Every 90 minutes, someone in the country dies waiting for an
organ transplant.
Every 90 minutes, someone in the country dies waiting for an organ transplant.
And to aid in the battle of awareness, the San Benito County Sheriff’s Depart-ment launched a campaign on Monday designed to help the more than 8,000 people in Central and Northern California who will die this year unless people agree to become organ donors.
“We have the opportunity to save the lives of residents in San Benito County, California and the United States,” Sheriff Curtis Hill said. “If people don’t donate their organs after death, others will die waiting for transplants.”
Promoting the cause of organ donation is a logical outcropping from his public obligations, he said.
“One of my duties as sheriff, is also serving as the coroner, and we work with the organ procurement organizations all the time,” Hill said. “To me, it’s important that we get the word out on an ongoing basis.”
Working in partnership with the California Transplant Donor Network, based in Oakland, all of the department’s patrol cars will have bumper stickers promoting interest in becoming a tissue or organ donor.
“The sheriff has been very kind in trying to get an organ donor awareness message out to all the people of San Benito County by putting bumper stickers about organ donation on all of the sheriff’s patrol cars,” Network spokeswoman Mary Wallace said.
The network, helps patients in Northern and Central California and Northern Nevada receive organ and tissue transplants. The network recovers organs from donors and matches them with the people who are currently waiting for transplants.
“There’s more than 8,000 people right here in Northern and Central California who will die if they don’t receive a life-saving organ transplant,” Wallace said. “So, it’s very important for people to understand that there are mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters who are out there waiting for life-saving transplants.”
A local recipient of the gift of life, is 3-year-old Clayton Tarabovnic, of Hollister, who was slowly dying from a degenerative kidney disease until a little more than a year ago when he received a kidney transplant from his father, Mark Tarabovnic.
Clayton was diagnosed at an early age with a genetic condition called Autosomal Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease (ARPKD), which is an inherited kidney condition where children have enlarged kidneys with or without cysts, liver enlargement and often high blood pressure.
Mark said just having Clayton live long enough to be eligible for a transplant was a gift because as many as 50 percent of children diagnosed with ARPKD die at or shortly after birth.
Tarabovnic said they had to wait 18 months before they could perform the kidney transplant. Tarabovnic said that when he learned he was a match, he never hesitated about donating his kidney.
“There’s no doubt it was worth it. It was the simplest thing in the world to do,” Tarabovnic said. “I just went ahead and did it. All they had to do was tell me where to go.”
“There was some pain involved, but the reward is well worth anything I had to go through,” Tarabovnic said.
Clayton has responded well and is now as active and curious as any child his age.
“His response to the transplant was seven-fold. He started to walk. He didn’t walk until after he was 2 years old,” Tarabovnic said. “Everything that you can think of changed.
“He’s functioning at 100 percent now. We had few complications along the way but they’ve gone away.”
Wallace said such campaigns help break down the barriers that prevent people from becoming organ donors.
“The two greatest reasons why people say no to organ donation are lack of education (about organ donation) and misinformation,” Wallace said. “By giving them this piece of education, we’re encouraging them to find out more about organ donation.”
One person willing to become a donor can save many lives.
“You can give life to up to seven people when you pass away just by saying ‘yes’ to organ donations,” Wallace said.” “You can donate your heart, both lungs, your liver, both kidneys and your pancreas.”
For some people, the donor process can help some families work through the grieving process.
“It’s an opportunity to make something good come of a very, very bad situation,” Wallace said. “No one wants to die. But you do have an opportunity when you pass away to leave a legacy, and that legacy is organ donation and life.”
Hill said all the reasons anyone would want for becoming an organ donor was standing there in Clayton.
“When you look at Clayton, you realize the reason for doing this right there,” Hill said.
For more information about organ and tissue donation, call 888-570-9400 or visit: www.ctdn.org.
