Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Organ/Donation.."The Gift of Life"



The Solvable Problem of Organ Shortages...
By JANE E. BRODY
Published: August 28, 2007
When the wife and younger daughter of Rear Adm. Kenneth P. Moritsugu of the Navy were fatally injured in separate automobile accidents, he authorized the donation of organs and tissues from both of them. Dr. Moritsugu, acting surgeon general of the United States, calls organ donation “the ultimate act of human kindness.” But the number of donor organs falls far short of the need. As of June, 97,000 people awaited lifesaving transplants, and each day the waiting list grows five times faster than the donation rate. People typically wait three to five years for donated organs, and each day 17 of them die. But, as Dr. Moritsugu noted recently in The Journal of the American Dietetic Association, “The shortage of donor organs is a medical problem for which there is a cure.” When the decision is made to donate, he said, those families, “often in a time of grief and tragedy, rise above personal concern to help others in need of lifesaving transplantation.”The parents of Laurie McLendon, 42, chose to donate when their daughter suffered cardiac arrest at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Two women received her kidneys, a burn unit received skin, her corneas went to an eye bank, and her liver was transplanted into a 61-year-old pediatric oncologist, Dr. Michael Harris of Englewood, N.J., who had contracted hepatitis C years earlier while caring for a patient. Other organs and tissues that can be donated are the heart, pancreas, lungs, intestines, bone marrow, heart valves and connective tissue. A kidney, part of a liver, lobe of a lung and bone marrow can be obtained from living donors. But three out of four transplanted organs come from people who die and had indicated their willingness to be donors by signing an advance directive or by telling the person designated to speak for them when they can no longer speak for themselves. Increasing the Supply Although willingness to donate has risen in recent years, major hurdles remain. Some people, for example, believe incorrectly that patients who might otherwise be saved are sometimes “killed” for their organs. Strict regulations are in place to prevent this. In the early days of transplantation, donated organs and tissues came from victims of cardiac death, people who were no longer breathing and had no pulse, and whose hearts could not be revived. Often by the time organs could be removed after a cardiac death, they had been without a blood supply for too long and were unusable or unlikely to survive in the recipients. In 1968, death was redefined as occurring when the brain ceased to function, although the heart may continue to beat with the support of drugs, and breathing is sustained by a ventilator. With a brain-based definition of death, organs are often in much better condition for transplants. But just 1 percent to 2 percent of patients who die in hospitals are declared brain dead. And because continuous circulation is needed to keep organs healthy, deaths that occur outside a hospital are almost never a source of usable organs. Thus, donation after an unexpected fatal cardiac arrest is rare.There are several ways to increase the supply of organs. They include persuading more people to agree to be donors when they die, putting hospital policies and procedures in place to foster organ donation, obtaining more organs donated from the victims of brain death and cardiac death and increasing the number of live donors, especially people unrelated to the recipients.The success of any transplant program depends on the number of individuals who indicate in advance of their death their willingness to be donors. While most Americans say they approve of donation, only about one person in four has indicated that by signing forms. In Europe, where you are considered a potential donor unless you expressly declares that you do not want to be one, more than 90 percent of people are organ donors. Age is no longer a limit to donation. So consider indicating willingness to be a donor on your driver’s license or in your living will (see the accompanying box). Even more helpful is to tell your next of kin or health care agent that you want to be a donor. And carry a signed organ donor card in your wallet. A card can be obtained through http://www.organdonor.gov/. Through the efforts of the national Organ Procurement Transplantation Network and its regional chapters, more hospitals today have a system in place that fosters donation. When patients who may be suitable donors are dying, families are more often asked to consider donations. But more hospitals need to expand their use of brain-dead donors who are less than perfect, including people older than 60 and those with high blood pressure. Studies have shown that their organs can be successfully transplanted. After Cardiac Death. Another approach is to retrieve more organs from individuals who suffer cardiac deaths, that is irreversible loss of heart and respiratory function rather than irreversible loss of all brain functions, the criterion for brain death. Although organs retrieved from victims of cardiac death account for just 8 percent of donations from dead donors, they are the most rapidly increasing source of donations. According to Dr. Robert Steinbrook, a consultant for The New England Journal of Medicine, the potential for a much higher percentage of donations from victims of cardiac death has been demonstrated at organ banks in Wisconsin, the Boston metropolitan region and the Finger Lakes region of New York, places where cardiac death donors account for more than 20 percent of all deceased donors. Dr. Steinbrook said potential donors included patients on ventilators after devastating and irreversible brain injuries, as might follow a hemorrhagic stroke, as well as patients with high spinal cord injuries and terminal musculoskeletal diseases like ALS, for whom further medical treatment is deemed futile.These patients are technically not dead. But if they are considered suitable donors and the families agree to donation, life-support measures are ended. When the heart stops, doctors wait five minutes before declaring the patient dead and removing organs for transplant. If the heart does not stop within a reasonable time, planned donations have to be canceled, which occurs in about one in five cardiac deaths. To be transplanted successfully, the liver has to be retrieved within 30 minutes and the kidneys and pancreas within an hour after a patient is removed from life support. When this protocol is followed, Dr. Steinbrook said, the success of a transplant after cardiac death is similar to that of a transplant after brain death.
Editorial : This is as good a read as it gets ! Very informative. Please read in its entirety.
"Give The Gift of Life, Be an Organ/Tissue Donor, it`s the Masonic Thing to Do"

Monday, August 27, 2007

Heart-Transplant Operation& Discussion !

Sept 19th at 7:00pm. Eastern time.

Check out this webcast announcement at:

I was not awake during mine. This is good !
"The Gift of Life, The Only Cost is a Little Love"

Friday, August 24, 2007

Heart-Transplant ~ Allomap Test

On August 13, 2007 I had my 13th. heart-transplant annual at Vanderbilt University Hospital, in Nashville Tennessee. I informed you that, I did not have the invasive procedure, called a heart-biopsy. Instead they performed a new test called the Allomap test. I have since discovered a web-site that will explain the test-procedure in detail. Just click on the following site
> http://www.allomap.com/ <

"Give The Gift of Life, Be an Organ/Tissue Donor, It`s The Masonic Thing to Do"

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Union Membership~An American Privilege & Right

Alleged Harassment at Goodyear Settled Monday August 20, 3:43 pm ET

Settlement Reached in Alleged Non-Striker Harassment at Goodyear Plant...




AKRON, Ohio (AP) -- The United Steelworkers union has agreed to drop disciplinary action against four former members who defied a three-month strike last year at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., the workers and the union said Monday.
The workers said they crossed the picket line to support their families. They said they were threatened with $620 fines and subjected to continued dues deductions after they quit the union and got harassed by union members using bullhorns outside their homes.
To settle a National Labor Relations Board complaint, Steelworkers Local 2L in Akron agreed to withdraw the disciplinary measures, erase records of the actions and post the locals commitment against harassing union-covered workers. The matter had been scheduled to go before a board administrative law judge on Tuesday in Cleveland. Pete Stamich, president of Local 2L, said the agreement did not include any admission of wrongdoing. He said the former union members mostly work on their own at Goodyear and have little contact with union members. The local has about 470 members, most making racing and experimental tires. The National Right to Work Foundation, which opposes compulsory union membership, represented the former union members.
"The outright contempt that these thuggish union officials have for employees who refuse to toe the union line is despicable," said Stefan Gleason, foundation vice president.

Editorial : National Right to Work Foundation, interpretation > National Right to Work for Less...I did`nt realize until today, I was a Union Thug...lmaon ! If the National Right to Work for Less had their way, there would be no Union, except theirs and they do not represent YOU, The Worker ! The mentioned Workers at Akron 2L said, they needed to support their families. Well, Imagine that ? Isn`t That why we all wanted to work for a livable wage ? Sorry Fella`s, if you crossed your own picket line...! It was pure self preservation and Goodyear has you right where they want You. You oughta be ashamed ! God Help You !

"Saving America"


Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Be An Organ/Tissue Donor...It`s The Gift of Life...




Subject: Wisconsin Leading Country in Organ Donation...



Wisconsin Governor Doyle Announces Wisconsin Leading Country in Organ Donation Mon, 08/06/2007 - 15:37 — admin August 03, 2007-- MADISON – Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle today announced that Wisconsin is leading the country in organ donation. In 2006 alone, 767 organ transplants were completed in Wisconsin. The Governor made the announcement during the 14th annual Gift of Life Medal Ceremony to honor families whose departed loved ones donated their organs. The Wisconsin conversion rate is 83 percent, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration. The conversion rate denotes the number of times organ transplants occur out of all cases in which transplants are possible. The national conversion rate is 63 percent. “I’m proud that Wisconsin is leading the country in organ donation,” Governor Doyle said. “Demand for organ donation increases minute by minute, and the choices made by loved ones to share the gift of life can have a life-altering effect on recipients and their families. We must remain committed to raising awareness about the importance of organ donation and ensuring that people’s wishes are known to their loved ones.” For the last 14 years, Wisconsin Governor’s have hosted the Gift of Life Medal Ceremony to give transplant recipients the opportunity to express their appreciation to organ donor families and encourage even more of Wisconsin’s citizens to sign their drivers’ license and indicate their willingness to become organ and tissue donors. In January 2004, Governor Doyle enacted Wisconsin Act 119. This legislation provides an income tax deduction of up to $10,000 in travel and lodging expenses or lost wages of a person who donates one or more of his or her organs as a living donor. Wisconsin became the first state in the nation to have a law to help individuals and their families offset the costs of organ donation. Nationwide, nearly 100,000 men, women and children are currently in need of life saving organ transplants and every 13 minutes another name is added to the waiting list. The obstacle most frequently preventing patients from benefiting from organ transplantation continues to be the availability of suitable organs. In Wisconsin, more than 50 percent of drivers and ID card holders are recorded as potential donors – an increase of 4 percent since 2004. In 2007 there have already been 52 donors in Wisconsin, but there are currently over 1,424 people on the waiting list for an organ transplant. Source: Wisconsin Governor

"Give The Gift of Life, Be an Organ/Tissue Donor, It`s the Masonic thing to Do " !