Date: Fri 20-Nov-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: CURT

Quick Words:

organ-donation-regulations

Full Text:

New Regulations To Speed Organ Donations

BRIDGEPORT (AP) -- Loretta Williams and hundreds of other ailing kidney

transplant candidates are hoping new federal regulations will help them say

goodbye to their dialysis machines.

Williams, of Bridgeport, has been waiting for a kidney and pancreas transplant

for about a year. But with the new regulations aimed at identifying potential

organ donors her wait may get shorter.

"How long we have to wait, I don't know," said the mother of two. "When I get

that call, I'm going to be ready."

The change is scheduled to begin within a year. It requires hospitals

nationwide to report all deaths to their regional organ procurement

organizations, or OPOs.

They would also have to provide access to the charts of deceased patients to

ensure all potential donors have been identified. The rule also applies to

imminent death cases, in which patients are brain-dead, but still on life

support.

In the past, hospitals reported deaths on a voluntary basis after their own

staff determined whether a patient qualified as a donor. A hospital staff

member would then approach the family about organ harvesting, a move that did

not have a high success rate.

Under the new regulations, OPOs decide who qualifies as a donor.

When a donor is identified, an organ bank representative would be sent to

discuss donations with a family -- even if the deceased had not previously

signed a donor card.

Doctors, hospital officials and patients across Connecticut say they support

the new rules.

"If we could succeed in helping more people and families accept the notion

that organ donation is the right thing to do, then that will go a long way in

closing the huge discrepancy between supply and demand," said Marc Lobber,

director of the Yale-New Haven Hospital Transplant Center.

There are about 60,000 people on waiting lists for organs across the country.

Robert Spieldenner, a spokesman for the United Network for Organ Sharing, a

national organ clearing house in Virginia, said about 12,000 to 15,000 people

who die each year are potential donors.

But one-third of the families of those eligible donors are never asked. And in

many cases, a single donor could furnish several organs.

"There were a significant number of families that were never approached, said

Richard Luskin, executive director of the New England Organ Bank in Newton,

Mass., which serves most of New England.

Some hospitals would never make a referral to the OPO and they would never

approach the family, Luskin said. Sometimes, hospital staff would rule out a

patient incorrectly, based on age or physical condition, he said.

Mary Swanson, administrative director of the Hartford-based NorthEast OPO,

which covers northern Connecticut and parts of Massachusetts, said the new

rules may also increase public awareness about organ donation.

"People say they support organ donation, but the donation numbers don't

reflect this support," she said. "When people are not given the option, they

are not being allowed to choose to be an organ donor."

Luskin said his staff generally has an 80 percent rate of success after

talking with families, whereas others generally receive approval from only

about 15 percent of families approached. Consent rates generally average 50 to

55 percent of families asked.

"If we could go from 50 percent to 70 percent, that would be staggering,"

Luskin said.