Organ donors needed

Organ donors needed

April 09, 2007 12:45 am

By Keith Purtell
Muskogee Phoenix Staff Writer

— In the past, Brenda Dunn didn’t give much thought to organ donation. She says she was startled when her children told her they had signed organ donor cards.
Now that diabetes has caused her to be hooked up to a dialysis machine three times each week, she sees everything differently.
Dunn, 55, said she had to give up her job as a teacher’s assistant because of declining health. That’s not the only thing she has given up.
“I don’t like having to say ‘I can’t be there for Christmas because I’ll be at dialysis.’”
If she could get a kidney transplant, Dunn said her life would be very different. She wouldn’t be at the dialysis clinic and she wouldn’t be at home recovering from the procedure.
“I would be with my children, my grandchildren, and more involved with my church,” she said. “I might even be able to go back and do some work.”
Doctors have told her she’s a good candidate for a transplant. The problem is the wait. Because of a lack of organ donors, anyone needing a transplant faces a wait of anywhere from one to 10 years. The idea of being tied down waiting for a donor frightens Dunn. She wishes she could persuade people to become organ donors.
“I can’t imagine the next 10 years hooked up to a machine,” she said. “If I could talk to people face to face I would tell them that if you become an organ donor, you are giving life to someone. You are giving me a new life.”
Dunn and some of her friends tried to raise public awareness last weekend. They stood alongside York Street with posters promoting organ donation.
Judy Antonioni, clinical educator at Muskogee Regional Medical Center, said there are several reasons people don’t make the decision to be an organ donor.
“Some of them haven’t had a good relationship with the person in their family who needs a transplant,” she said. “There is also a lot of misinformation out there about what is involved in the organ donation process.”
Antonioni recommends that people fill out an advance directive; a document that makes their wishes known if a critical health issue leaves them unable to communicate. The directive includes a section on organ donation.
“If you think about it, blood donation is along the same lines,” she said. “And blood donation saves a lot of lives.”
New employees at MRMC are shown a video titled “One Last Gift” that features interviews with people who donated or received organs.
“For those who donated, it is the last good deed they did before they died,” she said.
Trish Farmer, clinical manager of the Kidney Program at St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, said some people don’t decide to become donors because they mistakenly believe celebrities or other powerful people will get a transplant before an ordinary person.
There are also reasons people avoid discussing the issue.
“About 95 percent of people believe the transplant procedure is a really good deal,” she said. “But if you talk about being an organ donor, you’re talking about how to handle death. What people really don’t want to talk about is their own death.”
Farmer said health care providers’ primary concern is the health and well being of patients. She suggested people learn to overcome negative beliefs about death, and start talking to their doctor and their family.

To learn more
To learn more about organ donation, go to http://www.unos.org/

Sharing life
• People of all ages and medical histories should consider themselves potential donors. Doctors will determine what organs and tissue can be donated at the time of death.
• All major religions approve of organ and tissue donation and consider donation the greatest gift.
• An open casket funeral is possible for organ and tissue donors.
• There is no national registry of organ and tissue donors. Even if you have signed something, be sure you have told your family your wishes as they will be consulted before donation can take place.
• Information: The Oklahoma Organ Sharing Network (888) 580-5680 or www.oosn.org.

Source: The Oklahoma Organ Sharing Network

Reach Keith Purtell at 918-684-2925