Aug 19, 2007 - 10:59:16 pm EDT
Bunting on kidney list: Senator’s illness puts donor issue in spotlightBy Drew Volturo, Delaware State News
DOVER — Sen. George H. Bunting Jr. recently has joined more than 400 other Delawareans on an exclusive and urgent list — an organ transplant waiting list.
The Democratic senator from Bethany Beach has been diagnosed with polycystic kidney disease, a hereditary disorder that causes fluid-filled cysts to form in the nephrons of the kidneys.
The disease affects approximately 600,000 across the country and is one of the most common hereditary diseases and the fourth-leading cause of kidney failure.
Sen. Bunting said his late father had the disease.
By all accounts, the senator said he has lived a healthy life — “I used to jog a lot, now I walk, I don’t drink anymore and I don’t smoke” — but he was feeling tired lately.
“I thought that with two careers (he also runs an insurance agency), what I felt was par for the course,” Sen. Bunting said last week.
But after being diagnosed and told that his situation required immediate attention, Sen. Bunting moved quickly.
Family and friends are being tested to see if they can donate a kidney. His name is going on a transplant list. And the senator is starting the dialysis process.
Sen. Bunting noted that his standing as a state legislator has drawn media attention to his condition, while hundreds of other Delawareans deal with their medical problems in obscurity.
“The positive side of all of this is that it puts a focus on the disease and the need for organ donation,” he said.
There were approximately 29,000 organ transplants in the country last year, 14 in Delaware.
More than 17,000 of the national transplants last year involved kidneys, but only two were in the First State.
Gift of Life Donor Program spokesman Dante DelVecchio said there are more than 96,000 Americans awaiting a new heart, kidney, lung, pancreas, liver or intestine to save their lives.
“Eighteen die each day because there was not a match found in time,” Mr. DelVecchio said.
In Delaware, nearly 40 percent of the 711,532 licensed drivers — 281,039 — have registered as organ donors, 109,647 of them in Kent and Sussex counties, according to the state Division of Motor Vehicle.
One of those Downstate donors was Rep. Peter C. Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth Beach, who donated a kidney to a friend — who suffers from the same disease as Sen. Bunting — in December.
“When I was younger, I watched a friend of mine die of melanoma and there was not a damn thing I could do about it,” said Rep. Schwartzkopf, a retired Delaware State Police captain who’s been an organ donor “as long as I can remember.”
“I damn sure wasn’t going to sit by and do nothing. I have never doubted the decision I’ve made, not for a minute. If you see (the recipient) now, there’s no question that it was worth it. She’s living a full life.”
Like Sen. Bunting, Rep. Schwartzkopf hopes that the senator’s situation raises awareness to the public that the disease can affect anyone and that there is a need for people to sign up to be an organ donor.
“This issue is not going to go away,” he said.
Sen. Bunting said that if and when he receives a new kidney, he expects to miss about a month of work, but he’s reluctant to talk about his political future.
“I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it,” he said.
“It plays with your mind. I’ve never asked for too much in my life. I built my business up, my wife built her business up. Now, I’m more vulnerable than ever. It’s going to take someone else to make my life better.”
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Staff writer Drew Volturo can be reached at 741-8296 or dvolturo@newszap.com
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