. Each hospital that performs transplants makes its own rules, which vary widely.
There is no agreement on who can donate an organ or how to evaluate potential donors.
Those approved to donate include children as young as 10, drug addicts, mentally ill people and even people who might be selling their organs, which federal law prohibits.
—
Other statistics, however, are available: The number of transplants performed in 2004 set a national record—26,984 people got organs, according to date released by the government last year. The organs came from 7,150 deceased and 6,989 living donors. Deceased donors typically provide more than one organ.
But that still is nowhere near the number of organs needed for transplants.
About 110 people every day join a waiting list of some kind—or about one every 15 minutes.
As a result, people who need organs increasingly are looking for live donors because there are not nearly enough deceased donors to match the skyrocketing demand.
Meanwhile, more than 71,000 people across the country have undergone major surgery to give away an organ, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.
Many came through the experience without serious problems. They have saved the lives of their mothers, sons, friends and even strangers.
Demand for liver transplants also is rising. About 4 million Americans are infected with hepatitis C, and 20 percent or more of those infected eventually could need a new liver. Hepatitis C is the leading cause of liver disease leading to a liver transplant.
Most organs donated are kidneys, according to one year-long newspaper study. In addition to a single kidney, a combination kidney and pancreas, or part of a liver, lung or intestine can be donated while alive.
Every person who gets a transplant, however, is tracked long-term so people needing an organ transplant can find lots of data on death rates and complications.
—
And though little data has been collected about the long-term impact on live donors, some transplant professionals have been pushing the boundaries of who can give an organ.
In the past, donors were expected to be physically fit, in good overall health and free from high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, kidney disease and heart disease.
To boost donation, however, some centers are accepting donors who are older, obese or who have a health condition such as high blood pressure that could have ruled them out a few years ago.
Transplant officials, meanwhile, are still feeling their way around a relatively new and rapidly evolving area of medicine. In the meantime, anyone wishing to become a donor may do so by registering with the Center for Organ Recovery and Education (CORE) and signing a donor card.
It’s an opportunity you might not want to miss out on.
—
Top o’ the morning!