Green Valley News & Sun - News > News > Your Incredible Neighbors: Wife gives gift of life to husband
Your Incredible Neighbors: Wife gives gift of life to husband
Danny Freeman
By Regina Ford, Green Valley News
Published: Thursday, January 17, 2008 7:49 PM MST
When Shelly Freeman learned that her husband Danny needed a kidney transplant, she was first on the list to offer him one of hers.
Finding an acceptable match is always the trickiest part of the transplant procedure, and the kidney recipient wish list is very long. As luck would have it, Shelly came first in the running, and this past Tuesday, she parted with one of her kidneys so that her husband can live a better and healthier life.
Shelly, who celebrated her 45th birthday Jan. 14, says she couldn't have wished for a better birthday present than helping her husband.
The couple had kidney transplant surgery Tuesday at University Medical Center in Tucson after working for nearly a year with the UMC Kidney Transplantation Program and coordinator, Annette Whinery.
According to Danny's parents, Jack and Rose Freeman of Green Valley, both are doing very well.
“Shelly was out of surgery and talking and Dan was a bit out of it because of the medication, but he was still doing well,” Jack said.
Shelly and Danny are no strangers to Green Valley. They have highly recognizable profiles in Green Valley Recreation, the area's largest social and leisure activity group serving an estimated 24,000 members.
Danny has been employed with GVR for 18 years and is the custodial supervisor for the organization. Shelly has been a GVR employee for the past 13 years, starting out as a landscaper and now working as the top sound and lighting technician, called a Tech II.
In fact, the couple admits that it was while working at GVR that they met and later married.
They have a nine-year-old daughter, Mica, who is a fourth-grader at Sahuarita Intermediate School.
Danny was diagnosed with kidney disease in the early 1990s, the result he said, from toxic exposure of an unknown source. It was not determined to be genetic.
“I had about 50 percent kidney life left back then and the doctor estimated that I had between 12 and 15 years before I'd have to go on dialysis,” he said. “My early symptoms was swelling in the legs and hypertension.”
Danny started dialysis about two years ago, traveling to get treatments in Tucson three-times-a-week.
When it was decided by the doctors at UMC that Danny needed a kidney, a list was complied of possible donors to start the process rolling. Eight people came through immediately to offer him a kidney.
Shelly was the first tested and was an immediate match from the beginning.
It was Shelly's turn to endure the testing which included not only her physical well being, but her mental state as well.
“The biggest concern they had was that I wasn't being coerced or forced into donating my kidney,” she said. “They asked Danny to leave the room and talked to me for about three hours. I explained that I was the one who said test me first.”
After Shelly passed with flying colors, it was just a matter of scheduling a date for surgery.
“The kidney transplant team was so wonderful and talked us through the procedures and what we could expect,” Danny said. “The doctors and their support staff have put us both at ease and given us the confidence to go through this.”
Shelly and Danny said they are grateful for all the support they've received from the community, especially the GVR staff and members.
“Our GVR insurance plan allows us to manage a good amount of the medical bills, and we've been able to rearrange our work schedules to deal with the dialysis and surgery,” she said. “We make up the missed work time, of course, but it’s still been a juggling act.”
Although insurance pays for many of the medical bills, there are other issues, including some prescriptions that may not be covered.
A savings account has been set up under the name Dan and Shelly Freeman at M&I Bank. Those wishing to make a charitable contribution to the Freemans can do so by visiting an M&I branch. The local M&I Bank is located at 270 W. Continental Road.
Besides the love and support from Danny's parents, Shelly’s family has also been there for the couple, including her two older daughters.
Both husband and wife have some recuperating to do and will take the time off work needed to make sure all is well with the transplant.
Shelly said that donors are often concerned with the health of their own remaining kidney.
“If something should go wrong with mine, I have been told that I've earned priority status on the receiving end for a new kidney,” she said.
Danny has been told that he will be on anti-rejection drugs forever and other than watching his diet, will be able to lead a normal life.
Danny said he will be forever grateful to his wife, for what he described as the “ultimate sacrifice.”
“Even when we first started dating before we were married, I explained to her about my kidney disease, and she said from the very beginning, that if something happened, she would give me one of hers,” he said. “I couldn't be more thankful or receive a better gift.”
The Freemans have kept their sense of humor about their medical situation.
“I kid Danny and tell him a kidney from me, a woman — will allow him to stay in touch with his feminine side,” Shelly said. “That scares him just a little, but we both laugh.”
rford@gvnews.com | 547-9740
Details
According to the University Medical Center Web site, 20 million Americans — 1 in 9 U.S. adults — have chronic kidney disease. Sixty-eight thousand of these people are on dialysis and are waiting for a kidney transplant.
More than 18,000 kidney transplants occur each year, with almost half of the organs for these transplants provided by living donors.
UMC is actively seeking ways to increase living donation, as well as expanding the number of kindeys recovered from deceased donors. Historically, kidneys transplanted from living donors have a greater success than kidneys transplanted from deceased donors.
Donor candidates will be evaluated individually to determine their eligibility.
For more information contact: UMC Kidney Transplantation Program, 1501 N Campbell Ave., Tucson at (520) 694-7365 or (800) 297-1250 or visit its Web site at: www.azumc.com
Promoting Organ Donations the Gift of Life
Friday, January 18, 2008
Thursday, January 17, 2008
The Ashburton Guardian (New)
The Ashburton Guardian (New)
Organ donation forum a first
By Erin Bishop
An organ donation forum being held in Ashburton in April is believed to be the first of its kind in New Zealand.
Ashburton Branch of the New Zealand Kidney Foundation president Lesley Glassey said the idea came to her one day when she spoke to a lady who had, some years ago, had a family member on life support and when asked about donating organs, the family declined.
She said she had felt guilty ever since.
But Mrs Glassey, whose son was the recipient of a liver transplant, said she should not feel guilty. The problem was a lack of education about organ donation in New Zealand.
So she approached Mid Canterbury’s Lions clubs with the idea of holding an organ donation forum and had been amazed with the amount of support she had received.
“If we can pull it off, Lions want to take it around the South Island,” she said.
The workshop, to be held on April 11, will be free for the public to attend and is about educating the public.
“It’s aimed at making people comfortable when they are in this horrible position when they have a member of their family on life support and they have to make a decision on organ donation,” she said.
“It’s so that they know what it’s about because they can often just hit a brick wall and it’s very emotive.”
A number of guest speakers have been secured for the forum including surgeons, two heart transplant recipients and the organ donation co-ordinator from Auckland, to cover every aspect of organ donation, including legal aspects.
Lions clubs around New Zealand have been long-time supporters of organ donation, Mrs Glassey said.
They built the liver transplant unit in Auckland, provided a house and paid for people to go to America to up-skill, including paying their salaries for two years.
She said a lack of education also attributed to there being only 25 cadaver donors in the country last year.
There are currently 400 people on waiting lists in New Zealand waiting for new kidneys and only 11 liver transplants were done in New Zealand in 2006.
The organ donation forum will be held on Friday, April 11, at the Ashburton College auditorium, at 7.30pm.
January 17 2008
Organ donation forum a first
By Erin Bishop
An organ donation forum being held in Ashburton in April is believed to be the first of its kind in New Zealand.
Ashburton Branch of the New Zealand Kidney Foundation president Lesley Glassey said the idea came to her one day when she spoke to a lady who had, some years ago, had a family member on life support and when asked about donating organs, the family declined.
She said she had felt guilty ever since.
But Mrs Glassey, whose son was the recipient of a liver transplant, said she should not feel guilty. The problem was a lack of education about organ donation in New Zealand.
So she approached Mid Canterbury’s Lions clubs with the idea of holding an organ donation forum and had been amazed with the amount of support she had received.
“If we can pull it off, Lions want to take it around the South Island,” she said.
The workshop, to be held on April 11, will be free for the public to attend and is about educating the public.
“It’s aimed at making people comfortable when they are in this horrible position when they have a member of their family on life support and they have to make a decision on organ donation,” she said.
“It’s so that they know what it’s about because they can often just hit a brick wall and it’s very emotive.”
A number of guest speakers have been secured for the forum including surgeons, two heart transplant recipients and the organ donation co-ordinator from Auckland, to cover every aspect of organ donation, including legal aspects.
Lions clubs around New Zealand have been long-time supporters of organ donation, Mrs Glassey said.
They built the liver transplant unit in Auckland, provided a house and paid for people to go to America to up-skill, including paying their salaries for two years.
She said a lack of education also attributed to there being only 25 cadaver donors in the country last year.
There are currently 400 people on waiting lists in New Zealand waiting for new kidneys and only 11 liver transplants were done in New Zealand in 2006.
The organ donation forum will be held on Friday, April 11, at the Ashburton College auditorium, at 7.30pm.
January 17 2008
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Evening News 24 - Transplant man backs donor proposals
Evening News 24 - Transplant man backs donor proposals
Transplant man backs donor proposals
SARAH HALL
15 January 2008 15:00
A man whose life was transformed after a double liver transplant today backed government plans to change the law on the way organs are donated.
Matt Hastings, 27, was speaking out after it was revealed there is currently a worrying shortage of organ donors and subsequently an increase in unnecessary deaths.
There are more than 8,000 patients waiting for an organ donation and more than 1,000 a year die without receiving an organ that could save their lives.
The government's chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, has called for a "revolution" in organ transplants.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said the situation is so severe he wants to start a system of "presumed consent" this year.
Mr Hastings, from Caister, has been campaigning for presumed consent through an online petition. It would mean everyone would be automatically eligible for organ donation after death unless they actively opted out.
Mr Hastings was just two months from death when he received a new liver for the second time because of chronic rejection of the first one.
"The operation I had saved my life and since then I have been encouraging people to sign up to the organ donor register," he said. "But there are not enough people putting their names down so something drastic has to be done. I believe presumed consent has to be the way forward.
"It makes little sense to me that if someone is dying in hospital because they need a certain organ but some one who has died has that organ but it can't be used.
"Why should some one else die. The number of people dying while they are waiting for a transplant is increasing. It is a crisis and something needs to be done now.
"I have set up a website in the hope I can get signatures to support presumed consent. It is a horrible thing to talk about but people need to realise how bad the situation is."
Mr Hastings was diagnosed with auto-immune hepatitis, an inflamed liver, while at Caister High School. His first liver transplant failed so he had to have a second one and now leads a normal life.
Some 70pc of people want to donate their organs after death but only 20pc are on the NHS organ donor register. Since 2002, 17 people in the Norwich area have died while waiting for a transplant.
North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb said: "Although this is an issue that will arouse strong reactions, the potential for saving lives through a system of presumed consent cannot be ignored.
"The experiences of other countries with such a system present a very powerful case for introducing it here.
"However, it is vital that we ensure that the ability to opt out is a genuine one. No families should be left feeling that such a step was taken against their will."
Transplant man backs donor proposals
SARAH HALL
15 January 2008 15:00
A man whose life was transformed after a double liver transplant today backed government plans to change the law on the way organs are donated.
Matt Hastings, 27, was speaking out after it was revealed there is currently a worrying shortage of organ donors and subsequently an increase in unnecessary deaths.
There are more than 8,000 patients waiting for an organ donation and more than 1,000 a year die without receiving an organ that could save their lives.
The government's chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, has called for a "revolution" in organ transplants.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said the situation is so severe he wants to start a system of "presumed consent" this year.
Mr Hastings, from Caister, has been campaigning for presumed consent through an online petition. It would mean everyone would be automatically eligible for organ donation after death unless they actively opted out.
Mr Hastings was just two months from death when he received a new liver for the second time because of chronic rejection of the first one.
"The operation I had saved my life and since then I have been encouraging people to sign up to the organ donor register," he said. "But there are not enough people putting their names down so something drastic has to be done. I believe presumed consent has to be the way forward.
"It makes little sense to me that if someone is dying in hospital because they need a certain organ but some one who has died has that organ but it can't be used.
"Why should some one else die. The number of people dying while they are waiting for a transplant is increasing. It is a crisis and something needs to be done now.
"I have set up a website in the hope I can get signatures to support presumed consent. It is a horrible thing to talk about but people need to realise how bad the situation is."
Mr Hastings was diagnosed with auto-immune hepatitis, an inflamed liver, while at Caister High School. His first liver transplant failed so he had to have a second one and now leads a normal life.
Some 70pc of people want to donate their organs after death but only 20pc are on the NHS organ donor register. Since 2002, 17 people in the Norwich area have died while waiting for a transplant.
North Norfolk MP Norman Lamb said: "Although this is an issue that will arouse strong reactions, the potential for saving lives through a system of presumed consent cannot be ignored.
"The experiences of other countries with such a system present a very powerful case for introducing it here.
"However, it is vital that we ensure that the ability to opt out is a genuine one. No families should be left feeling that such a step was taken against their will."
The Press Association: 50% rise in organ donations planned
The Press Association: 50% rise in organ donations planned
50% rise in organ donations planned
36 minutes ago
A radical overhaul of the UK's organ donation system is required to boost the number of people given transplants, a report is due to say.
Dedicated teams to retrieve organs 24 hours a day will speed up the process while the number of transplant co-ordinators should be doubled to around 200, it will say.
A taskforce will set out 14 recommendations to the Government which could see a 50% rise in organ donation in the UK within five years.
The controversial issue of presumed consent - which has the backing of Prime Minister Gordon Brown - will not form part of recommendations from the Organ Donation Taskforce. A separate sub-committee has been looking specifically at the issue and will publish its own report in the summer.
Wednesday's study, which is being launched at a press conference with Health Secretary Alan Johnson, sets out the need for dedicated teams to retrieve organs quickly for transplantation.
It says: "At the moment, teams vary in size, composition and level of experience, their funding comes from various sources and is often obscure. Few members of the team are available specifically for organ retrieval with most having other clinical commitments that limit their ability to respond quickly. The teams all rely on significant help from the donor hospital.
"Changes to consultant contracts and the effects of the European Working Time Directive will further erode their viability. In addition, few teams are able to provide early expert assistance to donor hospitals in donor management and this adversely affects the number and quality of organs removed."
The report sets out the need for dedicated teams working together 24 hours a day.
"Currently, specialist teams from several different transplant centres may be required for a single donor and delays in responding to a referral cause distress to the donor's family and impose an extra burden on the intensive care unit," it said. "On occasions the donor's haemodynamic state (ie their blood pressure and other vital signs) becomes unstable, threatening the viability of some or all the organs."
The Government set up the taskforce in December 2006 to look at how organ donation and transplant rates could be improved across the UK.
50% rise in organ donations planned
36 minutes ago
A radical overhaul of the UK's organ donation system is required to boost the number of people given transplants, a report is due to say.
Dedicated teams to retrieve organs 24 hours a day will speed up the process while the number of transplant co-ordinators should be doubled to around 200, it will say.
A taskforce will set out 14 recommendations to the Government which could see a 50% rise in organ donation in the UK within five years.
The controversial issue of presumed consent - which has the backing of Prime Minister Gordon Brown - will not form part of recommendations from the Organ Donation Taskforce. A separate sub-committee has been looking specifically at the issue and will publish its own report in the summer.
Wednesday's study, which is being launched at a press conference with Health Secretary Alan Johnson, sets out the need for dedicated teams to retrieve organs quickly for transplantation.
It says: "At the moment, teams vary in size, composition and level of experience, their funding comes from various sources and is often obscure. Few members of the team are available specifically for organ retrieval with most having other clinical commitments that limit their ability to respond quickly. The teams all rely on significant help from the donor hospital.
"Changes to consultant contracts and the effects of the European Working Time Directive will further erode their viability. In addition, few teams are able to provide early expert assistance to donor hospitals in donor management and this adversely affects the number and quality of organs removed."
The report sets out the need for dedicated teams working together 24 hours a day.
"Currently, specialist teams from several different transplant centres may be required for a single donor and delays in responding to a referral cause distress to the donor's family and impose an extra burden on the intensive care unit," it said. "On occasions the donor's haemodynamic state (ie their blood pressure and other vital signs) becomes unstable, threatening the viability of some or all the organs."
The Government set up the taskforce in December 2006 to look at how organ donation and transplant rates could be improved across the UK.
Hospital Healthcare Europe - Transplants revamp to aid hospitals
Hospital Healthcare Europe - Transplants revamp to aid hospitals
Transplants revamp to aid hospitals
Wednesday 16th January 2008
Dedicated organ transplant teams need to work together 24 hours a day to help hospitals treat patients, a new report claims.
The Organ Donation Taskforce said the measure will speed up the system, and that the number of transplant coordinators must be doubled to around 200.
It added that the move could see a 50% rise in organ donation in the UK within five years.
But the issue of presumed consent has not been considered by the body. A separate committee is looking into this matter and will report back in the summer.
The new research claims transplant coordinators should be employed centrally by the NHS Blood and Transplant body, rather than individual trusts.
It says: "At the moment, teams vary in size, composition and level of experience, their funding comes from various sources and is often obscure.
"Few members of the team are available specifically for organ retrieval with most having other clinical commitments that limit their ability to respond quickly.
"The teams all rely on significant help from the donor hospital.
"Changes to consultant contracts and the effects of the European Working Time Directive will further erode their viability.
"In addition, few teams are able to provide early expert assistance to donor hospitals in donor management, and this adversely affects the number and quality of organs removed."
More than 8,000 people in the UK currently need an organ transplant, and this figure is rising by about 8% a year.
Copyright © PA Business 2008
Transplants revamp to aid hospitals
Wednesday 16th January 2008
Dedicated organ transplant teams need to work together 24 hours a day to help hospitals treat patients, a new report claims.
The Organ Donation Taskforce said the measure will speed up the system, and that the number of transplant coordinators must be doubled to around 200.
It added that the move could see a 50% rise in organ donation in the UK within five years.
But the issue of presumed consent has not been considered by the body. A separate committee is looking into this matter and will report back in the summer.
The new research claims transplant coordinators should be employed centrally by the NHS Blood and Transplant body, rather than individual trusts.
It says: "At the moment, teams vary in size, composition and level of experience, their funding comes from various sources and is often obscure.
"Few members of the team are available specifically for organ retrieval with most having other clinical commitments that limit their ability to respond quickly.
"The teams all rely on significant help from the donor hospital.
"Changes to consultant contracts and the effects of the European Working Time Directive will further erode their viability.
"In addition, few teams are able to provide early expert assistance to donor hospitals in donor management, and this adversely affects the number and quality of organs removed."
More than 8,000 people in the UK currently need an organ transplant, and this figure is rising by about 8% a year.
Copyright © PA Business 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Hospital project backed - Healthcare in Canada - C-Health
Hospital project backed - Healthcare in Canada - C-Health
Hospital project backed
Provided by: Sun Media
Written by: JOHN MINER -- London Free Press
Oct. 4, 2006
Joe Rapai, at right, wants Christians to join a multifaith campaign.
From his hospital ward where he's recovering from surgery, London District Catholic school board director Joe Rapai urged Christians to join a hospital fundraising campaign launched by Jewish and Muslim leaders.
"We can draw upon our similarities as opposed to our differences," Rapai said.
Last month, London's Jewish and Muslim leaders announced they'll hold a Nov. 1 breakfast as part of a campaign to raise the $2.3 million needed to complete the community's share of building the new Children's Hospital of Western Ontario.
Rapai said London has a globally unique opportunity to show the three faiths can work together.
All can agree on the importance of helping children, he said. "It is a future filled with hope."
Rapai will urge his schools to get involved in the fundraising campaign, but it won't be mandatory.
He has discussed the idea with both Cliff Nordal, president of London Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph's Health Care, and with Bishop Ronald Fabbro of the area's Catholic diocese.
When the joint Jewish-Muslim fundraising campaign was announced in September, it was called a Canadian first.
"We are going to get much more accomplished together rather than divided. We can put our differences aside to benefit those that need us the most," said Faisal Joseph, president of the Association of London Muslims.
Jeff Phillips, past president of the London Jewish Federation, said people sometimes think Muslim and Jewish communities everywhere in the world are against each other.
"That is not always true, particularly in London," he said.
View more healthcare in canada news
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Hospital project backed
Provided by: Sun Media
Written by: JOHN MINER -- London Free Press
Oct. 4, 2006
Joe Rapai, at right, wants Christians to join a multifaith campaign.
From his hospital ward where he's recovering from surgery, London District Catholic school board director Joe Rapai urged Christians to join a hospital fundraising campaign launched by Jewish and Muslim leaders.
"We can draw upon our similarities as opposed to our differences," Rapai said.
Last month, London's Jewish and Muslim leaders announced they'll hold a Nov. 1 breakfast as part of a campaign to raise the $2.3 million needed to complete the community's share of building the new Children's Hospital of Western Ontario.
Rapai said London has a globally unique opportunity to show the three faiths can work together.
All can agree on the importance of helping children, he said. "It is a future filled with hope."
Rapai will urge his schools to get involved in the fundraising campaign, but it won't be mandatory.
He has discussed the idea with both Cliff Nordal, president of London Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph's Health Care, and with Bishop Ronald Fabbro of the area's Catholic diocese.
When the joint Jewish-Muslim fundraising campaign was announced in September, it was called a Canadian first.
"We are going to get much more accomplished together rather than divided. We can put our differences aside to benefit those that need us the most," said Faisal Joseph, president of the Association of London Muslims.
Jeff Phillips, past president of the London Jewish Federation, said people sometimes think Muslim and Jewish communities everywhere in the world are against each other.
"That is not always true, particularly in London," he said.
View more healthcare in canada news
PrintForwardBookmarkFeedbackTell us what you think! Rate this article:
Organ harvest sows debate - Heart Health - C-Health
Organ harvest sows debate - Heart Health - C-Health
Organ harvest sows debate
Provided by: Sun Media
Written by: BROOKES MERRITT
Jan. 15, 2008
Lack of donors spurs argument of implementing a national opt-out program
The man who was the world's oldest heart transplant recipient says harvesting organs without consent would save thousands of Canadian lives each year.
"A program where everyone, except those who specifically opt out of donating, is fair game for organ harvesting is for the greater good. Canada should do this," Ray Nelson told Sun Media yesterday.
The 87-year-old from Lloyd-minster holds the world record as the oldest heart transplant recipient following a risky surgery performed at the University of Alberta hospital eight years ago.
Ad
He said doctors at the time debated over whether to give a donated heart - a rare commodity in the transplant world - to a 79-year-old man, but eventually did, using a 53-year-old organ.
During his annual transplant check-up last week Nelson said doctors told him his body was faring as though he'd never needed a transplant in the first place.
"It's like it was always my own healthy heart. My kidneys, which dictate how well the heart does, are in the same shape if not better than they were in 1999."
He said a program enabling the removal of more organs from dead people without their consent should be a no-brainer for Canada.
Such programs in Spain and Sweden already operate that way; in Canada and Britain, people must sign cards consenting to having their organs harvested.
Because relatively few people do so in Canada, a gap is growing between the number of organs available for transplant each year and the number of people awaiting them.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently created a firestorm of online controversy by endorsing an opt-out program in England.
"The arguments against it are pretty weak when you look at the numbers," Nelson said. "Transplants open the door to a fuller life. People are given a second chance. The things I've been able to accomplish in these past eight years are unbelievable. Each day is a gift."
In addition to opt-out programs, transplant officials are also casting their eyes on the University of Minnesota, where scientists recently grew a beating rat heart in a petri dish.
Scientists scrubbed out the cells of a dead rat's heart, leaving only a husk of the organ, before injecting new heart cells inside it.
Within days the cells multiplied, fleshing out the heart which began beating on its own.
The technique could soon use stem cells to grow whole new organs, redefining the way transplants are done in the future.
"What that means, we hope, is that one day if you need a new organ we'll be able to take your cells, transplant them into this framework or scaffold and build you an organ that works for you," said Doris Taylor, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Repair at the University of Minnesota.
A spokesman for the Canadian Transplant Association could not be reached for comment.
---
Statistics from capital health's human organ procurement exchange
By the end of 2007:
- 253 transplants performed at University of Alberta hospital (47 to patients from out of province)
- 29 donors (excluding tissue donations), few were Albertans
- 187 people remaining on the waiting list for organ transplant
By the end of 2006:
- 245 organs transplanted
- 48 donors, again few were from Alberta
Organ harvest sows debate
Provided by: Sun Media
Written by: BROOKES MERRITT
Jan. 15, 2008
Lack of donors spurs argument of implementing a national opt-out program
The man who was the world's oldest heart transplant recipient says harvesting organs without consent would save thousands of Canadian lives each year.
"A program where everyone, except those who specifically opt out of donating, is fair game for organ harvesting is for the greater good. Canada should do this," Ray Nelson told Sun Media yesterday.
The 87-year-old from Lloyd-minster holds the world record as the oldest heart transplant recipient following a risky surgery performed at the University of Alberta hospital eight years ago.
Ad
He said doctors at the time debated over whether to give a donated heart - a rare commodity in the transplant world - to a 79-year-old man, but eventually did, using a 53-year-old organ.
During his annual transplant check-up last week Nelson said doctors told him his body was faring as though he'd never needed a transplant in the first place.
"It's like it was always my own healthy heart. My kidneys, which dictate how well the heart does, are in the same shape if not better than they were in 1999."
He said a program enabling the removal of more organs from dead people without their consent should be a no-brainer for Canada.
Such programs in Spain and Sweden already operate that way; in Canada and Britain, people must sign cards consenting to having their organs harvested.
Because relatively few people do so in Canada, a gap is growing between the number of organs available for transplant each year and the number of people awaiting them.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently created a firestorm of online controversy by endorsing an opt-out program in England.
"The arguments against it are pretty weak when you look at the numbers," Nelson said. "Transplants open the door to a fuller life. People are given a second chance. The things I've been able to accomplish in these past eight years are unbelievable. Each day is a gift."
In addition to opt-out programs, transplant officials are also casting their eyes on the University of Minnesota, where scientists recently grew a beating rat heart in a petri dish.
Scientists scrubbed out the cells of a dead rat's heart, leaving only a husk of the organ, before injecting new heart cells inside it.
Within days the cells multiplied, fleshing out the heart which began beating on its own.
The technique could soon use stem cells to grow whole new organs, redefining the way transplants are done in the future.
"What that means, we hope, is that one day if you need a new organ we'll be able to take your cells, transplant them into this framework or scaffold and build you an organ that works for you," said Doris Taylor, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Repair at the University of Minnesota.
A spokesman for the Canadian Transplant Association could not be reached for comment.
---
Statistics from capital health's human organ procurement exchange
By the end of 2007:
- 253 transplants performed at University of Alberta hospital (47 to patients from out of province)
- 29 donors (excluding tissue donations), few were Albertans
- 187 people remaining on the waiting list for organ transplant
By the end of 2006:
- 245 organs transplanted
- 48 donors, again few were from Alberta
Monday, January 14, 2008
Organ Donations and Transplant Association of Canada
Organ Donations and Transplant Association of Canada
The Organ Donation and Transplant Association of Canada is dedicated to encouraging Canadians to become organ donors, and to supporting related medical research."
The Organ Donation and Transplant Association of Canada is dedicated to encouraging Canadians to become organ donors, and to supporting related medical research."
A Liver Of Love -- Courant.com
A Liver Of Love -- Courant.com
A Liver Of Love
To Save His Dying Uncle, A Man Agrees To A Risky, Living-Donor Transplant At Yale-New Haven Hospital; It Was The First Of Its Kind In Connecticut
By HILARY WALDMAN | Courant Staff Writer
January 13, 2008
: Dr. Sukru Emre slices an 8-inch incision through Corey Gray's six-pack abs, splaying the young man's belly like a butterflied leg of lamb. Tightening heavy metal clamps that anchor flesh and muscle to either side of Gray's ribs, Emre reveals the healthy liver — the main event of the day's surgery.
It is a risky procedure — and one with no medical benefit to Corey Gray. The goal is to use half of Corey Gray's healthy liverto save the life of his dying uncle. Since the procedure was tried on adults a decade ago, at least two living liver donors have died.
But a shortage of livers from deceased donors has forced doctors to take a hard look at the Hippocratic oath and take a little poetic license when it comes to the basic underpinning principle of medical ethics: "Primum non nocere" — Latin for "First, do no harm."
As Emre painstakingly inches through the center of Corey Gray's liver using electric cautery and ultrasound blades to dissect tissue and vessels while keeping blood loss to a minium, he can only do his best.
"If we were to have enough donors, we would be crazy to do this operation," Emre said in English, heavily laced with the accent of his native Turkey.
But in a nation with more than 17,000 people on a waiting list for a liver transplant — almost 2,000 a year die before a donated liver becomes available — living-donor surgery sometimes offers the only hope.
Emre brought the ability to perform living-donor liver transplants to Connecticut when Yale-New Haven Hospital recruited him from Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York last summer. At Mount Sinai, the 55-year-old surgeon became a leader in the field, performing 650 liver transplants, including 250 from living donors.
But at his new home in downtown New Haven last Tuesday morning, Emre wakes up with first-day jitters. He has done this operation hundreds of times. He has rehearsed this one in his head a thousand times or more.
But he is about to perform the first transplant from a living donor in Connecticut and he does not want anything to go wrong — not for his patients and not for Yale-New Haven Hospital, whose reputation as a transplant center was now riding on the tips of his gloved fingers.
Emre is recovering from the flu and still dogged by a stubborn cough when he starts to isolate Corey Gray's liver in Operating Room 11 shortly before 10 a.m.
After almost three hours of tedious work — cut a bit of tissue, staunch the bleeding, gently probe the purplish tissue for the next safe place to cut — Emre removes a large lobe of Corey Gray's liver and lifts it with two hands. A nurse fills a blue plastic bowl with ice cubes and covers the ice with a sheath that looks remarkably like a plastic hotel shower cap. Emre gently places the precious tissue in the bowl.
Bathed in a preservative solution, the liver segment rests in the bowl while a team of assistants starts stitching Corey Gray's abdomen back together. Emre walks calmly through a wooden door to the adjoining operating room, Room 10, where Daniel Gray's abdomen is open wide.
A Death Sentence
Daniel Gray was 59 and awaiting the birth of a new grandchild when he learned of his likely death sentence — a tumor the size of a tangerine growing in his liver. The tumor was so big that it virtually knocked Gray off the waiting list for a conventional transplant.An unassuming guy who looks remarkably like the 1970s TV character Archie Bunker, with none of Bunker's bite, Daniel Gray would be the last person to ask anyone to sacrifice his life to save his own.
Before all of this started last summer, Gray barely knew his 29-year-old nephew Corey, who — as the operation got underway — was asleep on the operating table next door, his once tan and toned body facing a huge recovery, his young wife, Maite, at home in Florida pinned to the phone while she cared for the couple's young daughters, 8 and 1.
But what choice did Daniel Gray have?
Livers from deceased donors are allocated to patients with failing livers or cancerous tumors that are smaller than Daniel Gray's. Gray started with two strikes — his tumor was huge and the rest of his liver still worked. With that combination of factors, odds were good he would die on the waiting list.
The operation has evolved over the past two decades, since doctors at the University of Chicago successfully first split a liver from a deceased donor in half and shared it with two critically ill children. The discovery that the liver could regenerate completely within about eight weeks helped address two problems: the shortage of donated livers and the fact that children often are too small to accept a full adult liver.
With the success of the split-liver operation, doctors decided to try removing a portion of liver from a living donor, usually a parent or grandparent, and transplanting it into a dying child. The sacrifice of a parent's organ to save a child did not present quite the ethical problems that adult-to-adult living donor transplants would.
By the 1990s, though, the donor shortage made trying an adult-to-adult living donor transplant all but inevitable.
Copyright © 2008, The Hartford Courant
A Liver Of Love
To Save His Dying Uncle, A Man Agrees To A Risky, Living-Donor Transplant At Yale-New Haven Hospital; It Was The First Of Its Kind In Connecticut
By HILARY WALDMAN | Courant Staff Writer
January 13, 2008
: Dr. Sukru Emre slices an 8-inch incision through Corey Gray's six-pack abs, splaying the young man's belly like a butterflied leg of lamb. Tightening heavy metal clamps that anchor flesh and muscle to either side of Gray's ribs, Emre reveals the healthy liver — the main event of the day's surgery.
It is a risky procedure — and one with no medical benefit to Corey Gray. The goal is to use half of Corey Gray's healthy liverto save the life of his dying uncle. Since the procedure was tried on adults a decade ago, at least two living liver donors have died.
But a shortage of livers from deceased donors has forced doctors to take a hard look at the Hippocratic oath and take a little poetic license when it comes to the basic underpinning principle of medical ethics: "Primum non nocere" — Latin for "First, do no harm."
As Emre painstakingly inches through the center of Corey Gray's liver using electric cautery and ultrasound blades to dissect tissue and vessels while keeping blood loss to a minium, he can only do his best.
"If we were to have enough donors, we would be crazy to do this operation," Emre said in English, heavily laced with the accent of his native Turkey.
But in a nation with more than 17,000 people on a waiting list for a liver transplant — almost 2,000 a year die before a donated liver becomes available — living-donor surgery sometimes offers the only hope.
Emre brought the ability to perform living-donor liver transplants to Connecticut when Yale-New Haven Hospital recruited him from Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York last summer. At Mount Sinai, the 55-year-old surgeon became a leader in the field, performing 650 liver transplants, including 250 from living donors.
But at his new home in downtown New Haven last Tuesday morning, Emre wakes up with first-day jitters. He has done this operation hundreds of times. He has rehearsed this one in his head a thousand times or more.
But he is about to perform the first transplant from a living donor in Connecticut and he does not want anything to go wrong — not for his patients and not for Yale-New Haven Hospital, whose reputation as a transplant center was now riding on the tips of his gloved fingers.
Emre is recovering from the flu and still dogged by a stubborn cough when he starts to isolate Corey Gray's liver in Operating Room 11 shortly before 10 a.m.
After almost three hours of tedious work — cut a bit of tissue, staunch the bleeding, gently probe the purplish tissue for the next safe place to cut — Emre removes a large lobe of Corey Gray's liver and lifts it with two hands. A nurse fills a blue plastic bowl with ice cubes and covers the ice with a sheath that looks remarkably like a plastic hotel shower cap. Emre gently places the precious tissue in the bowl.
Bathed in a preservative solution, the liver segment rests in the bowl while a team of assistants starts stitching Corey Gray's abdomen back together. Emre walks calmly through a wooden door to the adjoining operating room, Room 10, where Daniel Gray's abdomen is open wide.
A Death Sentence
Daniel Gray was 59 and awaiting the birth of a new grandchild when he learned of his likely death sentence — a tumor the size of a tangerine growing in his liver. The tumor was so big that it virtually knocked Gray off the waiting list for a conventional transplant.An unassuming guy who looks remarkably like the 1970s TV character Archie Bunker, with none of Bunker's bite, Daniel Gray would be the last person to ask anyone to sacrifice his life to save his own.
Before all of this started last summer, Gray barely knew his 29-year-old nephew Corey, who — as the operation got underway — was asleep on the operating table next door, his once tan and toned body facing a huge recovery, his young wife, Maite, at home in Florida pinned to the phone while she cared for the couple's young daughters, 8 and 1.
But what choice did Daniel Gray have?
Livers from deceased donors are allocated to patients with failing livers or cancerous tumors that are smaller than Daniel Gray's. Gray started with two strikes — his tumor was huge and the rest of his liver still worked. With that combination of factors, odds were good he would die on the waiting list.
The operation has evolved over the past two decades, since doctors at the University of Chicago successfully first split a liver from a deceased donor in half and shared it with two critically ill children. The discovery that the liver could regenerate completely within about eight weeks helped address two problems: the shortage of donated livers and the fact that children often are too small to accept a full adult liver.
With the success of the split-liver operation, doctors decided to try removing a portion of liver from a living donor, usually a parent or grandparent, and transplanting it into a dying child. The sacrifice of a parent's organ to save a child did not present quite the ethical problems that adult-to-adult living donor transplants would.
By the 1990s, though, the donor shortage made trying an adult-to-adult living donor transplant all but inevitable.
Copyright © 2008, The Hartford Courant
Sunday, January 13, 2008
The Whig Standard - Ontario, CA
The Whig Standard - Ontario, CA
Organ donation and risk
Posted 1 day ago
In its attempt to tighten its rules governing organ donations, Health Canada may have raised more public concerns than it has attempted to quell.
Most controversial is the news that, under the guidelines, men who have had sex with another man in the past five years are prohibited from making a donation. Also on the restricted list are intravenous drug users, people recently in jail, anyone tattooed or pierced with instruments that were shared, and anyone involved in prostitution in the last five years. The guidelines are designed to protect potential organ recipients from contracting HIV, hepatitis B or C and other serious diseases.
The gay community has, not surprisingly, reacted with anger, countering that if a gay man has been in a monogamous relationship for a number of years, clearly there is no risk. Yet the guidelines promote the image that all gay men are promiscuous.
The provincial bodies that oversee organ donations have moved quickly to clarify that not everyone in these "high-risk" categories are actually banned from making donations. Gay men can donate; they're just flagged for screening. And doctors, in the end, are allowed to grant exceptions.
The problem is that Canada's woeful organ donation system can't afford to deal in insulting ambiguities and, most importantly, unnecessarily alienate any potential donors, gay or straight.
According to the Health Canada website, "more than 3,700 Canadians are awaiting organ transplants for kidneys, hearts, lungs, or livers, and thousands of others are in need of replacements for tissues such as corneas, heart valves, bone grafts, and skin."
Canada has an appallingly low donation rate among industrialized nations, with the result that last year 147 Canadians died waiting for organs. More than 1,600 Ontarians are waiting to receive organ and tissue donations.
One would hope that organs are approved for harvesting based on good science.
In reality, most are harvested in periods of crisis - the donor dies and the recipient may be dying. The donor, once deceased, cannot answer questions about possible exposure to diseases, so family members are often asked for their impressions of what risky behaviour their loved ones may have been involved in.
Yet even a person in a low-risk group - say, a married heterosexual man - could have practised risky behaviour that no one knew about, such as cavorting with one of the aforementioned prostitutes or having a tattoo applied with a shared needle.
It's not sexual orientation that determines risk but a person's sexual behaviour. Health Canada needs to clarify this point in the wording of its policy, stop the discrimination against gay men and reassure Canadians that good scientific testing, not profiling, is used to make donation decisions.
Organ donation and risk
Posted 1 day ago
In its attempt to tighten its rules governing organ donations, Health Canada may have raised more public concerns than it has attempted to quell.
Most controversial is the news that, under the guidelines, men who have had sex with another man in the past five years are prohibited from making a donation. Also on the restricted list are intravenous drug users, people recently in jail, anyone tattooed or pierced with instruments that were shared, and anyone involved in prostitution in the last five years. The guidelines are designed to protect potential organ recipients from contracting HIV, hepatitis B or C and other serious diseases.
The gay community has, not surprisingly, reacted with anger, countering that if a gay man has been in a monogamous relationship for a number of years, clearly there is no risk. Yet the guidelines promote the image that all gay men are promiscuous.
The provincial bodies that oversee organ donations have moved quickly to clarify that not everyone in these "high-risk" categories are actually banned from making donations. Gay men can donate; they're just flagged for screening. And doctors, in the end, are allowed to grant exceptions.
The problem is that Canada's woeful organ donation system can't afford to deal in insulting ambiguities and, most importantly, unnecessarily alienate any potential donors, gay or straight.
According to the Health Canada website, "more than 3,700 Canadians are awaiting organ transplants for kidneys, hearts, lungs, or livers, and thousands of others are in need of replacements for tissues such as corneas, heart valves, bone grafts, and skin."
Canada has an appallingly low donation rate among industrialized nations, with the result that last year 147 Canadians died waiting for organs. More than 1,600 Ontarians are waiting to receive organ and tissue donations.
One would hope that organs are approved for harvesting based on good science.
In reality, most are harvested in periods of crisis - the donor dies and the recipient may be dying. The donor, once deceased, cannot answer questions about possible exposure to diseases, so family members are often asked for their impressions of what risky behaviour their loved ones may have been involved in.
Yet even a person in a low-risk group - say, a married heterosexual man - could have practised risky behaviour that no one knew about, such as cavorting with one of the aforementioned prostitutes or having a tattoo applied with a shared needle.
It's not sexual orientation that determines risk but a person's sexual behaviour. Health Canada needs to clarify this point in the wording of its policy, stop the discrimination against gay men and reassure Canadians that good scientific testing, not profiling, is used to make donation decisions.
Brown backs 'presumed consent' plan to boost organ transplant donations | the Daily Mail
Brown backs 'presumed consent' plan to boost organ transplant donations | the Daily Mail
Brown backs 'presumed consent' plan to boost organ transplant donations
Last updated at 15:52pm on 13th January 2008
Comments (7)
The proposed policy would mean that unless people opted out of the donor register or family members objected, hospitals would be allowed to take their organs
Gordon Brown signalled his support today for the removal of organs from dead patients without their explicit consent.
In a move to help thousands more people waiting for organ donations, the Prime Minister is backing a policy of "presumed consent".
It would mean that, unless people opted out of the donor register or family members objected, hospitals would be allowed to take their organs.
Mr Brown said: "A system of this kind seems to have the potential to close the aching gap between the potential benefits of transplant surgery in the UK and the limits imposed by our current system of consent."
Ministers will embark shortly on a review of the existing system, with doctors and nurses expected to sign up more donors.
But Mr Brown indicated his backing for the more radical approach, which is similar to that in Spain where there are more organ donors per head of population than anywhere in the world.
But the move is likely to face fierce opposition from patients' groups.
Vital organs: The policy of 'presumed consent' could help thousands more people waiting for organ donations
Joyce Robins, of the Patient Concern watchdog, said: "We are totally opposed to this. They call it presumed consent, but it is no consent at all.
"They are relying on inertia and ignorance to get the results that they want."
Katherine Murphy, the Patients Association charity, said: "We don't think a private decision, which is a matter of individual conscience, should be taken by the state.
"If people want to give the gift of life, that is their right, but it must be something that is a voluntary matter."
Sir Liam Donaldson, England's chief medical officer, said he will back the findings of the government's taskforce on organ donation, but wants to go further and introduce a new system of donation because the shortage of organs is so severe.
He said: "We have one of the lowest rates (of organ donation) in Europe, far lower than Spain.
"We have 1,000 or more patients dying on the waiting list each year, and there is a lot of suppressed demand, with doctors not even referring patients onto the list because there is no hope for them. That is a lot of patients dying.
"I think at the moment people often don't know whether their relative would have wanted to be a donor.
"Families are being approached when they are in a very distressed condition and, faced with uncertainty, their default position is to refuse consent.
"Often the quality of their dealing with clinical staff is not as good as it should be - the dialogue could be better. It does require considerable skill to handle such sensitive situations."
Liberal Democrat MP Dr Evan Harris, chairman of the All-Party Kidney Group and a member of the British Medical Association's Medical Ethics Committee, described the Prime Minister's support as "good news" for patients, donors and relatives.
He said: "This is good news for patients, good news for potential donors and good news for their relatives, since under an opt-out scheme donor's real wishes will be more often respected, more lives would be saved and grieving relatives will be spared the experience of making the wrong decision at the worst time.
"I am delighted that Gordon Brown now backs this plan after the Government blocked my amendment to the 2004 Human Tissue Act, which would have introduced the scheme.
"I welcome the fact that the Government is looking at this again since there are far too many people needlessly dying while waiting for organs, and far too many wasted organs when their owners would have wanted them to be used to save lives."
Gordon Brown signalled his support today for the removal of organs from dead patients without their explicit consent
Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb said: "Although this is an issue that will arouse strong reactions, the potential for saving lives through a system of presumed consent cannot be ignored.
"The experiences of other countries with such a system present a very powerful case for introducing it here.
"However, it is vital that we ensure that the ability to opt out is a genuine one. No families should be left feeling that such a step was taken against their will."
Junior Health Minister Ben Bradshaw said the proposals could save thousands of lives and reduce medical costs in the future.
He said: "Given that 1,000 people in this country die every year waiting for organs, and we have a relatively low level of donation, anything we can do to get those numbers up must be right."
Mr Bradshaw said that he had "no problem" with presumed consent, but acknowledged that some people did.
He said that an inquiry was being undertaken into presumed consent by the Organ Donation Task force which would report back in the summer.
He said that 90 per cent of the population were in favour of organ donation but only 20 per cent of people were on the organ donation register.
Mr Bradshaw acknowledged that assumed consent was a "delicate issue" but argued: "Even in those countries like Spain that have presumed consent, organs are not ripped out of people without the families consenting to that.
"I would appeal to those who feel a little bit uneasy about that if it was you or your child or your wife or husband who was going to die because of the lack of an organ you might feel a little but different about it."
He said that around one thousand lives could be saved per year as a result of Government proposals into organ donation, which could also result in a reduction in medical costs as less people need services such as kidney dialysis.
But the Conservatives criticised the Government's proposals on presumed consent claiming that the Prime Minister was guilty of a U-turn in policy.
Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley, said: "I urge people to consider organ donation and if willing, to put their name on the register.
"The Government's responsibility is to encourage registration and ensure transplant co-ordinators and transplant nurses are in place so that when organs are made available they are used for transplants.
"Only four years ago, Gordon Brown and Alan Johnson voted against assumed consent in organ donations on the basis that there was no public support, they said that there were better ways of increasing donations and that the State should not determine what happens to people's bodies after death.
"Parliament concluded that to take organs without consent was wrong.
"It is neither right nor necessary for us to change
Brown backs 'presumed consent' plan to boost organ transplant donations
Last updated at 15:52pm on 13th January 2008
Comments (7)
The proposed policy would mean that unless people opted out of the donor register or family members objected, hospitals would be allowed to take their organs
Gordon Brown signalled his support today for the removal of organs from dead patients without their explicit consent.
In a move to help thousands more people waiting for organ donations, the Prime Minister is backing a policy of "presumed consent".
It would mean that, unless people opted out of the donor register or family members objected, hospitals would be allowed to take their organs.
Mr Brown said: "A system of this kind seems to have the potential to close the aching gap between the potential benefits of transplant surgery in the UK and the limits imposed by our current system of consent."
Ministers will embark shortly on a review of the existing system, with doctors and nurses expected to sign up more donors.
But Mr Brown indicated his backing for the more radical approach, which is similar to that in Spain where there are more organ donors per head of population than anywhere in the world.
But the move is likely to face fierce opposition from patients' groups.
Vital organs: The policy of 'presumed consent' could help thousands more people waiting for organ donations
Joyce Robins, of the Patient Concern watchdog, said: "We are totally opposed to this. They call it presumed consent, but it is no consent at all.
"They are relying on inertia and ignorance to get the results that they want."
Katherine Murphy, the Patients Association charity, said: "We don't think a private decision, which is a matter of individual conscience, should be taken by the state.
"If people want to give the gift of life, that is their right, but it must be something that is a voluntary matter."
Sir Liam Donaldson, England's chief medical officer, said he will back the findings of the government's taskforce on organ donation, but wants to go further and introduce a new system of donation because the shortage of organs is so severe.
He said: "We have one of the lowest rates (of organ donation) in Europe, far lower than Spain.
"We have 1,000 or more patients dying on the waiting list each year, and there is a lot of suppressed demand, with doctors not even referring patients onto the list because there is no hope for them. That is a lot of patients dying.
"I think at the moment people often don't know whether their relative would have wanted to be a donor.
"Families are being approached when they are in a very distressed condition and, faced with uncertainty, their default position is to refuse consent.
"Often the quality of their dealing with clinical staff is not as good as it should be - the dialogue could be better. It does require considerable skill to handle such sensitive situations."
Liberal Democrat MP Dr Evan Harris, chairman of the All-Party Kidney Group and a member of the British Medical Association's Medical Ethics Committee, described the Prime Minister's support as "good news" for patients, donors and relatives.
He said: "This is good news for patients, good news for potential donors and good news for their relatives, since under an opt-out scheme donor's real wishes will be more often respected, more lives would be saved and grieving relatives will be spared the experience of making the wrong decision at the worst time.
"I am delighted that Gordon Brown now backs this plan after the Government blocked my amendment to the 2004 Human Tissue Act, which would have introduced the scheme.
"I welcome the fact that the Government is looking at this again since there are far too many people needlessly dying while waiting for organs, and far too many wasted organs when their owners would have wanted them to be used to save lives."
Gordon Brown signalled his support today for the removal of organs from dead patients without their explicit consent
Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb said: "Although this is an issue that will arouse strong reactions, the potential for saving lives through a system of presumed consent cannot be ignored.
"The experiences of other countries with such a system present a very powerful case for introducing it here.
"However, it is vital that we ensure that the ability to opt out is a genuine one. No families should be left feeling that such a step was taken against their will."
Junior Health Minister Ben Bradshaw said the proposals could save thousands of lives and reduce medical costs in the future.
He said: "Given that 1,000 people in this country die every year waiting for organs, and we have a relatively low level of donation, anything we can do to get those numbers up must be right."
Mr Bradshaw said that he had "no problem" with presumed consent, but acknowledged that some people did.
He said that an inquiry was being undertaken into presumed consent by the Organ Donation Task force which would report back in the summer.
He said that 90 per cent of the population were in favour of organ donation but only 20 per cent of people were on the organ donation register.
Mr Bradshaw acknowledged that assumed consent was a "delicate issue" but argued: "Even in those countries like Spain that have presumed consent, organs are not ripped out of people without the families consenting to that.
"I would appeal to those who feel a little bit uneasy about that if it was you or your child or your wife or husband who was going to die because of the lack of an organ you might feel a little but different about it."
He said that around one thousand lives could be saved per year as a result of Government proposals into organ donation, which could also result in a reduction in medical costs as less people need services such as kidney dialysis.
But the Conservatives criticised the Government's proposals on presumed consent claiming that the Prime Minister was guilty of a U-turn in policy.
Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley, said: "I urge people to consider organ donation and if willing, to put their name on the register.
"The Government's responsibility is to encourage registration and ensure transplant co-ordinators and transplant nurses are in place so that when organs are made available they are used for transplants.
"Only four years ago, Gordon Brown and Alan Johnson voted against assumed consent in organ donations on the basis that there was no public support, they said that there were better ways of increasing donations and that the State should not determine what happens to people's bodies after death.
"Parliament concluded that to take organs without consent was wrong.
"It is neither right nor necessary for us to change
Britain's transplant crisis: Poor lifestyle fuels big rise in waiting lists - Independent Online Edition > Health
Britain's transplant crisis: Poor lifestyle fuels big rise in waiting lists - Independent Online Edition > Health
Britain's transplant crisis: Poor lifestyle fuels big rise in waiting lists
Binge drinking is blamed for a 76 per cent increase in 10 years in those needing a new liver, while the demand for kidney replacements is up 55 per cent. This week, a 14-point plan will try to tackle the donor shortage. By Nina Lakhani
Published: 13 January 2008
The UK is in the grip of a chronic organ donation crisis which is set to get worse as Britain's culture of excess drives a burgeoning obesity epidemic. The gap between the numbers of suitable donor organs and patients desperately needing them is getting wider every year.
Official figures show that three people a day are dying for want of an organ, but experts believe this is the tip of the iceberg, as many others are not put on transplant lists and are "dying silently". Figures show the numbers waiting for a transplant in the past 10 years has increased by 40 per cent to almost 9,700. Patients waiting for kidney transplants have increased by 55 per cent, while those hoping for livers are up 76 per cent. The situation is particularly critical for people from black and minority ethnic (BME) groups who make up nearly a quarter of those waiting, but must wait twice as long for organs as their white counterparts.
Experts warn that the chronic shortages will get worse, with greater longevity, soaring rates of diabetes, obesity, hepatitis C and the consequences of binge drinking leading to increasing demands for healthy donor organs.
The revelations come on the eve of a publication by a government task force set up to examine ways to help to solve the donor crisis. The task force report, to be published on Tuesday, recommends a 14-point plan to increase the number of registered donors by 50 per cent in five years by doubling the number of specialised staff, standardising training across the UK and strengthening out-of-hours services to get organs to where they are needed quickly. Strategies to reduce current inequalities with ethnic minorities are also included. Doctors believe thousands of lives could be saved if the Government implements all 14 recommendations.
However, some experts warn they do not go far enough in recognising the importance of healthier lifestyle choices to curb the demand for transplants, and improving the detection and treatment of conditions that can lead organ failure.
The report will not refer to the opt-out system recommended by the Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, last July. Currently no organs or tissue can be taken for transplant without the consent of the deceased or their relatives – an opt-in scheme. Under the opt-out system, organs automatically become available for transplant unless a specific objection is made beforehand. Instead of carrying a donor card, objectors would carry non-donor cards. The task force's findings on Sir Liam's proposal are expected to be published in a second report this summer.
Gordon Brown last night threw his weight behind the call for a move to a policy of presumed consent. "A system of this kind seems to have the potential to close the aching gap between the potential benefits of transplant surgery in the UK and the limits imposed by our current system of consent," the Prime Minister said in The Sunday Telegraph.
Spain, which has Europe's best organ donation rate, introduced an opt-out scheme in 1979, but it had little impact until highly trained transplant co-ordinators were placed in every intensive care unit 10 years later. The success is attributed more to trained staff and a change in ethos, according to Rafael Matensaz, director of the Spanish National Organisation for Transplants.
According to doctors, our ageing population and the obesity epidemic are the two main reasons behind the increase in kidney failure, and both trends seem set to continue.
Mr Argiris Asderakis, transplant surgeon and transplant programme director at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, said: "An ageing population brings an increase in chronic disease. Second, we have a society with more blood pressure problems and more obesity, which is linked to the type 2 diabetes epidemic and can lead to kidney failure.
"The population will continue to age, but improvements in diet and avoiding obesity could halve the number of people developing kidney failure and inadvertently reduce the need for kidney transplants."
He added: "Fifteen to 20 per cent of people who are obese will end up with kidney failure." Nearly 108,000 people were treated in hospital for kidney failure in England and Wales in 2006-07, more than double the number eight years ago.
Gurach Randhawa, professor of public health at Bedfordshire University and a task force member, believes disease prevention is vital to address the disproportionate donor shortage in black and ethnic minority groups. "In the short term we need to increase the number of donors from these groups," said Professor Randhawa. "But in the long term we have to address the fact they are six times more likely to become diabetic and then 10 times more likely to develop complications. We have to address long-term lifestyle and diet issues with individuals but also ensure they have equal access to services."
The number of people treated in hospital for liver diseases in England in 2006-07 increased by nearly 80 per cent over eight years to reach a record high of 45,557. Experts warn of a liver disease time bomb as rates of obesity, excessive drinking and hepatitis C continue to soar. "The striking increases we are seeing in chronic liver disease, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic fatty disease, which is caused by obesity, will increase the need for liver transplants. The rise in alcohol-related damage seems set to continue as we have not found a way to reduce the nation's drinking habit,'' Dr Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said. The numbers of people treated for alcoholic liver disease has doubled to more than 26,000 since 1998.
The third high-risk group is people with hepatitis C: one in five will need transplants. "We know of 65,000 hepatitis C cases but between 80 to 90 per cent of infected people are undiagnosed. Hepatitis C and alcohol are both likely to burden the transplant services further," Dr Gilmore said.
Carol Beckett, 37, from Manchester has a rare form of cancer and will die unless she receives a liver transplant soon. But with the competition for organs high, the average wait at her transplant centre is six to 12 months. She refuses to criticise people whose diet or alcohol use may have contributed to organ failure.
She said: "We don't all live healthy lifestyles, but we all pay our taxes and should have access to the same treatment. I am not going to pass moral judgement on people but everyone should be aware this is a life-or-death situation."
A series of surveys has revealed that while nine out of 10 people say they are willing to donate their organs, only 20 per cent are registered. Furthermore, four out of 10 families of potential donors – people diagnosed brain dead – who are asked to donate the organs refuse. Their refusal, which can be at odds with the donor's personal wishes, is seldom overruled.
It was thought this was because relatives are unaware of the dead person's wishes but new research contradicts this. "Our research has totally overturned this as we found donations did not happen despite the views of the deceased. When it comes down to it, many people cannot go through with it, often because they do not want to disfigure or violate the body," said Magi Sque, senior lecturer at Southampton University.
"There has been too much emphasis on the plight of people waiting for organs, and not enough promotion of donation as an incredible achievement for the deceased, a way of leaving a legacy."
Britain's transplant crisis: Poor lifestyle fuels big rise in waiting lists
Binge drinking is blamed for a 76 per cent increase in 10 years in those needing a new liver, while the demand for kidney replacements is up 55 per cent. This week, a 14-point plan will try to tackle the donor shortage. By Nina Lakhani
Published: 13 January 2008
The UK is in the grip of a chronic organ donation crisis which is set to get worse as Britain's culture of excess drives a burgeoning obesity epidemic. The gap between the numbers of suitable donor organs and patients desperately needing them is getting wider every year.
Official figures show that three people a day are dying for want of an organ, but experts believe this is the tip of the iceberg, as many others are not put on transplant lists and are "dying silently". Figures show the numbers waiting for a transplant in the past 10 years has increased by 40 per cent to almost 9,700. Patients waiting for kidney transplants have increased by 55 per cent, while those hoping for livers are up 76 per cent. The situation is particularly critical for people from black and minority ethnic (BME) groups who make up nearly a quarter of those waiting, but must wait twice as long for organs as their white counterparts.
Experts warn that the chronic shortages will get worse, with greater longevity, soaring rates of diabetes, obesity, hepatitis C and the consequences of binge drinking leading to increasing demands for healthy donor organs.
The revelations come on the eve of a publication by a government task force set up to examine ways to help to solve the donor crisis. The task force report, to be published on Tuesday, recommends a 14-point plan to increase the number of registered donors by 50 per cent in five years by doubling the number of specialised staff, standardising training across the UK and strengthening out-of-hours services to get organs to where they are needed quickly. Strategies to reduce current inequalities with ethnic minorities are also included. Doctors believe thousands of lives could be saved if the Government implements all 14 recommendations.
However, some experts warn they do not go far enough in recognising the importance of healthier lifestyle choices to curb the demand for transplants, and improving the detection and treatment of conditions that can lead organ failure.
The report will not refer to the opt-out system recommended by the Chief Medical Officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, last July. Currently no organs or tissue can be taken for transplant without the consent of the deceased or their relatives – an opt-in scheme. Under the opt-out system, organs automatically become available for transplant unless a specific objection is made beforehand. Instead of carrying a donor card, objectors would carry non-donor cards. The task force's findings on Sir Liam's proposal are expected to be published in a second report this summer.
Gordon Brown last night threw his weight behind the call for a move to a policy of presumed consent. "A system of this kind seems to have the potential to close the aching gap between the potential benefits of transplant surgery in the UK and the limits imposed by our current system of consent," the Prime Minister said in The Sunday Telegraph.
Spain, which has Europe's best organ donation rate, introduced an opt-out scheme in 1979, but it had little impact until highly trained transplant co-ordinators were placed in every intensive care unit 10 years later. The success is attributed more to trained staff and a change in ethos, according to Rafael Matensaz, director of the Spanish National Organisation for Transplants.
According to doctors, our ageing population and the obesity epidemic are the two main reasons behind the increase in kidney failure, and both trends seem set to continue.
Mr Argiris Asderakis, transplant surgeon and transplant programme director at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, said: "An ageing population brings an increase in chronic disease. Second, we have a society with more blood pressure problems and more obesity, which is linked to the type 2 diabetes epidemic and can lead to kidney failure.
"The population will continue to age, but improvements in diet and avoiding obesity could halve the number of people developing kidney failure and inadvertently reduce the need for kidney transplants."
He added: "Fifteen to 20 per cent of people who are obese will end up with kidney failure." Nearly 108,000 people were treated in hospital for kidney failure in England and Wales in 2006-07, more than double the number eight years ago.
Gurach Randhawa, professor of public health at Bedfordshire University and a task force member, believes disease prevention is vital to address the disproportionate donor shortage in black and ethnic minority groups. "In the short term we need to increase the number of donors from these groups," said Professor Randhawa. "But in the long term we have to address the fact they are six times more likely to become diabetic and then 10 times more likely to develop complications. We have to address long-term lifestyle and diet issues with individuals but also ensure they have equal access to services."
The number of people treated in hospital for liver diseases in England in 2006-07 increased by nearly 80 per cent over eight years to reach a record high of 45,557. Experts warn of a liver disease time bomb as rates of obesity, excessive drinking and hepatitis C continue to soar. "The striking increases we are seeing in chronic liver disease, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic fatty disease, which is caused by obesity, will increase the need for liver transplants. The rise in alcohol-related damage seems set to continue as we have not found a way to reduce the nation's drinking habit,'' Dr Ian Gilmore, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said. The numbers of people treated for alcoholic liver disease has doubled to more than 26,000 since 1998.
The third high-risk group is people with hepatitis C: one in five will need transplants. "We know of 65,000 hepatitis C cases but between 80 to 90 per cent of infected people are undiagnosed. Hepatitis C and alcohol are both likely to burden the transplant services further," Dr Gilmore said.
Carol Beckett, 37, from Manchester has a rare form of cancer and will die unless she receives a liver transplant soon. But with the competition for organs high, the average wait at her transplant centre is six to 12 months. She refuses to criticise people whose diet or alcohol use may have contributed to organ failure.
She said: "We don't all live healthy lifestyles, but we all pay our taxes and should have access to the same treatment. I am not going to pass moral judgement on people but everyone should be aware this is a life-or-death situation."
A series of surveys has revealed that while nine out of 10 people say they are willing to donate their organs, only 20 per cent are registered. Furthermore, four out of 10 families of potential donors – people diagnosed brain dead – who are asked to donate the organs refuse. Their refusal, which can be at odds with the donor's personal wishes, is seldom overruled.
It was thought this was because relatives are unaware of the dead person's wishes but new research contradicts this. "Our research has totally overturned this as we found donations did not happen despite the views of the deceased. When it comes down to it, many people cannot go through with it, often because they do not want to disfigure or violate the body," said Magi Sque, senior lecturer at Southampton University.
"There has been too much emphasis on the plight of people waiting for organs, and not enough promotion of donation as an incredible achievement for the deceased, a way of leaving a legacy."
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