Each day across America 20 people will die while waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant.

Imagine the faces of those 20 individuals.

It might be a father with a heart condition too ill to work, a college student dependent on a dialysis machine or a small child desperate for a liver transplant.

Now imagine being able to help those 20 people stay alive and you decide to do nothing.

Unfortunately, too many people across the country decide to do nothing each year by not becoming an organ donor.

According to the U.S Department of Health & Human Services’ website http://www.organdonor.gov, the number of people waiting for an organ far exceeds the number of organs that become available each year.

In 2018:
• At the end of 2018, there were roughly 113,000 men, women, and children on the national transplant waiting list.
• Last year 36, 528 transplants were performed.
• One donor has the potential to save up to 8 lives.
• 83% of the individuals waiting for an organ transplant need a kidney.
• Every 10 minutes a new name is placed on the national transplant waiting list.

Since the demand for organs surpasses the supply, the typical wait time for an organ transplant (depending on the type or organ and specific medical criteria) is between three and five years.

It’s traumatic enough to learn you need an organ transplant; it’s devastating to learn the wait time could be three to five years.

December 1995

It was the start of December 1995 when the doctor said I needed dialysis because my kidneys were failing.

I felt weak and lethargic, had difficulty breathing and my legs were so swollen walking even a few feet was a challenge.

Until that time I knew nothing about the process of getting a kidney transplant. I had a lot to learn.

“I’d like to have the surgery before Christmas, so it doesn’t interfere with the holidays,” I said. “Any day except next Wednesday.”

“You’re not scheduling a garage appointment to get the oil changed in your truck. We’re talking about a human organ,” said the doc. “It’s not like the surgeon goes to the fresh organ department at Walmart right before the surgery and picks out a nice looking one.”

When the doctor said my wait could be about three years I was stunned. How could this be? This wasn’t some third world country.

Waiting three years had to be a mistake. A three-year wait was probably for someone with a rare blood type or some other medical oddity that would make finding a match almost impossible.

If you could mash together every negative emotion someone could experience from fear, hopelessness, and rage to anxiety and anger, that was what I felt that first day and every day while waiting for an organ transplant.

There were times during my wait I would become so consumed with fear and anxiety not knowing if I needed to wait another year or another week until there was a kidney that matched my requirements.

Receiving a kidney from a living donor was not an option, so I waited and waited for the phone call.

It was Christmas Eve 1998 when I finally received notice that a kidney was available.

The call came three years and one week — 1,102 days — after my name was placed on the national waiting list.

From being on dialysis to the actual kidney surgery, waiting three years for a kidney was the most challenging experience of the journey. In fact, the wait was the most challenging experience I ever had.

No matter how hard I try, it’s impossible for someone to understand how an organ transplant changed my life completely. All because an individual I never knew became an organ donor.

The day that person died 20 years ago they didn’t need to be an organ donor.

Instead, this compassionate and caring person knew they could make an unmeasurable impact on so many lives.
Death and Ignorance

In my opinion, there are two main reasons why more people are not organ donors: death and ignorance.

People don’t want to think of their own demise. By becoming an organ donor that person is acknowledging his or her own death.

According to http://www.organdonor.gov, 95% of US adults approve of organ donation yet only 58% are registered as organ donors.

Ignorance is the other deterrent. Here are a few of the myths that might prevent someone from becoming an organ donor.

• If you’re hurt in an accident medical professionals won’t provide the same in-depth care to save your life because they’ll be too anxious to remove your organs.
• The expense is passed onto the donor’s family.
• The process takes a lengthy amount of time that will greatly delay any funeral arrangements.
• My religion probably disapproves of organ donation.
• Who would want my organs? I’m too old or have a medical condition.
• Becoming an organ donor is a complicated and lengthy procedure.

The answer to every one of these situations is false, wrong and incorrect.

Close to Home

Receiving a kidney transplant just became easier and less stressful thanks to UPMC Susquehanna.

The Williamsport based medical center recently opened the new UPMC Kidney Transplant Clinic for UPMC Susquehanna patients dealing with end-stage kidney disease.

The clinic, staffed by specialists based in Pittsburgh, will perform the lengthy and detailed evaluation portion to determine if an individual could be a candidate for organ transplantation and have their name added to the national waiting list.

The clinic will offer a range of pre-kidney transplant evaluation services including blood testing, diagnostic testing, social services, ongoing education, and periodical testing.

The clinic will also provide transplant evaluations and information about living-donor kidney transplants

“We’re very excited to have the opportunity to make the evaluation process easier for people in northcentral Pennsylvania,” said Amit Tevar, MD, director of kidney and pancreas transplant at UPMC in Pittsburgh.

When an organ becomes available the actual transplant operation would be performed at UPMC in Pittsburgh, one of the nation’s most revered transplant departments in the nation.

The Williamsport clinic along with UPMC Pittsburgh will work together to provide local convenience along with the expertise of world-class specialists at a nationally known medical center.

“Through this clinic, we’re able to help kidney transplant patients stay close to their homes and support system,” said Steven P. Johnson, President, UPMC Susquehanna. “UPMC has one of the nation’s most active and experienced kidney transplant programs, and our evaluation clinic in Williamsport is bringing that expertise to the region.”

The transplant program at UPMC saved the lives of thousands of patients of all ages with kidney, pancreas, lung and heart transplants.

“This clinic brings the expertise of the UPMC transplant team to the region and will allow patients to be seen and evaluated by the same transplant surgeons and nephrologists that they would see in Pittsburgh,” said Tevar. “We look forward to working with patients, local nephrologists and UPMC Susquehanna in providing advanced and efficient access to transplant patients in the area.”

For more information on organ donation visit http://www.organdonor.gov.