Date: Fri 17-Jul-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

organ-donation-Rauner

Full Text:

Organ Donation: A Decision And A Gift To Share

(with cuts)

BY KAAREN VALENTA

If you pick up a prescription at The Drug Center, or make any purchase there

this month, you will find something extra in your bag: a message about the

importance of becoming an organ donor.

The organ donor program is being promoted by the store owners, pharmacist Don

Bates and his wife, Diane, to help people like Newtown resident Richard

Rauner, 57, who has been hospitalized for 10 weeks waiting for a heart

transplant.

"This is something we thought we could do," Mr Bates explained. "If it makes

one person act, that's one life saved."

Each year, thousands of people die while waiting for the organ or tissue

transplants needed to save their lives. Every 18 minutes, another name is

added to the list of Americans waiting for life-saving transplants. Many of

these lives could be saved if more people became organ and tissue donors.

That is the message from sports star Michael Jordan who is leading a national

campaign to get people to sign up as organ donors -- and to share that

information with their families. "Become an organ and tissue donor. Tell your

family: Share Your Life, Share Your Decision," Michael Jordan says. It is the

message that Don and Diane Bates are sharing with others through the package

insert, brochures, and bumper stickers ("Don't take your organs to

heaven...heaven knows we need them here") that are available at the store.

In the United States, more than 52,000 men, women and children await organ

transplants. Every day, about 10 people die because of a shortage of organ

donors. The major barrier to saving lives through organ donation is the

refusal by many families to give consent at the time of a family member's

death -- even when there is signed donor card.

"It's not enough just to sign a donor card," Mr Rauner said. "Your organs and

tissue will not be donated unless your family gives consent at the time of

your death. You have to inform your family about your decision and why you

want to do it."

Saving A Life

A life was saved at Temple University Hospital's adult heart transplant unit

this month when the youngest patient there, Jason, 32, received the heart of a

16-year-old donor on July 5.

Jason, who has suffered from heart disease nearly all of his life, was one of

the patients that Rich Rauner wrote about in "Life on the Seventh Floor," a

series of vignettes about his fellow patients that appeared in The Bee on July

3.

"Jason is progressing marvelously," Mr Rauner said. "He's out of intensive

care after two days and back up here (on the seventh floor). Four days after

surgery he was on an exercise machine. He's already done 45 minutes on a

treadmill.

"Before the surgery, he was the little guy -- the youngest on the floor. Now

he's the big guy, telling us all what we have to do to get well after the

surgery. He's going home this week," Mr Rauner said.

Another patient, June, 65, had transplant surgery on June 30 after waiting

only five weeks for a heart that was a good match.

"She had been in many hospitals and had been sent home each time to die," Mr

Rauner said. "But her husband refused to give up and she wound up here at

Temple. "Once she has exercised enough that she can make it around the seventh

floor -- about one-sixth of a mile -- she will be able to go home, too."

Waiting is the hardest thing for the patients on the seventh floor. Although

there have been several deaths among the almost two dozen patients in the

heart transplant unit at Temple University Hospital since Mr Rauner was

admitted on May 4, the statistics show most transplants are successful. About

80 percent of all organ transplants result in patients who recover and live

full and active lives.

The Facts About Organ Donors

Donors can range in age from newborn to 75.

There is no risk involved in agreeing to become a donor. Organs and tissues

are donated only after every effort has been made to save your life. To be

declared legally dead, all of your brain activity must have ceased, but your

other organs are continuing to function through artificial life support.

One donor can help as many as 40 transplant patients. The organs that can be

donated include the heart, kidneys, pancreas, lungs, liver and intestines. Eye

corneas, skin, bone, heart valves, and tendons also can be donated.

Donation doesn't disfigure a body nor does it change the way it looks; Persons

who decide to become organ donors still can have an open-casket funeral, if

that is what the family wants.

The organ donor program costs nothing to the donor's family or estate.

A national system is in place to distribute organs fairly. Buying and selling

organs is illegal. The United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS) has a national

computer network. For heart transplants, a match is based on blood type and

body size, although Temple has pioneered in the use of "undersized" hearts,

having found that the heart is an organ which can increase in size after being

transplanted.

Patients who are considered "Status I" have the priority when an organ becomes

available. Status I are those patients who have only a few hours or days to

live, or patients who are unable to leave the hospital because of intravenous

medications. Mr Rauner is a Status 1. He wears a fanny pack that contains a

pump which feeds the drug Dobulamine through a tube and a Hickman shunt

directly into his heart. The process must be closely monitored, and Mr Rauner

must remain in the hospital until the transplant is done.

In the United States, more than 200,000 organ transplants have been performed

since the 1950s. More than 45,000 have sight restored with cornea transplants

each year. Hundreds of thousands benefit from bone grafts to repair diseased

or injured bones and joints.

To become an organ donor, get a Uniform Donor Card at The Drug Center, from

the Connecticut Motor Vehicle Department or by calling the Coalition on

Donation in Philadelphia, 1-800-543-6391. Sign the donor card in your family's

presence. Have your family sign as witnesses and pledge to carry out your

wishes. Keep the card with you at all times by keeping it with your other

identification in your wallet or purse.

Cards and letters may be sent to Mr Rauner at Temple University Hospital,

Parkenson Building, Room 701, Broad and Ontario Streets, Philadelphia, PA

19140. Donations to the Richard Rauner Fund may be sent c/o Mary Herbert at

Fleet Bank, 6 Queen Street, Newtown 06470.