Donation_For_Others

Ventura County Star PHOTO BY CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Rabbi Gershon Weissman A few weeks ago, we who live in Israel read about Jewish Israelis Sarit and Avi Naor, who donated a kidney from their son Noam to a 10-year-old Muslim boy, Yakoub Ibhisad, who has been on dialysis for seven years. Noam suffered irreversible lower-brain death after falling from a fourth-story window in his home to the second floor below. The Naor family who are religiously observant consulted with their rabbi who agreed with their decision to donate their son’s kidney. Only one of their son’s kidneys was fit to be donated. In recent years, Jewish law has come to find ways to incorporate medical advances without compromising Jewish values. Though it is critically important to have a medically knowledgeable rabbi determine whether death has occurred which would then allow organ transplantation, it is now a positive precept to donate a person’s organ upon death of the donor, when it can immediately benefit a living...

Donate Life America National Minority Donor Awareness Week, celebrated annually on August 1-7, is a nationwide observance to educate minorities of the desperate need for donation and transplantation within the multicultural community and how to designate their decision to Donate Lifeâ„  .  Fifty-six percent of those on the national organ transplant waiting list are minorities. In 2012 11,309 minority patients received organ transplants; while there were 2,762 minority deceased donors and 1,711 minority living donors.  In 2012, there were: 5,590 Black organ transplant recipients and 1,980 Black donors.  3,943 Hispanic organ transplant recipients and 1,836 Hispanic donors.  1,393 Asian organ transplant recipients and 428 Asian donors. Why is it important for minorities to become donors? Ethnic minorities are in desperate need of more organ and tissue donors.  There are more than 66,000 minority individuals [this number includes Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, America...

Nanaimo Daily News | Julie Chadwick When Bill Brendon, left, learned that his close friend Randy Spensley needed a new kidney and was out of options, he stepped forward to donate one of his own, an unforgettable experience for both men. Photograph by: Julie Chadwick/Daily News After three family members had been ruled out, the chances that 53-yearold Randy Spensley would get the kidney donation he needed began to look slim. On daily peritoneal dialysis, the Nanaimo resident knew that the average wait time for a kidney once dialysis began could be anywhere from five to seven years, as kidneys top the list of organs most-needed for transplant. Due at least in part to the rising prevalence of kidney disease in the province, close to 80 per cent of the 527 British Columbians currently on the transplant waiting list need a kidney, according to B.C. Transplant. However what Spensley didn't realize was that his friend Bill Brendon had been keeping tabs on his progress, and when it looked...

KRQE | Lysee Miri ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A high school student who spoke out against bullying decided to take his own life. He even posted a suicide letter online. In it, he talked about being bullied. Now, his family and friends say they are determined to pick up where he left off. “My son, he didn't deserve this ...” said Jacqueline Vigil. She is saying goodbye to her 17-year-old son, Carlos. She said he was involved in Youth and Government and tried to push for stronger anti-bullying laws, but his own experience with bullying became too much. “He is not here because of bullying,” Jacqueline said. “It drove him over the edge." Carlos posted a note on Twitter on Saturday afternoon, referring to the mean names bullies called him and saying he's free now. Carlos’ dad rushed home when he heard about it, but it was too late. Carlos was going to be a senior at Valley High â€" a school he transferred to last year to escape bullying at Los Lunas High School. He wa...

California Transplant Donor Network | Anthony Borders A Filipino man who nearly died, only to have his life saved by a heart transplant, is the Northern California representative on a float in the 2014 Tournament of Roses Parade, New Year’s Day in Pasadena. Bay Area born Arthur “AJ” Reyes, 28, joins organ and tissue transplant recipients from across the country aboard the Donate Life “Light up the World” float recognizing the gift of life provided by organ and tissue donors. Lanterns dominate the float on which Reyes and the 29 other organ and tissue transplant recipients will ride. “The float theme of Light Up the World matches AJ’s bright smile,” said Cathy Olmo, Director of Communications for the California Transplant Donor Network. Reyes is being sponsored CTDN, the link in Northern and Central California and Northern Nevada between donors and those who wait for organ and tissue transplants. Reyes is a volunteer with the non- profit organization. Honoring the parade...

Donate Life Oklahoma Jhett is a six-year-old heart recipient who has been placed on the transplant waiting list for a second new heart. He went back on the waiting list in Houston on November 13, 2012. Here is his latest update from mom, Audra. Jhett is feeling good. He's been playing with his sister, Merit a lot. Last week she and I went home to catch up on some things and as soon as we left, Jhett took a 4 hour nap! I was worried at first but after he woke up he called me and sounded better than ever. He was exhausted from all the playing they had been doing! Those two really have fun together and love each other so much!! Just sitting around the house all the time gets pretty old, so yesterday we drove around looking for a state park to fish in. We ended up at Lake Sheldon in Crosby, Tx, which is not far from where we are staying. The park ranger was very nice and pointed out a small pond just right for Jhett and Merit to fish out of. She warned us that there had been alligator ...

US News and World Report | Philip Moeller  Dear Sons: You are now 28 and 32, respectively, and have been out, and for the most part, on your own for the better part of a decade. Even getting you home for a visit is a rare and potentially awkward event. So I can only imagine how close to the moon you will be transported by today's request. Your mother and I want to talk to you seriously, and in detail, about how we now see the later years of our lives, of the things we want you to know and possibly some of the difficult decisions you may need to make for us as we get older. [Read: Making Sure Your End-of-Life Wishes Are Followed .] First off, this request is not some smokescreen for sending you a veiled and calamitous message about our health â€" financial or physical. We are doing fine in the money and body departments. In fact, we want to talk with you now precisely because things are going well. Making plans for the future shouldn't wait until your mother or I are at dea...

The Columbus Dispatch | Misti Crane  This photo illustration shows an angiogram of a brain at left with blood flow and brain at right without blood flow as it would be seen in a brain dead patient. © Fusionspark Media Inc. The death of 21-year-old Elijah Smith at Grant Medical Center this month and his family’s dispute with Lifeline of Ohio over his organ donation has brought to the forefront questions about what constitutes death. Most doctors agree that a person has died when the brain ceases to perform its most essential functions, even if machines and medications keep the heart beating and the lungs delivering oxygen. Doctors have a list of tests that they perform before declaring death. It’s a process that generally takes several hours. They look for signs of life in a variety of ways, including pouring ice water in the ear, pinching the body, shining light into the pupils and checking for a gag reflex. They make sure there’s no other explanation, such as a low body tem...

Donate Life America  Number of Registered Organ, Eye and Tissue Donors Continues to Rise Steadily RICHMOND, June 27 â€" Donate Life America unveiled its sixth annual National Donor Designation Report Card during the organization’s annual meeting, held in Indianapolis, Indiana, this year. The document reports 109 million people had enrolled in state donor registries by the end of 2012. The public can add to that number and help save the lives of the more than 120,000 men, women and children awaiting organ transplants by designating a donation decision at www.donatelife.net . This year’s Report Card puts specific emphasis on the efforts of Donate Life America and its constituents to reach the 18-24 year old demographic, who say they have not registered because they “have not heard about it” or “simply have not gotten around to it.” Though it is extremely important to educate all demographics, the 18-24 is least likely to register, followed closely by people 65 and older...

KTVB, Boise | Maggie OMara STAR -- Nine months after receiving a kidney transplant, Todd Theobald is living life to the fullest and doing everything he can to pay it forward. And he has his mom to thank for giving him life not once, but twice. Todd was just 30 years old when he was told a kidney transplant was in his future. "You go through all these different emotions -- sadness, depression and anxiety -- but it wasn't until I got to acceptance that I realized I can conquer this." When it was time, the donor that came to the rescue was his mom, Barbara. "She looked at me like a mom only can and said I'm the donor I'm going to donate my kidney and there's no doubt in my mind," said Todd. The transplant was scheduled at a Utah hospital for October 2012. "The doctors say they pulled out her kidney and it was amazing, just full of life and full of energy," said Todd. "I mean it's the greatest gift someone can give you." Continue ...

KVLY Fargo Everyday in the U.S. 18 people will die waiting for an organ transplant. But 79 people will receive one, getting another shot at life thanks to an organ donor. Today Valley News team's Eric Crest shares the story of one married couple from Underwood, Minnesota who found out they were a perfect donor match. For the past 43 years of marriage Carol and Bill Barbknecht have shared everything together. But when Carol found out a few years ago her kidney was failing and she needed a donor, she started looking for her perfect match. Time was of the essence. Her husband Bill says putting her name on a donor list was awfully worrisome, "it could be two three years before you could get a kidney." She decided that dialysis wasn't for her, three times a week for a few hours a day hooked up to a machine... It was Carol's last choice, "different people feel differently about transplantation versus dialysis. Well we like to do things and go places. And I didn...

WWLTV, New Orleans | Meg Farris HOUMA, La. -- The decision a Houma family made in a time of sadness changed the lives of families across several parishes in southeast Louisiana. But no one ever dreamed the gift could go beyond the selfless gift of organ donation. They may not look like they are related, but they are all members of one family. "It's been such a blessing, you know, all of them have been such a blessing to us," said Marion Haines Duplantis of Houma. The Duplantis family journey begins when the oldest of their five children, Phyllis Duplantis Blanchard, had kidney failure from type 1 diabetes. Her three brothers were matches. Brendan donated one of his. Twelve more years passed, and then in her mid-40s, she was in the fight of her life. "Because I asked her when they had her hooked up (to medical equipment in the nursing home,) and I said, 'You want to go?' And she did that (nodded her head). I say, 'Let them pull the plug?' She said, (no...

TribLive | PJ Panian Karen Newill of United stands by the perennial purple phlox which grow outside her home in United. Newill, who suffers from cystic fibrosis, underwent a double lung transplant procedure on June 25. She was discharged July 5 from UPMC Presbyterian in Pittsburgh. Photo  A.J. Panian | The Mt. Pleasant Journal With each new day, Karen Newill said she discovers a new way that her life has become better than it was before. A double-lung transplant will do that, said Newill, a 36-year-old resident of United in Mt. Pleasant Township who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at age 13. “For 10 years-plus, all I did was cough,” she said. Since undergoing the procedure on June 25, Newill's cough has all but vanished, her face is flush with healthy color and her voice and laugh are both much louder and brighter, she said. But the happiest moment so far for Newill came with her freshly rediscovered ability to yawn, she said. “I was laying in bed the other night and it ha...

The Wall Street Journal Colorado's largest donation event aims to reach 5,000 participants this year DENVER, July 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Donor Alliance, the federally designated, non-profit organ procurement organization and American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB) accredited tissue bank serving Colorado and Wyoming will this month once again host the Donor Dash. The 14(th) annual 5K run/walk is to honor the lives of organ and tissue donors, celebrate the lives of organ and tissue recipients and recognize those who continue to wait for a lifesaving transplant. The event will take place the morning of July 21 in Denver's historic Washington Park. The Donor Dash has steadily grown and more than 4,300 people, including about two hundred volunteers and 100 teams, participated in last year's event. Donor Alliance hopes to reach 5,000 participants this year. The event is open to people of all ages and offers a terrific family-friendly summer activity. "Each July thousan...

The Sacramento Bee CENTENNIAL, Colo., July 16, 2013 -- Begins a Ten-Year Partnership with the Phoenix Society CENTENNIAL, Colo., July 16, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AlloSource, one of the nation's largest non-profit providers of skin, bone and soft tissue allografts for use in surgical procedures and the world's largest processor of cellular bone allografts, announced today it pledged an annual financial contribution to the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors. Working with burn survivors is an important cause to AlloSource. Many tissue banks no longer process allograft skin because it is difficult and costly. AlloSource remains committed to investing in the processing of human skin for burn care because surgeons around the world consider it the gold standard in the treatment of burns because of its regenerative qualities and greater ability to help heal burns faster. Through its relationships with burn centers across the country, AlloSource understands that burn surviv...

NBC Latino | Kevin Lu, KVEO Rosa Olivares is happy to be alive. Her kidneys gave out earlier this year and her son Felipe stepped up and donated one of his. “They said I was a perfect match, so I said ‘okay, let’s do it,’” Felipe Olivares said about donating a kidney to his mother. Felipe had to take two months off from his job as a Cameron County detention officer for the procedure and recovery. His mother Rosa is grateful to see another day and for her son’s sacrifice. “Now I feel good, happy, because I’m alive,” Rosa said in Spanish. ”It hurt, it hurt to see him there, very hard.” It all worked out fine because Felipe was a great fit. A kidney going from the 170-lb. officer to the 130-lb home provider is the ideal pairing, especially when they’re direct relatives. “Rosa received a kidney from her son who’s a male, and a big person, muscular person, and so that kidney is really the perfect kidney,” said Dr. Mourad Alsabbagh, who oversaw the Olivaresâ€...

Cognocenti | Laurie Edwards Scrub nurse Imelda Macatangay, center, assists in a surgery harvesting a healthy kidney from donor Tom Otten, at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, Friday, Dec. 4, 2009. Others are medical student June Chanyasulkit, right, and Dr. Lee Cummings, left, transplant surgery fellow. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP) It’s what we learned in kindergarten. If you have two of something and you only need one, share it,” said Barbara Thorp, my father’s living kidney donor. Could saving a life really be as simple as that? It was 24 hours post-transplant, and I’d just helped my father make the steady, miraculous walk down the hall from his inpatient room to Barbara’s. I’d watched my father deteriorate for months; his muscles weakened, his complexion turned ashen. I could measure his life slipping away by the way he sounded when he answered the phone. Now, Barbara’s kidney was already doing its job mightily â€" producing urine, restoring his complexion...

The Independent | Tom Peck Almost everyone would accept an organ if they were offered one â€" yet only 57 per cent of families consent to the donation of their loved one’s organs. Why the selfishness? One of the few facts schoolchildren tend not to forget about ancient Egypt is that the Pharaohs were buried with their servants. When the big man finally shuffled off to that Great Pyramid in the desert, his devoted attendants would be gently despatched to the afterlife with him, via a gentle whack about the head with a mallet. In these enlightened times it appears an act of monstrous selfishness and vanity, but the same is happening in this country, every day. It is only relatively recently that advances in medical science have bestowed upon our organs the power to give life to others once we are done with them, yet most of us still choose to have these squidgy little miracle-workers buried in the earth or obliterated in incinerators. Only this week, two nine-year-old twin boys in...

Asahi Shimbun | Akiko Okazaki Photo: Hanano Oyama holds a Mother’s Day present in Singapore on May 12. (Provided by Norimichi Oyama) As parents, the Oyamas came face to face with one of the worst nightmares anyone who has loved a child can imagine: the brain death of their little girl and then having to decide whether to let her go in order to donate her organs so that other children could live. The daughter of the Japanese couple living in Singapore, 18-month-old Hanano Oyama was a bright girl who liked singing and dancing. On the evening of June 29, the family was relaxing poolside at their home. At some point though, the mother noticed that little Hanano was missing. After a frantic search, she found her floating in the pool. The distraught mother called out her name and immediately began applying CPR, but to no avail. Little Hanano’s lips began turning purple and she never regained consciousness. Soon after, she was rushed to a hospital by ambulance, where after about 40 minute...

ABC 6 COLUMBUS (Dana Jay) -- The victim of a fatal hit-and-run crash became an organ donor Wednesday after legal action by central Ohio’s organ procurement agency. Lifeline of Ohio filed the suit in Franklin County Court against the parents of 21-year-old Elijah Smith and Ohio Health Corporation. Chief clinical executive Dorrie Dils said the lawsuit was the first-of-its-kind in Ohio. Smith was critically injured while riding his bike in the early morning hours of July 3. He was taken to Ohio Health’s Grant Medical Center. The lawsuit states that on July 4, Smith’s physician declared him dead. A spokeswoman for Lifeline of Ohio said a ventilator kept Smith's organs viable as the agency attempted to convince his family that he wanted them to be donated. The lawsuit also maintains that because Smith was identified as an organ donor based on Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicle records, and had not subsequently expressed wishes to the contrary, his body was legally available to Lifeli...

Pasadena Star | Gary Peterson, Contra Costa Times SAN FRANCISCO -- His high-pitched cries of "Owie!" leave no doubt that Matthew Ouimet is in pain. But where? The angry purple incision from his double transplant surgery two weeks ago? His tongue, which he bit so hard during a recent procedure that it had to be surgically stitched? His hands and feet, bruised from IV needles? It's difficult to tell. Matthew, the 2-year-old son of Kelly and Kristi Ouimet, of Antioch, has come a long way the past few weeks. He was born with primary hyperoxaluria Type 1, a rare genetic condition that left him in need of a kidney and liver transplant. After a 15-month wait on the transplant list, he received his organs during a 13-hour operation that ended the morning of June 5. He survived a rocky first week in the ICU, during which his transplanted organs did not fully function and he had internal bleeding that caused him to vomit blood. However, a planned follow-up surgery a week later went...

Public Radio East Photo: Credit Courtesy of the artist Dayna Stephens. Dayna Stephens is a patient musician. The 34-year-old tenor saxophonist and composer fashions supple, searching improvisations that brim with melodic cogency. His compositions often exude a widescreen sensibility with languid, narrative-like passages, suspenseful interludes and sumptuous harmonies. Such is the case with "Full Circle," an evocative mid-tempo song from his new album,That Nepenthetic Place. He first envelops a luxurious melody within haunting three-horn harmonies; then, when Stephens' solo emerges atop a pneumatic rubato rhythm, it unfurls with elegant poise. "When I'm playing, I'm really trying to make something new happen. It often happens by playing unintentional notes," Stephens says via Skype from his Paterson, N.J., home on a late May afternoon, hours before he joins pianist Taylor Eigsti at New York's Smalls jazz club for a gig. "I always try to come up ...

Austin Daily Herald | Matt Peterson Photo: Nancy Kirsch sits with her husband, Chuck Kirsch, on the front steps of their home in Austin. Nancy underwent a kidney transplant in May and has since been doing better. -- Matt Peterson/matt.peterson@austindailyherald.com Austin woman doing better after transplant Nancy Kirsch can’t eat leftovers more than a day old. She can’t dig in her garden, and she has to pop pills like they’re Skittles every day. The Austin woman takes pills that help her take pills, as the sheer amount of medication is hard on her stomach. Her kidneys are shot, and they’ll shrivel up like raisins as time passes. One of her brother’s kidneys, however, is doing well â€" inside of her body. “I’m immune suppressed, and I know I will be for my whole life,” Nancy said. “But I had more stipulations on me before the transplant.”Nancy had a kidney transplant on May 2. Her life will forever be different. Still, she’s OK with that. It’s better than ...

FOX 13 Utah  SALT LAKE CITY, Utah â€" The second-largest kidney exchange in history happened recently, and the University of Utah was a part of it. More than 88,000 people are waiting for a kidney transplant, and an average of 12 people die each day while waiting for a donor. People in need of a kidney donation may find someone willing to donate, but that person may not be a compatible donor. Donor chains pair such couples up with other couples in the same situation to create compatible pairs. Bolton Collins was forced to put his life on hold after he found out he needed a kidney. He worried he would never find a donor. “There were a couple times I was in the emergency room in Las Vegas wondering if I was ever going to walk out,” he said. “It was that hard to breathe and to wonder if it was ever going to get better.” Collins was entered into a national pair donor exchange program. Bruce Garrett, paired kidney exchange coordinator for the University of Utah, said these prog...