Results tagged “organ and tissue donation” from The Morning After

With less than a week to go before the nation's turkeys stop gobbling and the nation's people start, the same question is on every American's mind. Whether we like it or not, our culture won't let us escape it: What are we thankful for? Aside from some of the basics--food on our tables, a roof over our heads, the end of a two year election season--the past week and a half have brought three medical breakthroughs that should have all of us feeling thankful.

Nov. 12
News broke that an American HIV patient living in Berlin has been living infection-free for 20 months following a bone marrow stem cell transplant used to treat his leukemia. Although they cannot promise that the man has no trace of the virus, doctors said they have been unable to detect it.

This probably won't ever become a standard treatment for HIV--this patient's leukemia provided a unique opportunity--but it does suggest the possibility that AIDS can be cured in the foreseeable future with stem cells, a huge step for the 33.2 million people infected worldwide, especially the 68% of them living in sub-Saharan Africa.

Nov. 19
A Colombian woman living in Spain had suffered damage to her windpipe from tuberculosis. Doctors worried that she would have to lose one lung if it wasn't repaired in time. The operation necessary to replace the damaged section is typically very dangerous. But this procedure was different. A donor provided a trachea that doctors used to engineer a windpipe fashioned out of the recipient's own stem cells. Four months later she is healthy and, unlike most transplant patients, needs no anti-rejection medication.

This too speaks to the future of stem cell treatments. It suggests that, also in the foreseeable future, people with organs damaged beyond repair will no longer have to wait on a list for a donor, to take expensive drugs everyday for the rest of their lives. Science fiction will become reality, and we will be able to grow our own replacement organs.

Nov. 20
An American being treated in Florida survived for 4 months with an artificial heart before she received a donated heart. The two pumps that comprised the man-made device are typically used to supplement the heart and assist its functioning. Doctors said that young woman's case is "a big deal" and "pretty amazing."

Although the pumps didn't completely restore the patient's quality of life--she fought off infection almost constantly--they did give her 118 days to locate a donor that she may not have had otherwise. With the constant advances being made, we can only expect artificial organs to get more and more efficient as time and research goes on.

I don't typically advocate for a specific charity. There are countless good ones out there, so it's hard to push for one over another. And surely all of those payments of "just a dollar a day!" add up. But if there were something you could do to help people--even save lives--at no cost to yourself, wouldn't you do it?

There are more than 100,000 Americans in need of this kind of help, and, luckily, nearly everyone has the power to give them the gift they need. Unfortunately misinformation, lack of awareness and sensationalist media are standing between 100,000 Americans and life.

Seventy-seven people's lives are saved everyday by an organ or tissue transplant, but 18 people die waiting, president of the Long Island Transplant Recipients International Organization Mike Sosna said. Every minute, 12 people are added to the national transplant waiting list--1,440 people every day.

Those 18 people on the list don't die because they lack medical care. They die because the organs just aren't there. Only 35 percent of Americans have legally agreed to donate their organs and tissues.

I could go on about why people should donate, but research shows that only 10 percent of respondents say they don't support organ and tissue donation. (Also, the Mayo Clinic staff has compiled a great list and explanation of the ten myths that stop people from donating.)

The real travesty is the vast chunk of the 90 percent who say they wish to donate but who never sign up. This is inexcusable.

If you want to donate, tell your family and loved ones. Make sure they know your wishes so they know to do the right thing if anything happens to you. If you're not signed up, sign up today. Yes, today. And not in a few minutes or hours or maybe later. Sign up right now, no excuses.

Click here to sign up.

Eighteen people die everyday because they live in a country where very few of the 90 percent of those who wish to donate actually follow through. Each one of you has the power to change that. Saving lives is just a click away.