Healthy Kids: Talking about organ donation
St Louis Post - Dispatch | Dr. Stuart Sweet
As a pediatrician who cares for children who need and have had lung transplants, one important conversation I hope happens at least once at every family’s dinner table centers on the extremely giving and selfless decision to donate organs.
I’m privileged to work with an extraordinary group of physicians, surgeons, nurses and other health-care professionals in an institution that is very supportive of pediatric organ transplantation. At St. Louis Children’s Hospital, we work closely with Mid-America Transplant, the organ procurement organization serving the St. Louis metro area. Mid-America Transplant is one of the most innovative in the country, even operating a driver’s license fee office in the St. Louis area to ensure its presence in a setting where citizens indicate a preference for organ donation on their licenses.
But our work remains dependent on the heroic acts of others â€" the choice to donate organs â€" to ensure that each child awaiting transplant in St. Louis and elsewhere gets an opportunity for life. And we must do more in that regard.
Currently in Missouri, 87 children and 1,785 adults await organ transplants. Unfortunately, based on recent statistics, about 10 percent of those waiting for a transplant each year die before they get one. So more donors are needed â€" and because many children who need transplants are too small to receive organs from adults, organ donation from children is a critical part of that need.
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| Stuart Sweet, MD, PhD, St. Louis Childrens Hospital |
I’m privileged to work with an extraordinary group of physicians, surgeons, nurses and other health-care professionals in an institution that is very supportive of pediatric organ transplantation. At St. Louis Children’s Hospital, we work closely with Mid-America Transplant, the organ procurement organization serving the St. Louis metro area. Mid-America Transplant is one of the most innovative in the country, even operating a driver’s license fee office in the St. Louis area to ensure its presence in a setting where citizens indicate a preference for organ donation on their licenses.
But our work remains dependent on the heroic acts of others â€" the choice to donate organs â€" to ensure that each child awaiting transplant in St. Louis and elsewhere gets an opportunity for life. And we must do more in that regard.
Currently in Missouri, 87 children and 1,785 adults await organ transplants. Unfortunately, based on recent statistics, about 10 percent of those waiting for a transplant each year die before they get one. So more donors are needed â€" and because many children who need transplants are too small to receive organs from adults, organ donation from children is a critical part of that need.
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