Organ transplant professionals and advocates in Franklin County hope that the celebration of National Donate Life Month in April will help bring awareness to the large need for donors.
While donation has reached its highest level in U.S. history, a lot more still needs to be done for those needing transplants, and there is a growing gap between donation and need.
“There are way too many people that need organs — we have a lot of work to do,” said Dr. Kenneth McPartland, transplant surgeon at Baystate Medical Center.
In 2015, organs donated surpassed 30,000 for the first time in the U.S., but this number is less than a quarter of those who are still waiting. According to McPartland and numbers gathered by Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN), the total amount of people needing a transplant across the United States is just under 122,000. This number only includes people needing life-saving organ transplants, such as kidney, heart, liver or lung.
In fact, based on numbers provided by the network, the number of those waiting has grown by more than 30,000 over the past decade, while those who have donated has grown by only about 2,000.
“Even though we did more transplants in 2015 than we ever did, there are still many more times that the people waiting for organs are dying,” McPartland said. “And I really think that is the big problem — we don’t have enough transplants to help those that need them.”
“Overall, 50 percent of the population are identified as organ donors,” said Wendy Fitt of Life Choice Donor Services. But those who are identified may not become donors in the end. Fitt said that families may not allow for organ donation. There are also many instances where someone’s organs cannot be used for any number of reasons, from lack of healthy organs to how the person died.
“Even with the number of deceased donors there are still not enough organs,” McPartland said. “We also need to increase the number of living transplant donors.”
In living transplants, people can donate kidneys to someone whom they match. This would help lower the amount of those waiting, since 80 percent of them are waiting for kidneys.
The problem though, McPartland said, is that many people do not attempt living donation. And the factors why are difficult and unclear.
According to McPartland, some of those who may need transplants do not have family members or people they are close enough to who can donate, or may have the same genetic problems as the person who needs the organ. Other times a person may be willing to donate their organ, such as a kidney, but are not a match for the person in need.
For the instances of lack of a match, there are nonprofit “organ procurement” companies such as Life Choice and National Kidney Registry that attempt to match others, but participation has been low thus far.
Then, there is the perceived risk of donating a kidney. But McPartland wants people to know that the risk is minimal.
“There is a small risk, but generally those who donate do as well or nearly as well as those in the general population, and there is 30 years of research that backs that,” McPartland said.
“Organ donors can save the lives of eight different people,” Fitt said.
But in spite of the low risk and high reward, Fitt wants those who consider becoming donors to talk to their families and close ones first.
“At some point we will be talking to your family about this,” Fitt said. She said that this conversation can be difficult, and could take friends and family by surprise, so discussing this beforehand could reduce confusion and conflict.
For those seeking more information, visit: donatelifenewengland.org as well as the kidneyregistry.org or any of the other 58 non-profit organ procurement agencies in the United States. Also, contact your doctor and discuss the options, and don’t forget to register for organ donation at the Registry of Motor Vehicles.