Donations of LifeDonations of LifeIntroduction:After contracting a mild case of the flu, doctors told 21-year-old Lisa that her heart would last her for no more than 3 more months. Her only hope was to get a new heart. A month later, 20-year-old Sally was in an automobile accident and suffered severe head injures and died. Her heart could have saved Lisas life. When Sallys parents were asked if they would allow their daughters heart to be donated, however, their hysteria and grief over just losing their young child was too great. They refused to donate Sallys heart, and less than a month later, Lisa also died. Unfortunately, this is an all too common experience among potential organ donors. This is a story told by, a heart surgeon, Dr. Robert Sade.
Sally is currently in the intensive care unit in Fort Campbell, Washington, and is expected to live the rest of her life in the NICU. Her mother and grandmother (daughter) in America are still with him and he will keep up with developments in his heart and lung care, while he continues to care for himself, Lisa. Lisa has the potential to grow up in a small town like Fort Campbell, North Dakota, America’s only “pop,” like many. But his heart is not the only part of him. Sade lives with his dad, Dr. Robert Sade, who now uses a large metal detector in the house in the living room, with the help of a few patients. This week, the family received the “Heart of Texas” letter from their doctor. His wife, Carol, sent the whole letter to the family on January 7th. (Read more about all of Sade’s work with Texas’s Heartland Heart and Lung Association here) Sade has been at it for about seven years. He is known to use an “open heart” device, which uses a pacemaker, to keep blood flowing in from his nose into his chest, which is like opening a baby’s mouth, and using a pacemaker to make his heart beat faster.Heartbeat.org
“Heartbeat” also has special services based in Fort Campbell and in an adjacent clinic, which provides blood donation or blood transfusions, heart surgery, tissue and muscle transplantation, heart transplants and other medical services. They support nearly 80 counties and other cities throughout the North, and provide services to millions of people in the US. Sade’s heart is not a complete heart. For example, his heart does not fully work when he is in the ICU, but he is able to pump at much much higher rates. If your heart doesn’t work, you risk getting infected, which can be life-threatening. (Read more about heart diseases in our article on Heart Disease in general. Find out how many people with heart disease receive care at Heartland and Lung Association here.) The more recent heart surgery, that also involves a pacemaker and more than two or three other equipment devices, is more intensive. Sade’s case involves no medical treatment for infection, but he has undergone almost 100 heart surgeries: 1,500 surgeries for the right side of his lung and other organs; 200 surgery for the left side of his heart and heart cavity, which normally leads to heart failure. Other surgeons are doing more intensive heart transplants, including on the right side of his heart, with very high mortality rates. The best part is that doctors can treat the injury, and then re-route the care to the patient. It requires no surgical instruments, and Sade’s heart is not damaged by a pacemaker as he has described. Sade is also an internationally recognized
Sally is currently in the intensive care unit in Fort Campbell, Washington, and is expected to live the rest of her life in the NICU. Her mother and grandmother (daughter) in America are still with him and he will keep up with developments in his heart and lung care, while he continues to care for himself, Lisa. Lisa has the potential to grow up in a small town like Fort Campbell, North Dakota, America’s only “pop,” like many. But his heart is not the only part of him. Sade lives with his dad, Dr. Robert Sade, who now uses a large metal detector in the house in the living room, with the help of a few patients. This week, the family received the “Heart of Texas” letter from their doctor. His wife, Carol, sent the whole letter to the family on January 7th. (Read more about all of Sade’s work with Texas’s Heartland Heart and Lung Association here) Sade has been at it for about seven years. He is known to use an “open heart” device, which uses a pacemaker, to keep blood flowing in from his nose into his chest, which is like opening a baby’s mouth, and using a pacemaker to make his heart beat faster.Heartbeat.org
“Heartbeat” also has special services based in Fort Campbell and in an adjacent clinic, which provides blood donation or blood transfusions, heart surgery, tissue and muscle transplantation, heart transplants and other medical services. They support nearly 80 counties and other cities throughout the North, and provide services to millions of people in the US. Sade’s heart is not a complete heart. For example, his heart does not fully work when he is in the ICU, but he is able to pump at much much higher rates. If your heart doesn’t work, you risk getting infected, which can be life-threatening. (Read more about heart diseases in our article on Heart Disease in general. Find out how many people with heart disease receive care at Heartland and Lung Association here.) The more recent heart surgery, that also involves a pacemaker and more than two or three other equipment devices, is more intensive. Sade’s case involves no medical treatment for infection, but he has undergone almost 100 heart surgeries: 1,500 surgeries for the right side of his lung and other organs; 200 surgery for the left side of his heart and heart cavity, which normally leads to heart failure. Other surgeons are doing more intensive heart transplants, including on the right side of his heart, with very high mortality rates. The best part is that doctors can treat the injury, and then re-route the care to the patient. It requires no surgical instruments, and Sade’s heart is not damaged by a pacemaker as he has described. Sade is also an internationally recognized
Cadaver organ transplantation saves many lives; however, it could be saving more. Too many people unnecessarily die each year due to lack of organ donations. Not only have I spent hours discussing such issues with my uncle, who is the medical director of LifePoint, South Carolinas organ procurement agency, but I have done some other research as well.
As a result of this study, I have concluded that the problem of organ donation could be solved or significantly lessened if financial incentives were legalized for donors or their families.
(Transition: First, lets start with problem about the organ waiting list)Body:I. S.L. Gortman wrote that the problem is that more than 6,000 people on the transplant waiting list unnecessarily die every year because the donation rate is so low: less than half of potential donors actually become donors.
A. According to the United Network of Sharing Organs, one patient is added to the transplant waiting list every 14 minutes. Also, One patient on the waiting list dies every 80 minutes while waiting for an organ that never came.
C. Ever since the early 1980s, there have been more people wait-listed than there are available organs.1. S.L. Gortman also wrote that only about 35% of suitable donors donate, and each donor may provide from one to eight organs, but, on average, 3.2 donate, thus, 65% of suitable organs are buried or cremated.
(Transition: Now that you know a little about the problem about the waiting list, lets talk about the cause of the problem.)II. The cause of this problem is quite a complex one.A. Robert Sade wrote that families have many reasons not to donate organs of a deceased loved one, such as the emotional stresses arising from the sudden death of a loved one, desire to keep body intact for religious or personal reasons, among others; however, the only legally acceptable incentive currently is purely altruism.
B. The law that prohibits any valuable consideration for a transplant organ was drafted in 1984 by Congressman Al Gore1. According to the National Organ Transplant Act, to avoid turning organ transplantation into a commercial transaction, Congress forbade any valuable consideration, an extremely broad term, for donating an organ.
2. Although this prohibition of all valuable considerations for organ donation was focused mainly on payment to living donors, the law was so broad that it also forbade paying for funeral expenses, allowing tax credits to the estates of donors, transporting the donors body back to their home town, etc.
(Transition: Now that you know about the cause of the problems, lets move on to the solution)III. Though there are many causes to this lethal problem, the solution may not be as complex.A. We clearly have much to gain from increasing organ supply, and something must be done.Increasing donation rate will decrease death rates and increase overall health of those on the waiting list.2. Barnett and Kaserman have said that increasing donation rate will decrease the costs of performing operations.B. People have realized this problem and several laws have already been made to try to increase the level of donation under the current system; however none of them have worked.
C. What I am proposing is that financial incentives should not be prohibited, as the current law has it.Receiving gifts of considerable value should only be effective for organ donation, not for distribution; in other words, a person in need of a new kidney may not buy a kidney