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REMARKS BY:
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TOMMY G. THOMPSON, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
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PLACE:
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HHS Auditorium, Washington, D.C.
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DATE:
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February 13, 2004
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No Greater Love Organ Donation Event
Good morning, everybody. I really like this day. It's a day of giving. I would like to thank Chris Klug - an Olympic champion snowboarder - for being here today and sharing his story with us. I would also like to thank Dave Quick of Saturn - which sponsors National Donor Day - for joining us today. I'd like to welcome Camile Haney, who's back on the job after some surgery, for being so passionate about getting more donors to sign up. And I would like to thank everyone who worked on the "No Greater Love" documentary that brought us all together. I'll speak in more detail about that later, but first I'd like to speak with you about organ donation in general.
Promoting organ, tissue and blood donation is extremely important to me. As Governor of Wisconsin, I led an effort to increase blood donations in Wisconsin that set new records. When I became Secretary of this great Department, within 100 days of taking office, I launched the Gift of Life Donation Initiative. I launched this initiative to increase awareness and promote donation of organs, tissue, bone marrow and blood. And this past November, I set out a new challenge - Give Thanks! Give Life! Give Twice! A campaign to thank our regular volunteer blood donors, celebrate the gift of life they make, and encourage every qualified individual to give blood twice a year, or more.
Sometimes I'm just in awe over how much progress the medical community has made and continues to make. It was only in 1954 - 50 years ago - that the first U.S. organ transplant was performed. Surgeons removed a kidney from one identical twin and placed it in the other twin. In the year 2002, we performed almost 25,000 transplants. Many recipients never even met their donor. And now, in 2004, one donor, just one person, can save or enhance up to 50 other lives across America. One person really can make a difference. We've made remarkable progress. Modern medicine is truly something to behold and improving each and every day.
Today, I'm very pleased to announce that the Gift of Life Donation Initiative is working. Organ donation is up 4.8 percent for the period of January through November of 2003, compared with the same part of 2002. The final statistics will be out soon. This increase is significantly higher than a comparison of the same period over the last 4 years. For example, in 2002 it increased by point 6 percent and in 2001 it increased by 2 percent. This is the most significant organ donation increase since 1998. Then, it increased because a new law required hospitals to report deaths to organ procurement organizations to determine whether organ, tissue, or eye donation was a possibility.
Even with this law, on average, minorities have waited nearly twice as long as Caucasians for organ transplants. There simply have not been enough minorities donating their organs. And, finding a matching donor is much easier when people share a similar heritage or ethnicity. But, in 2003, donations among Hispanics increased by 14 percent. And donations among African-Americans are up 12 percent. This is great news. These numbers reflect a promising trend.
But we still have a long way to go and I'm asking for your help. As of last Friday, more than 83,000 Americans were still waiting for an organ donation. Waiting for another chance at life. Can you imagine the angst of that individual and his or her family? Wondering if he or she will be one of the lucky ones to receive a transplant? Imagine the stress that puts on a family. Chris can tell you all about that stress.
Please, help me give our fellow Americans more hope. Tomorrow is not only Saint Valentine's Day, but also National Donor Day. I urge you to have a heart, and pledge your heart, too. Sign up to become an organ and tissue donor.
A donor card is attached to each of your chairs. If you've already signed up - that's great. Thank you. Pass it along to a friend or family member. And speaking of family members, there is something else I would ask you to do. Talk with your family about becoming a donor. Tell them your wishes. You'll be glad that you did.
You've heard me say it before and I'll say it again. If your organs had a chance to vote - Your eyes would continue to see. Your heart would continue to beat in someone else's body. And you know your kidney and liver would want to continue to eat Wisconsin cheese and drink Wisconsin beer and continue the greatness of life.
Now, it gives me great pleasure to introduce an outstanding young man, and that's Chris Klug. Before we came down here, Chris and I were up in my office where he offered to give me a lesson in snowboarding. I think he knows that if he gives me a lesson, that's a possibility for more organs.
Chris is a good friend of mine, a strong advocate for organ donation and a champion snowboarder. Only 18 months after Chris received a liver transplant, he won the bronze medal in the Men's Parallel Giant Slalom event at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in February of 2002. He is here today to share his story. And then he'll be leaving right after he speaks to fly out to more competition in Squaw Valley.
Chris Klug shares his story.
Dr. Ken Moritsugu, Deputy Surgeon General presents Secretary Thompson with the Freddie Award.
Dr. Elizabeth Duke, Administrator of Health Resources and Services Administration presents Secretary Thompson with the Emmy Award.
Thank you. On behalf of all the wonderful employees at the Department of Health and Human Services, I am honored to accept these awards. We are very proud of this film. And we'd like to thank HRSA because they funded it. And we thank you, Dr. Moritsugu, for having that tough job of traveling to Hollywood and accepting these awards.
I would like to thank two people from Banyan Communications for their work on this project. Alan Admire, the executive producer and Don Schroeder, the writer and director. Would you both please stand up?
Your dedication and passion come through in this project and you should be very proud.
These awards represent the hope of all the Americans who wait for an organ transplant and the hope of their families that their loved one receives that wonderful gift of life, that second chance.
And I wouldn't be a very good Wisconsin Badger if I passed up the opportunity to thank the Wisconsin PBS stations for taking the lead in promoting this documentary among their sister PBS stations. Their help is much appreciated. Every time a PBS stations airs "No Greater Love," I expect, and hope and pray that more Americans register to donate their organs.
Thank you again for this wonderful recognition. Thank you Dr. Moritsugu for going to Hollywood. Congratulations to Banyan Communications, HRSA, and the team that worked on this documentary, for the insight, vision, and compassion they brought to producing this wonderful film.
Tomorrow is National Donor Day. I ask you to please: Have a heart. Donate Life.
I thank all of you. And now we're going to have a short video clip of the film. And then we have a surprise for you, so don't go anywhere.
Last Revised: March 8, 2004
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