Finding donors no simple task

Finding organ donors is not always easy.

Of the 2 million to 2.5 million people who will die this year in America, only 15,000 to 25,000 meet donor criteria, said Ken Richardson, executive director of Nevada Donor Network Inc., the only procurement network in Southern Nevada.

Of those who meet the criteria, which include brain death, age and reasonable health, only 5,000 become donors.

The network averages 24 organ donors a year.

The network aims to increase that number, using public education to break down the myths and misconceptions that accompany the fear of donorship.

The No. 1 reason for the low figure, which has stayed static since the '80s, is lack of family consent, Richardson said.

The solution: Recruit donor volunteers early on.

Nevada driver's licenses include the words "organ donor" next to the photo for those who wish to become donors when they die. That's not always reliable, because often the license is unavailable at the moment it's needed. But it does get people talking about the issue, Richardson said.

"Typically from this, the family will know what the wish of the loved one was," he said.

However, convincing people to become donors in the first place is often an effort in itself.

The No. 1 misconception that stops people from becoming donors is the fear that the quality of care will be compromised, Richardson said. But, he added, those involved with organ donation cannot legally care for a potential donor prior to brain death.

"When the patient comes into the hospital, the doctors do whatever they can to save the patient," Shari Tupac, organ recovery coordinator, said. "When brought into trauma at E.R., the clothes are cut off and thrown to the side. Nobody worries about the wallet or the driver's license. They want to save you."

Some are still thinking back to the flurry of transplants following the first one in South Africa in 1967. In the first 15 years of the procedure, many transplants were disastrous, and the surgery was viewed as highly experimental and often unsuccessful, Richardson said.

The year 1984 brought a breakthrough for transplantation, when cyclosporin was released. The drug offers tremendous immune suppression, Richardson said, to control the greatest danger in organ transplantation -- when the body rejects the new organ.

Richardson said some families worry that their loved one will feel some sort of pain during surgery to recover the organs and feel that the person has already suffered enough.

On the other hand, Richardson said, in the death of a young person, the family sometimes believes this is the only thing that can make sense out of a tragic death.

Issues such as this are being addressed through presentations made at local high schools, churches and hospices.

"It may be our donor, but the bottom line is that the patient is someone's loved one," she said. The patients are treated with the same respect any living patient would receive.

"For some people, it's the idea of having things cut out of our bodies. For some people it's the idea that death is so impalpable."

Others say they'd donate their own organs, but they don't want to decide for another.

Because the growth of the number of organ donors is not consistent with the growth of the population, the medical field is looking into the possibility of transplanting organs of other species or the possibility of growing organs, Richardson said.

"It sounds like science fiction, but it's possible," Richardson said. Thirty-years ago, transplantation seemed like science fiction."

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