Wait to get new organs gets longer

[okarol]

Wait to get new organs gets longer
Unhealthy lifestyles lead to increased demand as need outstrips donations

Christina Stolarz - The Detroit News
May 19, 2009

The national organ transplant waiting list is an essential lifeline -- but it's one that offers no guarantee.

Some people are on the list for days, while others pray for years. Still others die before their turn comes up.

"The more people who are registered, the better chances someone will die and can give their organs to someone who is waiting," said Aisha Huertas, public outreach and marketing coordinator for Virginia-based Donate for Life. "You almost need all 300 million Americans to register to be donors."

Nationwide, there are 101,943 people on the organ transplant waiting list. In Michigan, there are 2,962 people on the list, with most -- 2,499 -- waiting for a kidney and 313 waiting for a liver, according to the nonprofit organization United Network for Organ Sharing of Richmond, Va., which administers the nation's only organ transplant waiting list.

Experts say kidneys are always in the greatest demand because there are multiple illnesses, such as hypertension and diabetes, which can cause diminished kidney function. Some Detroit transplant doctors say the average wait for a kidney transplant in Michigan is four years. The average wait for a liver is more than 1.5 years; and nearly 5 months for a heart, according to United Network.

And the waiting list is getting longer. The number of people signing up to become donors has increased each year, but it's not keeping up with the number of patients that doctors are adding to the waiting list.

"The rate at which people are being added to the list is pretty quick," said Jennifer Tislerics, special events coordinator for Gift of Life Michigan. People are added to the list because their lifestyles lead to poor health and organ transplantation has proved very successful, she said.

There are two ways to donate an organ. Macomb Township's Bruce Coburn is among more than 6,000 living people who have donated a kidney, lobe of a lung or portion of a liver, pancreas or intestine each year, according to United Network. One in 4 of those donors are not biologically related to the recipient.

The other option is to wait on the national transplant list for an organ from a deceased donor.

There is one national database, the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, which records every transplant and facilitates the organ matching and placement process. There are nearly 80 million people nationwide -- and 1.5 million in Michigan -- who are registered organ donors. Only 2 percent, however, die in a way that allows their organs to be considered for transplants, Huertas said.

The situation most conducive to organ donation, she said, is if someone becomes brain dead and the donor's body has had time to shut down while the organs are still working and receiving oxygen as opposed to a cardiac-related death.

http://www.detnews.com/article/20090519/LIFESTYLE03/905190344/1040/Wait-to-get-new-organs-gets-longer