May 28, 2004 Student Life
This feature, "Student Life," returns with a new
name, replacing "Student News." The intent, however,
is the same. "Student Life" brings readers the best
of student-produced journalism at Utah State University. Featured
items are written by students for The Utah Statesman,
the official student newspaper of Utah Sate University, or The
Hard News Café, the online publication from the
Department of Journalism and Communication. Both publications
are award winning and present the talents of Utah State's journalists-in-training.
This week's piece is by writer Hilary Judd from The Hard
News Cafe
When the body's factory
shuts down, organ donors are angels of mercy
• But finding one may take a prayer –
and a miracle
From the The
Hard News Cafe 5-25-04
Three hundred and sixty-three days after her kidney transplant,
Logan-native Lisa Hutson said a transplant is a treatment, not
a cure.
She'll deal with that every day of her life. But Hutson's thrilled
to be alive. Period.
Nevermind that she has a smorgasbord of body parts.
"I have three kidneys and two pancreases," the Murray
resident said with a smile. "I have mine, his and hers
organs."
April is National Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Month.
But the real bonus for Hutson is celebrating the one-year anniversary,
on April 17, of her kidney transplant. That, and moving beyond
12 months filled with eight surgeries, and pushing her recovery
powers to their limits.
Hutson, a diabetic, had been on the kidney and pancreas waiting
list for nine months in early 2003. The mother of two teens
was dying of kidney failure. Typically, the two are transplanted
together, but it was more important to save her life than get
them both, Hutson said.
She could, literally, live without a pancreas.
"I couldn't wait any longer," Hutson said. "Dialysis
was failing. I needed to find a living donor."
Her family decided to test to see if they matched. Shane Smart,
Hutson's brother, had volunteered his "duplicity of body
parts" to his sister before, their mother Susan Smart said.
Hutson waited to take him up on the offer, but once he matched,
the deal was done. Shane was sharing his kidney.
"It was a race against time," Susan said. "I
think Lisa would not have lasted one more week. She was down
to her last five days."
Shane's digital camera went into the operating room with him,
and pictures of the procedure's stages sit in a book on Susan's
desk. She flipped through them.
"It's 4 to 5 times harder on the donor than on the recipient,"
Susan said. "I'm very proud of my son. That he came forward
is a tribute to who he is."
Shane's first question as he woke was about Lisa.
"Its quite miraculous," Susan assured him. "That
kidney started working for her right on the table."
The year-long wait before Lisa's transplant was really awful,
Susan said, because Lisa was fading. But Lisa's race against
time wasn't so different from the race thousands of Americans
face while waiting for organ donations.
According to www.yesutah.org,
16 people die every day waiting for organ donations.
David R. Nemelka, of Salt Lake City, founded Quest for the
Gift of Life, a non-profit organization soliciting "organ
donation, recognition, and financial aid for people needing
organ transplants."
According to Quest, at www.nemelkafamily.com/quest,
6,000 people die each year waiting for a transplant, and the
national transplant waiting list contains more than 84,000 individuals.
The foundation "is committed to helping save these lives
by doing 'whatever it takes' to significantly increase the availability
of life-saving transplant organs, eyes, and tissue."
Utah now has more than one million registered donors, the highest
per capita of any state in the nation, according to Quest's
Website.
About three times as many organs could be available as patients
who need them, Susan said.
"Although a huge percentage of society believes in organ
donation, they rarely sign donor cards. People need to become
registered donors."
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services encourages
donors to talk to family members "so they know your wishes,"
because "even if you've signed something, your family may
be asked to give consent before donation can occur."
Some people may be hesitant to donate organs for a variety
of reasons, especially by believing some well-traveled myths,
Susan said.
Some myths can be found at TransWeb (www.transweb.org),
such as, "Rich and famous people get moved to the top of
the waiting list, while 'regular' people have to wait a long
time for a transplant."
TransWeb quotes the United Network for Organ Sharing: "The
length of time it takes to receive a transplant is governed
by many factors, including blood type, length of time on the
waiting list, severity of illness and other medical criteria.
Factors such as race, gender, age, income or celebrity status
are never considered when determining who receives an organ."
Susan said another myth is, "If I'm in an accident and
the hospital knows I want to be a donor, the doctors won't try
to save my life."
"The medical team treating you is separate from the transplant
team," the site states. "The organ procurement organization
is not notified until all lifesaving efforts have failed and
death has been determined. The OPO does not notify the transplant
team until your family has consented to donation."
Also, no age limits exist for organ donation. Susan learned
this in 1996 when she gained legal guardian rights to her elderly
parents and called the OPO to see if her parents could aid anyone
on the waiting list.
The OPO reviews each situation at the time of death and determines
a donor's eligibility on a case-by-case basis.
But the truth of organ donation remains – it does save
and improve lives.
One donor can save eight people and bless about 50, Susan said.
Beside the heart, intestines, kidneys, liver, lungs and pancreas,
a number of tissues can be donated at the time of death.
"When tragedy happens, that's horrific," she said.
"But to have a medical miracle that can restore life and
not be able to receive that miracle is a needless tragedy."
Eight years ago, without any inclination of what her future
with organ donation might hold, Susan decided "she could
do some good from where she sat."
She started working with donor organizations to bring awareness
to Cache Valley. Her enthusiasm spread to the fire chief and
to the mayor, who felt raising local awareness was an "extension
of their mission to save lives."
Their first step was sending 18,000 donor cards to Logan residents
with their monthly utility bills. The next few years saw organ
and tissue donor posters on Logan Transit District buses, radio
ads, an open house for valley clergy and another batch of donor
cards with utility bills.
"The media here are wonderful. The people here are wonderful,"
Susan said. She kept a file of people who offered to help if
Cache Valley ever decided to do an organ donation awareness
run.
Last year, the encouragement of a donor family from Denver
pulled that folder out to reality.
Susan didn't do a thing, she said, except contact committee
members -- who took the ball and ran with it.
"I pretty much just kicked the ball in from side out this
time," she said.
The committee's original plan was to organize the run this
year and hold it in 2005, but they decided to go for it, she
said. Cache Valley's first 5K run to raise organ donation awareness
took place April 17 at Utah State University's track and field
complex, northeast of Romney Stadium.
"There is a whole partnership dedicated to saving lives,
avoiding needless tragedy," Susan said of the committee,
community and surrounding area.
That partnership includes, but isn't limited to, the Volunteer
Center (inside Smith's on 400 North), USU, the Logan City Fire
Department, Intermountain Donor Services, Quest for the Gift
of Life Foundation of Salt Lake City and the James Redford Institute
for Transplant Awareness of California.
The latter was founded by Robert Redford's son, who is a donor
recipient.
David Nemelka summed up organ donation in a Quest newsletter,
saying "collectively we sent man to the moon and back,
yet we as a society are unnecessarily allowing an average of
16 people to die daily."
Susan agrees.
"A needless tragedy is something I can't abide,"
Susan said. "These are preventable deaths."
utah
state today/archives/April
2004/archives
prior to Sept 2002/
Brought
to you by Utah State University Public Relations and Marketing
|