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News
Room
6/3/2003
HHS Expands Organ
and Tissue Donation Initiative, Promotes Living Donation Safety
and Awareness
Speaking
at the dedication of the National Donor Memorial in Richmond,
Virginia, on April 25, 2003, Health and Human Services Secretary
Tommy G. Thompson announced that HHS is expanding the Secretary’s
organ and tissue donation initiative and is implementing a series
of measures to promote safety and increase awareness regarding
living donation.
Why
must we increase organ and tissue donation in America?
- Today,
more than 81,000 people are waiting for a life-saving organ
or tissue transplant, and 17 people on that waiting list die
each day – a number that is simply too high in a nation
as generous and compassionate as ours.
- It doesn’t
have to be this way. One organ and tissue donor can help save
or enhance the lives of as many as 50 people.
- Every day
in this country, lives are saved because someone took the time
to think about organ donation, to sign an organ donor card,
to give the gift of life.
- An American
dies every 90 minutes while waiting for a transplant. Mothers,
fathers, sisters and brothers are needlessly lost, simply because
not enough people donate organs or tissue. Giving the gift of
life is a two-step process: First, decide to give the gift of
life. Second, tell your loved ones about your decision. The
gift of life costs nothing, but it is worth more than any other
gift you can give.
Secretary
Thompson announced a new element to the donor initiative:
- HHS, Organ
Procurement Organizations (OPOs) and other transplantation community
leaders are compiling the best practices on organ donation used
at large hospitals across the country to increase the number
of donations.
- This is
necessary because too many hospitals have low organ donation
rates.
- But some
have donation rates of 75 percent or higher.
- HHS will
team with and aggressively assist hospital and organ procurement
association leaders in using the lessons of what works at successful
hospitals and spreading them to hospitals across the country.
- Secretary
Thompson, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and key
leaders from the transplantation and organ donation communities
announced the following goal as part of the event: “Committed
to saving or enhancing thousands of lives a year by spreading
known best practices to the nation’s largest hospitals,
to achieve organ donation rates of 75% or higher in these hospitals.”
HHS
is adopting four recommendations from the Advisory Committee on
Organ Transplantations:
- More Research:
We must look into long-term outcomes of living donations to
establish the data and information that would enable the medical
community accurately to define the risks and benefits of live
organ transplantation. NIH is conducting a study on the safety
of living donors.
- Informed
Consent: All living donors should give their voluntary, knowing,
and fully informed consent to the donation and transplantation
process. The committee set forth several specific documents
and principles that UNOS will be issuing to the general public
and health community for public comment.
- Independent
Advocate: Living donors should have an independent advocate
who would serve only the interests of the living donor. This
would help resolve the potential conflict between the interests
of a donor and the interests of a recipient.
- Resource
Centers: A separate resource center at UNOS should be made available
for living donors and their families to provide the necessary
information and awareness to all potential organ donors as to
the likely consequences of their decisions and to give them
a complete and current set of information about living organ
donation.
HHS
accomplishments under the Secretary’s organ donation initiative:
- We have
exceeded our goal of enrolling 5,000 organizations into the
Workplace Partnership for Life initiative. As of April 25, we
are working with 7,258 Workplace Partners to increase donation
through American workplaces.
- We have
distributed 1 million copies of the Uniform Donor Card.
- We are
establishing a registry clearinghouse to assist state motor
vehicle departments and others to provide information from donor
registries.
- We are
developing a secondary education curriculum on organ donation
that will be provided, in partnership with the Department of
Education, to children in schools throughout the nation.
- We are
working with Senator Frist and other Congressional leaders to
establish a Congressional Medal of Honor to recognize the families
of donors.
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