Living Donors Online Message Board
Living Donation Discussion and News => Living Donation in the News => Topic started by: Clark on May 18, 2016, 11:54:27 AM
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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/17/opinion/finding-organ-donors-concealed-in-plain-sight.html?_r=1
The Opinion Pages (http://www.nytimes.com/pages/opinion/index.html?version=meter+at+6&module=meter-Links&pgtype=article&contentId=&mediaId=&referrer=&priority=true&action=click&contentCollection=meter-links-click)
Finding Organ Donors Concealed in Plain Sight
David Bornstein
FIXES (http://www.nytimes.com/column/fixes?version=meter+at+6&module=meter-Links&pgtype=article&contentId=&mediaId=&referrer=&priority=true&action=click&contentCollection=meter-links-click) MAY 17, 2016
Second of two articles.
Last June, after it became clear that their 3-month-old son, Nathan, needed a liver transplant (http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/surgery/liver-transplant/overview.html?inline=nyt-classifier&version=meter+at+6&module=meter-Links&pgtype=article&contentId=&mediaId=&referrer=&priority=true&action=click&contentCollection=meter-links-click), Rob and Christina Whitehead of Mokena, Ill., created a Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/SavingBabyNathan?fref=ts&version=meter+at+6&module=meter-Links&pgtype=article&contentId=&mediaId=&referrer=&priority=true&action=click&contentCollection=meter-links-click) to tell his story. Word spread quickly. “More than a hundred people called our donor hotline,” recalled Talia B. Baker, director of the Living Donor Liver Transplant program at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
In August, Nathan received a transplant. He’s had some complications, but nine months later, videos show him cruising happily with his walker.
Nathan’s case is not unique. “There have been several instances where people have posted a need for an organ for a baby or an adult and we’ve had a massive outpouring,” Baker said.
Only one of the candidates ended up donating, of course. That left Baker wondering whether the others would be willing to give to someone else. So she asked them. “Almost 100 percent said yes,” she said.
Now she is working with Organize (https://organize.org/?version=meter+at+6&module=meter-Links&pgtype=article&contentId=&mediaId=&referrer=&priority=true&action=click&contentCollection=meter-links-click) (a group I reported (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/10/opinion/using-tweets-and-posts-to-speed-up-organ-donation.html?version=meter+at+6&module=meter-Links&pgtype=article&contentId=&mediaId=&referrer=&priority=true&action=click&contentCollection=meter-links-click) on in my last column) to develop a database of living organ donors who are interested in helping strangers. “It needs to be done systematically, ethically and equitably,” Baker cautions.
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When living donors are asked how the decision to donate has influenced their lives, more than 80 percent say they feel a greater sense of self-worth, and almost half say they appreciate life more, LaPointe Rudow reports. Not everyone has a positive experience, however. Donors who experience complications, or whose recipients fare poorly, can feel anger or regret. And there are, of course, health risks (http://waitlistzero.org/living-donation/risks/?version=meter+at+6&module=meter-Links&pgtype=article&contentId=&mediaId=&referrer=&priority=true&action=click&contentCollection=meter-links-click). Kidney donation is done laparoscopically, and is far less invasive than in the past, but it’s still major surgery.
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