Dying for Donors

Todays TNJ4 | By Shelley Walcott
Almost one-million Americans need an organ transplant. Transplant experts are always looking for ways to improve the organ donation system, but the newest model is causing concern for some patients.

 To see David Buggs today...you'd never know he had a liver transplant ten years ago. "I work everyday, my employers have been wonderful, let me work at home when I need to," he says. David waited only 6 months for that liver. Unfortunately, it's now failing, and he is on a waiting list once again. This time he's been waiting 2 1/2 years. He tells us what it's like to wait. "It's incredibly hard. 

Every time that phone rings your heart skips a beat, because you're wondering whether there's a chance it might be your time." One of the reasons David has had to wait so long is that he IS doing so well. Transplant surgeon Dr. Christopher Johnson explains, "The patients that are sicker wait shorter." 

In the past, donated organs would usually go to patients in the local area. Now some organs are distributed across a much broader region, so the sickest patients get the organs first. That means an organ donated here in Wisconsin could go to a patient several states away. 

Jay Campbell is the Director of the Wisconsin Donor Network, and says it's a constant struggle to do what's best for everyone involved. "The reason behind it all is to save the most lives, so sometimes you balance the time that some patients wait, with saving the lives of other patients."
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______________________________________________________ 
"You have the power to SAVE lives." 
To register as a donor in California: 
www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org | www.doneVIDAcalifornia.org 
Outside California: 
www.organdonor.gov | www.donatelife.net

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