Organ donors needed

PALMER -- A presentation by Life Alaska Donor Services at the Palmer Lions Club emphasized the need for qualified organ and tissue donors in the Valley and statewide. Kristi Holta, a spokesman for the organization, gave a speech and slide show presentation on the practice of donation and its widespread necessity.

"Because of the fact that Alaska is so remote from other states, Alaskan donation recipients can't always receive the donations they need," Holta said, adding that any Alaskan receiving a transplant needs to have the operation performed out of state, since Alaska lacks an organ transplant facility. She said this lack is due mostly to Alaska's small population, which fails to create enough need for a full-time facility.

Holta said Alaska has one of the highest donation rates in the nation, and that 20 donations were successfully performed in the state last year. Nationwide, 25,000 people per year receive an organ donation, and almost a million receive a tissue transplant, according to figures given by Holta.

Life Alaska works on the four C's principle: their staff endeavors to ensure confidentiality, no cost, no change in after-death appearance, and maintain consent of the donor.

The national consent rate for donations is around 50 percent, Holta said, while Alaska's rate is 70 percent. Since 1992, Life Alaska has had almost 2,500 donors.

Holta added that more than 83,000 people are still waiting for a transplant, and 17 of them die each day. These problems are largely caused by a combination of three factors. First, a donor must be under a very specific set of medical circumstances before donating, circumstances that only about 1- to 2-percent of volunteers meet. Donors generally must be declared brain-dead before their organs can be donated, a relatively rare condition. Secondly, potential donors often believe (erroneously, Holta said) that donating tissue or organs will alter their appearance at an open-casket funeral. Finally, families are often either not given the option of organ donation or not made aware of its possibility.

"A lot of times, they might not even think of organ donation being an option for the family," Holta said.

One organ or tissue donator can help up to 50 people with their donations; segments of bone, for example, can be crafted into tiny screws or connecting joints for broken limbs, and tissue can be transplanted from several different areas of the body, Holta said..

According to other information released by Life Alaska, the decision to become a donor will not affect the quality of medical care received by patients, the receipt of organs by needy patients is unbiased, and organ donation does not disfigure the body in any manner or interfere with funeral arrangements.

"People have been very receptive toward having a local presence up here," Holta said.

Life Alaska is a nonprofit organization founded in 1991. In addition to administering donations statewide, the organization offers bereavement counseling and other services for families of the recently deceased. These services include a yearly memorial for Alaska donors.

"We put the families first in our program," Holta said.

Anyone wishing to become an organ or tissue donor or receive more information is encouraged to contact Life Alaska at (907) 562-5333 or visit their Web site at www.lifealaska.org.

Contact Daniel Spoth at daniel.spoth@frontiersman.com.