Time precious for those awaiting organs

Time precious for those awaiting organs

By Dorothy Schneider • dschneider@journalandcourier.com • August 17, 2008

In a given year, those people waiting for a bone marrow transplant outnumber those receiving them by more than two to one.

The odds are even slimmer for people waiting for an organ transplant.

As of Aug. 8, 99,131 people were waiting for organ donations in the United States. About a third will receive them by the end of the year, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network.

The rest will have to wait, sometimes years -- time some recipients simply don't have. On average, 18 people die each day because they don't get an organ transplant in time, according to the national transplant network.

Gregory Buchanan of Lafayette has been waiting for a kidney transplant for about three years. He began experiencing renal failure in late 2005 and attributed it to several causes: diet, lifestyle, high blood pressure, stress and possibly hereditary factors.

Now the 45-year-old father of four gets dialysis treatment three times a week. Each session lasts more than four hours.

"I'm just trying to laugh as much as I can, to do as much as I can," Buchanan said. "This is very encouraging, for me to have this time."

His physician, Dr. Rita Mankus, with Sigma Nephrology and Hypertension, said the wait for a new kidney used to be about 18 months but has grown to two or three years.

"The waiting list is getting longer and the number of deceased donors, that pool is down," Mankus said.

Sam Davis, spokesman for the Indiana Organ Procurement Organization, said one factor has been an overall decline in traffic fatalities.

"Nobody questions whether this is a good thing. It definitely is. But it presents new challenges for us" in the transplant field, he said.

From 1979 to 2007, the total annual number of traffic fatalities in the United States dropped from 51,093 to 41,059, a decrease of 19.6 percent, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. During that same time, the overall population increased 34 percent.

Another factor is the quality of organs, Davis said. As the incidence of high blood pressure and diabetes goes up in the general population, the quality of donated organs declines, he said.

As of Aug. 8, 997 people in Indiana were waiting for organ transplants; 857 were waiting for kidneys, according to the organ transplant network.

Last year, 500 organs were recovered from donors in Indiana, but only 430 were suitable for transplants, according to the Indiana Organ Procurement Organization.

Some progress is being made on recruiting donors. In April the not-for-profit group Donate Life America reported a 10 percent increase in the number of Americans designated as donors since 2006.

Still, only 35 percent of licensed drivers and ID card holders have committed themselves as donors through their states' registries, even though 90 percent of Americans surveyed said they support organ donation, the report stated.

Indiana has one of the highest rates in the country, with 71 percent of licensed drivers identifying themselves as willing donors.

Buchanan said his faith in God has helped him as he continues to wait for a kidney.

"I'm not going to push my religion on anyone, but there have been so many people praying ... I see that it works," he said.

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