Monday, April 26, 1999
Shorter wait for organ transplants
Donations up 31% locally
BY TIM BONFIELD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
This year's significant increase in Tristate families agreeing to donate relatives' organs is making a dent in the ever-growing list of patients waiting for transplants.
LifeCenter (formerly the Ohio Valley LifeCenter) reports 17 area residents have become organ donors so far this year, compared with 13 through the end of April last year — a 31 percent increase.
If that pace continues, 1999 will be a record year for organ donations, said Mark Sommerville, the LifeCenter's assistant director.
Should the donation pace continue, there would be at least 58 organ donors in 1999, up from 45 in 1998. The high est number of local organ donors was 53 in 1995.
Medical teams collect an average of three organs per
donor (not counting tissue and eye donations), so those 13 additional donors would allow 39 more people to get organ transplants. That increase adds up to nearly 20 percent of the local waiting list, now hovering at about 220 people.
LifeCenter traces the local increase in organ donations to two main factors:
• A heightened community aware ness about organ donation stemming from the emotional story about James and Christopher Frank, the Glen Este High School brothers who died after a car crash in December.
• A federal “routine notification” regulation that took effect in August requiring hospitals to inform organ collection agencies about potential donors.
“Routine notification is starting to work. We are getting more referrals,” Mr. Sommerville said.
The increase started last year, even though the trend was masked by a decrease in the number of potential donors from brain deaths.
In 1997, there were 91 victims of brain hemorrhages, car wrecks, shootings and other cases that led to brain death — the primary way people become organ donors. Of those cases, 75 percent were referred to LifeCenter and 38 percent of families agreed to donate organs.
In 1998, there were just 75 brain death cases. However, 91 percent of the cases were referred to the LifeCenter and 49 percent became organ donors.
The increased attention to organ donation also boosted collection of eyes, heart valves, bone and other tissues. In 1998, there were 935 eye donors, up 9.5 percent over 1997 and 262 tissue donors, up 17.5 percent.
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