Donation_For_Others

Science 2.0 | Robert Cooper Deciding who gets a lung transplant - and thereby who doesn’t - is not easy. Lungs can only be transplanted from people who are organ donors, who are brain dead, and who died in such a way that their organs remain intact. Problem is, there are not enough people marking the “organ donor” box on their driver’s license to give everyone on the transplant list a chance to live. The current lung allocation system was revamped in 2005 to try and make it more fair. Previously, your place in line was determined by how long you had been waiting. That system incentivized people to get on the list before they really needed a lung just to accumulate waiting time, and it essentially sentenced to death anyone whose lungs went downhill too quickly. The new system tries to optimize lung allocation by considering both how bad your lungs are and how much good a transplant is likely to do for you. This is meant to be more fair, but as long as more people need new ...

Donate Life America Tomorrow is the beginning of National Donor Sabbath, a time for people of all faiths to honor those who have given the lifesaving gift of organ, eye and tissue donation. To begin our celebration, we will share the story of Father Peter. When doctors delivered the grim diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a lethal lung disease, to Father Peter, he wasn’t ready to give up on life. A Franciscan priest of more than 50 years, Father Peter had felt God calling him to serve since the age of 13, and he knew he still had work to do. His condition caused great difficulty with breathing and triggered coughing fits that rendered him unable to speak. “A priest who can’t say Mass is a priest who is not fulfilling his calling,” Father Peter remembers thinking before his lifesaving lung transplant. Today, thanks to the gift of an organ donor, he is back to spreading messages of hope to others â€" one of faith, and one of gratitude for donation and transplantatio...

Press Enterprise | Brian Rokos KURT MILLER/THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE Bernice Hobdy, grandmother of slain Riverside teen Lareanz Simmons, gets a hug from Alejandro Valenzuela, in center, who received Lareanz's kidney, at right is his wife Maria Valenzuela as they meet for the first time at Riverside Community Hospital on Thursday, November 21, 2013. Alejandro Valenzuela handed Bernice Hobdy a potted plant and a box of chocolates. The gifts were a small token of appreciation, Valenzuela said, considering what Hobdy’s grandson had given him: a second chance at life. Lareanz Simmons’ right kidney now lives inside of Valenzuela, who had waited 10 years for a transplant and had endured dialysis treatments three times a week. Hobdy and Valenzuela met for the first time Thursday, Nov. 21, at Riverside Community Hospital. That’s where on Feb. 23, 2012, Lareanz died after being gunned down near his home on Georgia Street in Riverside. Lareanz, whose slaying remains unsolved, was a 14-year-o...

Yahoo News | American Society of Transplantation AST President attends White House Oval Office ceremony to witness the historic signing of important organ transplant legislation WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Dr. Daniel Salomon, President of the American Society of Transplantation (AST), joined President Obama today at the White House as he signed S. 330, the HIV Organ Policy Equity Act. The legislation, which enjoyed bipartisan and bicameral support, seeks to expand the supply of life-saving organs available for transplantation to the more than 118,000 individuals currently on the organ waitlist. During the small Oval Office gathering, Dr. Salomon thanked President Obama and expressed AST's gratitude for the enactment of an important patient-focused bill that will make the gift-of-life a reality for more individuals awaiting a life-saving donor organ. The passage of the legislation was spearheaded by AST's longtime Director of Government Relations, Bill Applegate, in the Washi...

Channel 3000  MADISON, Wis. -  A national organ donation advocacy organization is weighing in on a decision to block a family from donating a child's organs last month. News 3 reported earlier this week that 5-year-old Brayden Turnbill's family was blocked by a Dane County assistant district attorney and a judge from donating his organs. Turnbill died on Oct. 24 at UW Hospital after being taken from his home with head and chest injuries that investigators said were from child abuse. Dane County Assistant District Attorney Tom Fallon asked Judge Peter Anderson for a restraining order in the case against the UW Hospital Organ Procurement Office. Prosecutors and the Dane County medical examiner argued that the body needed to remain completely intact to determine the cause and manner of death. Those court proceedings are sealed, but Anderson granted the restraining order, and Turnbill died that evening after life support was removed. Thursday, CEO of Donate Life America David Flem...

The Daily Pilot | John Whalen This time of year I wonder how I can ever really say thank you for the gift of life. I am alive because someone gave me his liver. It was this single act of kindness that saved my life on Feb. 27. Five years ago, my liver began to fail. I started having pain in my side and overall, I just didn't feel right. I went to many doctors who treated my symptoms, but I still never felt normal. I had low energy, and my mind was foggy. In January 2012, I started having back pains, and at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, Dr. Jeanie Spudick diagnosed a serious blood infection. This blood infection spread to the nerves in my leg and into my spine. Soon I lost all strength in my left leg. Later, I found out that the blood infection had spread because of my liver disease. Four months later, I went into a hepatic coma for three days. I woke up in the hospital and was told I had hepatic encephalopathy. Dr. Spudick visited me in the hospital and recommended Dr. Donald Abr...

Tufts Now | Jacqueline Mitchell Photo: In June, not quite nine months after life-saving heart surgery, Shoji Inomata participated in the 11th annual Harbor Walk & Run, a 5K that raises money for Tufts Medical Center and the Floating Hospital for Children. Photo: Melody Ko  When this Tufts dental student learned he needed a transplant, his world changedâ€"but his determination to stay in school did not Shoji Inomata, D15, didn’t feel good. The second-year dental student was short of breath, and his heart was beating erratically. He knew something was very wrong. But when he walked into the emergency room at Tufts Medical Center in January 2012, he never imagined he’d be in the hospital for 256 days. Just 25 years old, with no history of cardiac problems, Inomata’s heart was failing. And after a seven-month wait for a donor, Inomata was one of 17 adults to undergo a heart transplant in 2012 at Tufts Medical Center, which performed more of these surgeries than any other hos...

KSTP TV Minneapolis St. Paul | Tom Durian Minnesotans are a generous group of people. According to the organ donor organization LifeSource, 62 percent of the state's residents are signed up to be donors. But, there are states higher on the list, and today hundreds of healthcare professionals met in hopes of moving the state up the list. LifeSource held its Donate Life Symposium, where nurses and doctors heard from the families of donors, and those whose lives were saved by organ donation. Mandy Bradley, 25, suffered from heart failure in 2012 and received a donated heart while waiting at the most critical of spots on the donor list, 1A. She now thanks the donor everyday "I am living a normal healthy life because of someone else and the decision they made." In addition to the stories of survival were the stories of families whose loved ones made the decision to donate. Continue reading   ______________________________________________________  "You have the power to SA...

Star-Tribune | Heather J. Carlson, Associated Press ROCHESTER, Minn. â€" At the age of 8, Christian Yang knew what he wanted to be when he grew up. "When I grow up, I want to be in law enforcement or a firefighter. I want to help people," Christian would tell his father, Tony Yang. Christian never got the chance to fulfill those career dreams. But the Rochester boy did help the lives of five people he never met. After Christian suffered a fatal brain aneurysm on Oct. 25, his parents made the decision to put him on life support for two additional days so that his heart valves, kidneys, liver and spleen could be donated to others. At his son's bedside, Tony Yang explained his decision to his youngest child. "While I was with him, I said to my son, 'I know I did not get a word from you about donating your organs, but I know in your lifetime you always put other people first and you always wanted to help other people.'" Every year, more than 100,000 peo...

Mirror | Josh Layton A mother has amazed doctors by giving birth to a “miracle” baby after she had three organ transplants. Photo Stuart Clarke Tina Martin beat the odds to become 'the oldest person to give birth after a kidney and pancreas transplant' A mother has amazed doctors by giving birth to a “miracle” baby after she had THREE organ transplants. Tina Martin, 43, was told she would probably have a miscarriage after she got pregnant following the operations and taking drugs she needed to ensure the organs would be accepted. But Tina, who has suffered from Type 1 diabetes since the age of seven, gave birth to 4lb Tassiah (corr) in January by Cesarean section, it has emerged. Dr Jonathan Kwan, her consultant at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital, said: ‘It is an absolute miracle that Tina managed to give birth to this little wonder, Tassiah, under the most adverse set of clinical circumstances. “The odds were totally stacked against her. Continue reading ____...

York Region | Tim Kelly Gift of life. Photo:  Nick Iwanyshyn Mom Sabrina Facciolo, dad Johnny Facciolo, baby Jack and sister Reese, know first-hand how organ donation can save a life. Their young son, Jack, received a heart transplant in 2011. Just two weeks after he was born, tiny Jack Facciolo needed a new heart. His stunned parents, who were shocked at the news their newborn required a transplant, were torn. Sabrina, Jack’s mother, recalls praying, but not just for Jack. “We’re Catholic, so people were praying and praying. I remember a fellow asked me, ‘What did you pray for while you were waiting’? I said I couldn’t bring myself to pray for a heart because I couldn’t bring myself to pray for someone else’s family to go through what we were going through.Because, at that point, it was touch and go and we didn’t think we would be here today with him because it was that serious.” But Jack survived the ordeal and, two-and-a-half years, later is a healthy young b...

Daily Pilot | By Beau Nicolette Kieran Vogel proudly shows off a picture button of his dad Erich while his mom Bethany sits nearby during a visit to Tewinkle Park in Costa Mesa. Kieran's Halloween costume this year was his "super hero dad" whose donated organs were a benefit to 64 people after his death in 2009. (Don Leach / Daily Pilot / November 13, 2013) When one California Elementary School first-grader started preparing his Halloween costume, he told his mom he wanted to be a superhero. But Kieran Vogel did not want to be a masked nocturnal crime fighter or hammer-wielding mythical god. The 6-year-old wanted to be a superhero like his dad. He wanted to be Donor Man. "I picked it because my daddy was like a superhero," Kieran said, "because he saved like a hundred or something lives." His father, Erich Vogel, died in 2009 of a heart attack, and the man's eyes, tissue and bones have been donated to 64 people. Erich will be featured on the Donate...

UNOS | Anne Paschke Dear friends, For the past few days, the story of a prisoner on death row who wants to become an organ donor has garnered a good deal of media attention. Media interest is growing, now that the Governor of Ohio has granted a stay of execution “so that medical experts can assess whether or not Phillips’ non-vital organs or tissues can be donated to his mother or possibly others.” Here is the statement that UNOS is providing to the media regarding condemned prisoners as organ donors. It is also on our website. OPTN/UNOS perspectives on organ recovery from condemned prisoners There have been several instances in the United States within the last 20 years where condemned prisoners have requested to become organ donors, either upon their execution as a deceased donor or prior to execution as a living donor. Ultimately the correctional authority must decide whether to allow any inmate to be evaluated for donation, and an organ procurement organization and/or tran...

Sacramento Bee | Tim Talley  OKLAHOMA CITY -- A state lawmaker calls his idea to give Oklahoma death row inmates the ability to donate their organs before execution a chance at redemption, but experts in the organ transplantation field say it is ethically unsound and goes against current medical practice. Rep. Joe Dorman, D-Rush Springs, said he is developing legislation that would give a convicted murderer an opportunity to extend someone else's life. Dorman said the idea has been explored in some states around the country, but never instituted. "It's Christian principles that if you can offer someone a chance of redemption, you should offer that opportunity," Dorman said of his proposed program, which would be voluntary. But the organs would have to be harvested before the lethal dose of drugs renders them unusable, which would reverse the longstanding medical practice of only harvesting organs from bodies that have been declared legally dead, officials say. Continu...

Killeen Daily Herald | Janice Gibbs Johnny Ray Watson, the 500th transplant patient of the Scott & White kidney/pancreas transplant program, is seen many years ago holding Caleb Tate. Less than a month ago, Tate died in a motorcycle accident and Watson received one of Tate’s kidneys. TEMPLE â€" Some events defy explanation. The odds of Caleb Tate’s kidney being a match for Johnny Ray Watson, his godfather and close family friend, were almost nil. When Tate was 20 and a student at Texas A&M University, he learned that Watson was going on dialysis. Tate told his parents, Robert and Darlene Tate of Seguin, he wanted to give Watson a kidney. Darlene Tate believed her son’s gesture was heartfelt but probably wasn’t feasible because he was preparing to join the Navy after graduating. On Oct. 14, Caleb Tate was killed when he was thrown from his motorcycle after a car turned in front of him in College Station. A few days later, Watson became the 500th transplant patient i...

Post Bulletin| BY HEATHER J. CARLSON Jerry Olson, jolson@postbulletin.   Drawing remarkable strength from a strong Christian faith, Pricilla and Tony Yang talk of losing their 8-year-old son, Christian, to a brain aneurysm last month. The Yang’s made the decision to donate their son’s organs, that already have helped save five lives. ROCHESTER, Minn. â€" At the age of 8, Christian Yang knew what he wanted to be when he grew up. "When I grow up, I want to be in law enforcement or a firefighter. I want to help people," Christian would tell his father, Tony Yang. Christian never got the chance to fulfill those career dreams. But the Rochester boy did help the lives of five people he never met. After Christian suffered a fatal brain aneurysm on Oct. 25, his parents made the decision to put him on life support for two additional days so that his heart valves, kidneys, liver and spleen could be donated to others. At his son's bedside, Tony Yang explained his decision t...

Burlington Free Press | April Burbank Tammy Shackett, 50, is waiting for a new pair of lungs and has been on the donor list since April 2012. Though she has never smoked, doctors have diagnosed her with asthma, emphysema and bronchiectasis. / EMILY McMANAMY, Free Press Much of Tammy Shackett's life has been on hold since her lungs started to fail. While she waits for a double transplant, she's spreading the word about organ donation in Vermont, which has one of the lowest overall donor registration rates in the country. She would begin her day without having to use a nebulizer just to be able to move about the house. She would play with her 5-year-old granddaughter outside, the way she was never able to do when her two sons were young, or take a walk with her husband without stopping. She would wash dishes without sitting down to rest every few minutes. Laughter would not leave her winded. All of that will have to wait until after surgery. Shackett, a Bristol resident, needs a ...

Fargo | Candice Grimm In the fall of 2003, Alexa Kersting was placed on a pediatric transplant waiting list. After being diagnosed with an interstitial lung disease at the age of 6 1/2, her condition had worsened. She needed a new set of healthy lungs to live. Because of her age, size and condition, Kersting was number one on the pediatric transplant waiting list of the LifeSource donor region. The LifeSource donor region includes North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota. Alexa’s Story “We started waiting, waiting for that call to come. “ said Monica Kersting, Alexa’s mother. “When you’re on a waiting list, your health is at risk. You don’t know how long you have until time simply runs out,” she explained. After months of waiting for a call saying a donor had been found, Alexa passed away on July 15, 2004. She was 14 years old and waiting for a double lung transplant. “After she died, I thought it’d be a really cool idea to have an angel figurine made that anyone wo...

Grand Island Independent | Sarah Schultz With an artist's rendering of the Donate Life "Light Up the World" Rose Parade float in front of him, Tiff Varney of Arnold talks about his son, who was an organ donor, Monday morning during a press conference to promote the importance of organ and tissue donation. (Independent/Barrett Stinson) A little piece of Grand Island will be included on the Donate Life Rose Bowl Parade float this year. Dan McElligott, St. Francis Medical Center president, signed a slip of paper attached to a flower vile Monday morning. The message on the paper reads “St. Francis Medical Center graciously honors the patients, families and staff who make the gift of life possible.” The water vile, one of eight from Nebraska, was given to Kyle Herber, the executive director of Nebraska Organ Recovery System. It will hold a rose and be included with others from across the U.S. on the Donate Life “Light Up the World” float on New Year’s Day. The float ...

New York Daily News | Bernie Augustine BRIAN WESTERHOLT/SPORTS ON FILM Kevin Jordan, who was once drafted by the Yankees out of high school, has now played two seasons for the Wake Forest Demaon Deacons after receiving a kidney from his coach in 2011 The selfless act by a college baseball coach who donated a kidney to an ailing player he had just met months before made national headlines in 2011. Now the coach and player have a special bond and can focus on the sport they both love. About four years ago, Tom Walter found himself in one of the worst places on earth: The DMV. He had just accepted a job as Wake Forest's head baseball coach and, as a new North Carolina resident, was going through the usual steps to get a driver's license. "I remember very vividly having to go out of my way to be an organ donor," Walter said by phone from his Winston-Salem, N.C., office. "It wasn't as simple as checking a box." "It's one of those things. Foreshadowin...

United Network for Organ Sharing Richmond, Va. â€" Brian M. Shepard has been selected as Chief Executive Officer of UNOS (United Network for Organ Sharing). UNOS matches donated organs with transplant candidates nationwide and manages the national transplant database through contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. "Brian has the vision and experience that the Board was looking for to move UNOS into a new era of service to transplant professionals and the patients we serve,” said Kenneth Andreoni, M.D., President of the UNOS Board of Directors. “With a focus on quality improvement, UNOS will continue to increase patients’ access to and benefit from life-changing organ transplantation.” “I’m excited to have the opportunity to lead an organization with such a strong record of success as we tackle the challenges of the ever-changing health care field,” said Shepard. As Chief Executive Officer, Shepard directs the efforts of more than 300 UNO...

Huffington Post | Impact | TJ Maciak I am one of the fortunate ones and now it's my turn to help others. This posting is about a different kind of individual philanthropy. I just recently returned from an amazing trip to Durban, South Africa where I participated in the 19th World Transplant Games. I have been competing in the Transplant Games since 1996. I am not the most skilled athlete by any stretch of the imagination but the fact that I am able to compete is what matters. You see, the summer after 4th grade I failed a sports physical. I had protein in my urine. I had a biopsy done at the Detroit Children's Hospital and it was diagnosed with kidney disease. Life was pretty tough as a youngster; every week it seemed like I was visiting a doctor and it wasn't my idea of fun. As time went on and my condition was stable, the weekly visits turned into monthly visits, then into yearly checkups. Then came the day that would forever change who I am. It was the end of September o...

Danville Patch | Jane McInnis Clare Dowling became severely ill with pneumonia in 2010, causing the then-18-year-old to need a double lung transplant. Some time on the morning of Sept. 21, Clare Dowling will take a step at Great America theme park in Santa Clara. Then she will take another. “I’m walking because I was told I’d never be able to walk again,” she says. She will participate in the Donate Life Run/Walk â€" calling attention to the 10,000 Northern Californians waiting for an organ transplant. Three years ago, she received a double-lung transplant. In 2010, Dowling was young and healthy and attending Chico State University. Suddenly ill with pneumonia, she endured several bouts with breathing problems until lung disease slowly robbed the 18-year-old of her freedom. “I was in bed every day not able to move, until after 31 days I was given the news that a pair of lungs was available for me,” she said Continue reading   __________________________________________...

Science Codex Using the same type of mathematical formulas used to draw political redistricting maps, Johns Hopkins researchers say they have developed a model that would allow for the more equitable allocation of livers from deceased donors for transplantation. Currently, in the United States, where you live dictates the availability of a liver transplant. Studies show that geography can mean the difference between a 10 percent chance of dying while on the waiting list for a donor liver, and a 90 percent chance, the researchers say. The new model depends not on the longstanding relationships among medical centers used to create the current unbalanced system, but on making the distribution of organs as equitable as possible, they say. "This is gerrymandering for the public good," says study leader Dorry L. Segev, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor of surgery and epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "We have applied to transplantation the same...

Huffington Post-UK | Eleni Antoniadou, CEO Transplants Without Donors A novel idea is incubating in biomedical labs: tissue engineered organs made from biomaterials and the patient's own stem cells. Such a concept may sound like science fiction when one considers the vast knowledge required to provide a functional substitute for one of nature's creations; however this immense scientific breakthrough is a reality. You might be thinking - are we one step closer to becoming an immortal species? Can we order our extra body parts and store them in banks in a case of emergency? Well, not just yet. The scientific community is facing many limitations in developing artificial organs with complex functionalities such as the heart, lungs and kidneys but has made a remarkable progress in developing bio-artificial skin, nerves, arteries, noses, tracheas and many more. Yet again, limitations can be thought of as the mother of invention; it helps you create the impossible. In order to embrac...

Canton Sixes Patch | Justin Ove Photo: Troy Milford and Robert Poole. Credit: Jack Kearse, Emory Health Sciences Photography 56 people, including Robert Poole and his pastor, either donated or received a kidney in the 40-day swap program. One of the participants in a historic kidney donation program has a Cherokee County connection. Robert Poole, husband of Cherokee Bank First Vice President and Board Secretary Cindy Poole and Manager of Canton Golf Club, decided to help Troy Milford, the pastor of his church in Canton when he learned that Milford was battling a kidney problem. Unfortunately for Poole, his kidney was not a match for Milford. However, there was another way he could help his pastor get a new kidney, albeit indirectly. Poole and Milford joined " Chain 221 ," a kidney swap program that pairs people willing to donate a kidney with a matching recipient. Matching a donor kidney with the proper recipient is essential to avoid dangerous and potentially fatal organ rej...

J-Wire: Jewish Online News from Australia and New Zealand The Rabbinical Council of Victoria has met with the Federal Government Organ and Tissue Authority following the RCV support for the DonateLife program and its impact on halacha. Rabbinical Council of Victoria’s (RCV) president, Rabbi Meir Shlomo Kluwgant met this week with Ms Yael Cass, CEO of the Australian Government’s Organ and Tissue Authority, to discuss the Donatelife program which promotes organ and tissue donation. Earlier this year the RCV Executive Committee endorsed a Statement of Support for Donatelife which focussed on the importance of organ donation and ensuring that it is done in accordance with halacha. “This is a very important issue, and I am encouraged by the progress being made in addressing the halachic complexities associated with organ donation” Rabbi Kluwgant said. Continue reading ______________________________________________________  "You have the power to SAVE lives."  To register ...

LaSalle News Tribune | Matthew Baker Vincent Â"ButchÂ" Plochocki empties grass cuttings into a bag at his home in La Salle, Ill. In May 2012, Plochocki underwent heart transplant surgery at Northwestern Hospital. | AP Photo/NewsTribune, Genna Ord Although more than 60 years old, Vincent “Butch” Plochocki of LaSalle recently celebrated a first birthday. That’s the first anniversary of living with a new heart. “I’m free to do what I want,” he said. That means a lot for a man who spent more than a year in need of a 24-hour care while carrying around a device that kept his heart pumping. Those days appear to be over after receiving a heart transplant in May 2012. After a year with his new heart, Plochocki is getting used to living his own life again. He’s taken over caring for his yard again, in particular regularly mowing his lawn â€" something he loves but was unable to do a year ago. He also walks about 2 miles each day. Continue reading  ___________________...