Dyersburg State Gazette: Local News: Mid-South Transplant Foundation volunteer explains donor registry (11/24/09)

Kip Alexander of the Mid-South Transplant Foundation discusses the new organ-donor registry with Dyer County Clerk Diane Moore. Alexander recently set up a display in the clerk's office and gave visitors flyers about organ donations.

Organ donors have heart - literally - on their driver's licenses.

Small red hearts are now being printed on the driver's licenses of persons who indicate their willingness to become organ donors. They may sign up on the Tennessee Donor Registry (www.tndonorregistry.org) or simply check the organ donor box when renewing their driver's licenses.

The organ donor registry was established in April 2008 and is coordinated by Donate Life Tennessee, a nonprofit organization established by Tennessee's two organ and tissue-recovery agencies.

Persons may revise personal information and limit or withdraw their consent at any time. The registry serves as a legal binding contract that acknowledges the donor's consent; doctors do not have to seek permission from the next of kin to harvest the organs.

Kip Alexander, volunteer and special-events coordinator for the Mid-South Transplant Foundation in Memphis, visited Dyersburg recently to tell people about the registry. He set up a display for a couple of hours in the office of Dyer County Clerk Diane Moore.

Alexander said he tries to visit each of the counties in his service area every year. He hopes to increase the visitations in the future to boost awareness of the new registry.

Alexander said an estimated 102,010 persons die in the United States each year waiting for an organ transplant. In Tennessee, 2,210 persons are on organ waiting lists. Most of those (1,799) need a kidney. The others need: a liver (236), heart (108), lungs (32), kidney and pancreas (23), pancreas (11) and a combination of a heart and lung (one).

In addition to those organs, the list of transplantable organs and tissues includes the small intestines, skin, bone, ligaments, veins and corneas. Organ donations have the potential to save the lives of eight persons while tissue donations may enhance the lives of 50 persons, Alexander noted.

Almost 27 percent of the state's 4.39 million licensed drivers are registered as organ and tissue donors.

But, that's not enough. Alexander said 39 percent of the Tennesseans on the waiting list for organs and tissues have been waiting more than two years. Alexander said 638 Tennesseans died between Jan. 1, 2004, and May 1, 2009, while waiting for an organ transplant. Twenty-nine percent of them were African-Americans.

African-Americans are at a greater risk for diseases causing kidney failure, Alexander said. Locally, 80 percent of the patients in need of a kidney transplant are African-American, which is more than double the national average of 34.5 percent.

For more information about organ donations, call the Mid-South Transplant Foundation at (877) 228-LIFE, or Tennessee Donor Services at (888) 234-4440.

Your story about Organ Donation highlighted the tragic shortage of human organs for transplant operations.

Over half of the 100,000 Americans on the national transplant waiting list will die before they get a transplant. Most of these deaths are needless. Americans bury or cremate 20,000 transplantable organs every year.

There is a simple way to put a big dent in the organ shortage -- give donated organs first to people who have agreed to donate their own organs when they die.

Giving organs first to organ donors will convince more people to register as organ donors. It will also make the organ allocation system fairer. People who aren't willing to share the gift of life should go to the back of the waiting list as long as there is a shortage of organs.

Anyone who wants to donate their organs to others who have agreed to donate theirs can join LifeSharers. LifeSharers is a non-profit network of organ donors who agree to offer their organs first to other organ donors when they die. Membership is free at www.lifesharers.org or by calling 1-888-ORGAN88. There is no age limit, parents can enroll their minor children, and no one is excluded due to any pre-existing medical condition. LifeSharers has over 13,000 members at this writing, including 443 members in Tennessee.

Please contact me - Dave Undis, Executive Director of LifeSharers - if your readers would like to learn more about our innovative approach to increasing the number of organ donors. I can arrange interviews with some of our local members if you're interested. My email address is daveundis@lifesharers.org. My phone number is 615-351-8622.

-- Posted by LIFESHARERS on Tue, Nov 24, 2009, at 11:28 AM

Thank you for running this story about organ donation. As a transplant receipient, I can honestly say I would not be here today if not for the generousity of my donor family.

Increased awareness is the only way to alleviate the organ shortage, and stories like this one help to acheive that.

Thanks again.

-- Posted by GH1 on Tue, Nov 24, 2009, at 2:03 PM