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House Health and Human Services Chairman Increasing numbers of Pennsylvanians are choosing to become potential organ donors, but transplant patients continue to far outnumber organs available. I encourage people of all ages and medical histories to help save lives by considering organ donation. More than 89,000 people nationwide, including over 6,000 in Pennsylvania, are awaiting an organ transplant. Approximately 6,200 people died nationwide last year while on a waiting list. This number includes both children and adults. Since 1995, 2,433 pediatric patients, those under the age of 18, have died waiting for a transplant. Pediatric organ donation is of utmost importance. Over 2,300 children nationwide are waiting for a lifesaving organ. In Pennsylvania, there are currently 244 children awaiting transplants. These patients and their families face many obstacles in their race against time. One major problem is that children who need transplants require organs from child donors or small adults, which are hard to come by. For pediatric patients in need of a transplant, donors are most often children who died in an accident or of child abuse. According to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), the number of pediatric donors who died of child abuse in 2004 was 61. At times, some good can come from a terrible tragedy. Sadly, for one child to live, another may have to lose their life. Realities such as this can cause great emotional stress for those families waiting on transplants for their loved ones. With children, as well as adults, donated organs are given to patients based on a match with a donor, medical urgency, and amount of time on a transplant waiting list. A person's race, age, sex, ethnic origin or wealth does not impact how organs are allocated. Additionally, there are no costs to the donor's family or the donor's estate, and donation will not interfere with customary funeral plans. For the more than 89,000 patients who are on transplant waiting lists nationwide, the wait for organs or tissues can seem endless. We need to give them hope as survival rates for transplant recipients after one year are very high. The one-year survival rate for a kidney transplant is above 95 percent, with rates for pancreas, small intestine, liver, heart and lung above 65 percent. In addition to organ donation, people can agree to donate tissues, including tendons and bones in the arms or legs, heart valves and veins, or corneas. One organ, tissue and eye donor may help between 50 and 75 people. During the 2003-04 fiscal year, 83,344 new Pennsylvanians chose to become organ and tissue donors on their driver's licenses and photo identification cards, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. More than 3.8 million Pennsylvanians have the "Organ Donor" designation on their driver's licenses or photo identification cards. This is a 0.5 percent increase over the previous year. We expect those numbers to increase for the 2004-05 fiscal year. Locally, 270,349 Philadelphia County residents have the designation on their licenses or cards while 286,908 Montgomery Countians are listed as potential donors. These numbers continue to increase, but I know we can do better. So many families have been touched by organ donation, and second chances for a better life have been realized. That is why I encourage everyone to consider becoming a potential organ donor. Individuals younger than age 18 must secure approval from a parent or guardian to become an organ donor. In the absence of an organ donor card or driver's license designation, the individual's family will make the final decision about donation. It is very important to discuss organ donation with your family and friends. Parents are encouraged to discuss organ donation in the event of an untimely death of their child, as one donor has the potential to help several patients. Donor cards are available from my district offices at these locations:
I have always been a strong advocate of organ donation and am a potential organ donor myself. I have supported legislation to provide a tax credit for businesses that grant a paid leave of absence to employees for the purpose of bone marrow or organ donation, and support annual recognition of Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Month. In addition, my colleagues and I in the House approved legislation to create the Organ Donation Advisory Committee, aimed at increasing organ and tissue donation by means of education and public awareness activities. The legislation provides for a program that may allow some coverage of donor family expenses. Also, the measure provides for compliance reviews of Pennsylvania's hospitals to ensure that families of the deceased are given the opportunity to donate the deceased's organs and tissues. As chairman of the House Health and Human Services Committee, I am working hard to raise awareness of organ donation and will continue to support legislation that will ease the burden on those who are placed in this very difficult situation. I encourage everyone to learn more about this very important issue and what they can do to help those in need. Those interested in additional information about organ donation can visit the OPTN Web site at www.optn.org or contact the Pennsylvania Department of Health at 1-877-PA-HEALTH, or 1-877-DONOR-PA. CapNews Guest Speaker: Archives |
