Sharing Network recognizes plans to encourage donors
By:Roger Alvarado
Mayor Angelo Corradino says that because organ donations save lives, the borough soon will launch a campaign to raise awareness and get people to be more open minded about the prospect of filling out a donor card.
Each day, 17 people in the United States die because not enough people are willing to become organ and tissue donors, and every 13 minutes a name is added to the national waiting list because that person needs a transplant, according to Tara Artesi, the Sharing Network’s community relations manager.
Recently, the borough announced that it will partner with the New Jersey Organ and Tissue Sharing Network (the Sharing Network) of Springfield, a nonprofit organ recovery agency, and in the process become one of the first municipalities in the state to educate its employees about the importance and benefits of organ and tissue donation and transplantation.
The mayor, who is vice president of the New Jersey Conference of Mayors, said that over the last year he has seen what organ donation can do firsthand.
"Last year, one of our attorneys (Andrew Weber) needed a kidney desperately," Mayor Corradino said. "His wife donated one of hers even though it was not compatible. They went through the process and he’s still living a year later. He would have been dead within three months otherwise."
The mayor said Mr. Weber’s story is one that really "woke me up."
"We want to get as many people aware of the opportunities they have in donating organs," Mayor Corradino said. "Hopefully, we can get a number of residents of Manville to want to become donors."
Ms. Artesi said that over the next few weeks she will bring an outreach program to the borough in order to raise organ donor awareness.
Ms. Artesi is urging everyone to sign donor cards and share their feelings about donation with family members.
She said that if more people sign organ donor cards, join the registry and discuss their wishes to donate with their families, more life-saving transplants could be performed.
"The biggest problem as I see it is that 90,000 people are waiting for organs around the country, 2,800 … in New Jersey right now," Ms. Artesi said. "What happens is that when a potential donor is identified, in over 50 percent of the cases families choose not to donate because they have not talked about end-of-life issues and so they end up opting on the side of safety and say ‘no.’"
Ms. Artesi said that whether the decision is "yes" or "no," it needs to be shared with family members.
"Make sure your family knows," she said. "God forbid something happens and you’re in a hospital and want to be a donor."
That’s why Ms. Artesi says that if people want to be donors they shouldn’t be vague about it and should fill out a donor card or fill out the back of their driver’s licenses.
"Give a miracle to someone else and give to your family by not having to make the decision," she said.
There are eight transplantable organs: "the heart, the two lungs, two kidneys, the liver, the pancreas and the small intestine," Ms. Artesi said.
Of the 90,000 people waiting for an organ donation, nine out of 10 are waiting for kidneys, she said. Blood and tissue type as well as the size of the organ usually determines compatibility, Ms. Artesi said.
However, she noted that each case is unique.
All hospitals in New Jersey notify her organization and ones similar to hers when a patient dies, Ms. Artesi said. One striking aspect of organ donation is that minorities donate the least, Ms. Artesi said. "There is a significant amount of minorities waiting, but not a significant amount of minority donors," she said.
Ms. Artesi said she has found that people believe there is a far greater pool of potential donors out there than there truly is.
"People usually think that when you die you can be an organ donor," Ms. Artesi said. "But only those that are declared brain dead can be donors."
According to Ms. Artesi, there are between 20,000 and 25,000 brain death cases in the country a year.
"That’s our pool and over half of them decline or are found unsuitable for medical reasons like cancer and AIDS," she said. "So we really only have 10,000 potential donors each year; it’s horrible."
The Sharing Network is a nonprofit, federally certified and state-approved procurement organization responsible for recovering organs and tissue for New Jersey residents in need of transplants. Through organ and tissue donation and transplantation, the Sharing Network saves lives, gives hope and restores physical function.
For more information about organ and tissue donation, a donor card or a donor registry brochure, call 1-800-SHARE-NJ or visit http://www.sharenj.org or e-mail at [email protected].