Re: Organ Donor Authorization

[Guest guest]

Item: The Anatomical Gift Act of 1968

made a signed and witnessed donor card a legal document that can be relied upon

for consent to donate.

Item: Despite the existence of Item 1, a

number of states have found it necessary to pass State “First Person

Consent” laws, which amplify and clarify the provisions of the Anatomical

Gift Act.

Item: Federal regulations require, as a condition

of continued participation in Medicare, that every death which could result in

donation be referred to an Organ Procurement Organization.

Item: The meeting in Orlando was a UNOS –

sponsored conference on ways to increase donation rates. It was not a meeting

of a regulatory or policy-making body.

Reality: Even though Federal, and often

State law, and Federal legal precedent, gives them the authority to act without

the consent of the next of kin, with rare exception OPO’s

still treat the potential donor’s body as the property of the next of kin;

and in the face of Federal regulations requiring referral, as many as 15% of

potential donors are never referred to an OPO. Organ donation

rates continue to decline remain flat while the number of people waiting for a

transplant and dying because of the unavailability of a donor organ continues

to rise. How dare we allow OPO staff to

break the law and to disrespect the wishes of the individual because they are

afraid that someone might be upset? What will it take before we finally rise up

and express our moral outrage at a system that is failing 17 men, women and

children every day ?

Steve

Rahn

L Tx 9/6 & 9/8 '85. (Wash. U-STL)

Listed for Re - Tx (U of Iowa)

" Do

not go gentle into that good night

Rage,

rage against the dying of the light "

(Dylan

)

[Guest guest]

Steve, it is now (last figures quoted by the Organ Donor Bank for a TV interview in April this year) failing 18 persons every day and the list of people needing Tx is not 16,000 but 18,000

It is worse every day because since that time, the people that needs Tx keeps rising and the rate of donation has stayed flat (thus decreasing against demand)

********

Lily in Boston, MA, USA - 58 yr old, 5'8", 150lbs - UC dx 1973, PSC dx 1986, Tx Apr 18, 2002. Both hips replaced 2000, both knees replaced 1995, gastric bypass 1994 (lost 200 pounds), fibromyalgia, rheumathoid arthritis, osteoporosis, fused lumbar vertebrae op'd 1970 & narrowing of medular canal 2003, Diabetes dx 1988, TMJ dx 2003

[Guest guest]

Lily,

I’ve learned not to rely on OPO’s for verifiable statistics. There are

unfortunately still some people who are opposed to organ donation. If one of

these people is looking for a way to attack my message and checks it out for

themselves and they discover that I’ve exaggerated the numbers, they will

focus on that rather than the message.

The figures for January 2003 to date are

not available yet, and UNOS says a bit more than 17,000 transplant candidates

were removed from the waiting list in 2002 due to death. That calculates out to

just over 17 per day, on average.

Best source: http://www.unos.org/data/default.asp?displayType=usData

Steve

Rahn

L Tx 9/6 & 9/8 '85. (Wash. U-STL)

Listed for Re - Tx (U of Iowa)

" Do

not go gentle into that good night

Rage,

rage against the dying of the light "

(Dylan

)

[Guest guest]

By my calculation, 17,000 deaths per year divided by 356 days per year is almost 48 deaths per day. If there were 1,000 days per year, it would be about 17 deaths per day. Unfortunately 48 deaths per day is grimmer than 17 deaths per day. 17,000 deaths per year is pretty bad.

Marie

>Date: Wed, 28 May 2003 15:25:30 -0500 > >

>The figures for January 2003 to date are not available yet, and UNOS >says a bit more than 17,000 transplant candidates were removed from the >waiting list in 2002 due to death. That calculates out to just over 17 >per day, on average. > >Best source: http://www.unos.org/data/default.asp?displayType=usData > > >Steve Rahn >L Tx 9/6 & 9/8 '85. (Wash. U-STL) >Listed for Re - Tx (U of Iowa) >"Do not go gentle into that good night >Rage, rage against the dying of the light" >(Dylan ) > Protect your PC - Click here for McAfee.com VirusScan Online

[Guest guest]

Hmmm... I get 46.57 per day... any other answers?

Marie Nilsson wrote:

>

> By my calculation, 17,000 deaths per year divided by 356 days per year

^^^

> is almost 48 deaths per day.

[Guest guest]

Yeah, they say the first thing to go is

the mind, and the next is…ummm….errrrr…..uhhhhh……

What I meant to say was that the number

of candidates waiting for liver transplant is slightly over 17,000. The number

of transplant candidates removed from the waiting list in 2002 because of death

was 6,247, which works out to 17.11 per day, on average. 6,247 deaths is

shameful.

Steve

Rahn

L Tx 9/6 & 9/8 '85.

(Wash. U-STL)

Listed for Re - Tx (U of

Iowa)

" Do

not go gentle into that good night

Rage,

rage against the dying of the light "

(Dylan

)

RE: Organ

Donor Authorization

By my calculation, 17,000 deaths per year divided by

356 days per year is almost 48 deaths per day. If there were 1,000 days

per year, it would be about 17 deaths per day. Unfortunately 48 deaths

per day is grimmer than 17 deaths per day. 17,000 deaths per year is

pretty bad.

Marie

[Guest guest]

Following Steve's link to http://www.optn.org/data/, and viewing the

national data for waiting list removal reasons, the data as of May

23, 2003 for 2002 is 6571 deaths - an average of 18.0027 per day. If

you consider that another 1868 were removed because they were too

sick, thus avoiding death while on the waiting list, the total comes

to over 23 per day. More than 1 for every 3 transplants done.

> The number of transplant candidates

> removed from the waiting list in 2002 because of death was 6,247,

which

> works out to 17.11 per day, on average. 6,247 deaths is shameful.

[Guest guest]

Tim, You have to make a distinction between " Registrations "

and " Candidates " (the UNOS site defaults to " Registrations " )- since

until the policy revision is implemented, patients are still allowed

to register at multiple Centers. Adding the number of people who are

removed because they are too sick might distort the calculation,

because some cohort of that number most certainly recovered enough

to be re-listed. While the actual number very likely is higher than

17, that's certainly bad enough.

> Following Steve's link to http://www.optn.org/data/, and viewing

the

> national data for waiting list removal reasons, the data as of May

> 23, 2003 for 2002 is 6571 deaths - an average of 18.0027 per day.

If

> you consider that another 1868 were removed because they were too

> sick, thus avoiding death while on the waiting list, the total

comes

> to over 23 per day. More than 1 for every 3 transplants done.

>