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| Vol. 22, No. 7 |
| April 15, 2000 |
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Transplant Recipient Shares Success Story by STEFANIE ASIN The Methodist Hospital Although Jan Schneider prepared a project on organ donation and transplantation while in nursing school, she refused to sign a donor card. A year later she was sick and dying, praying for donated lungs. Misconceptions about organ donations kept Schneider from signing a donor card then, but now with a second chance at life she tells her story to help increase donor awareness. Schneider, 41, suffered from primary pulmonary hypertension, a condition that makes it hard for the blood to be oxygenated through the lungs. Schneider, a mother of two, waited more than eight months on the transplant list and now is celebrating her 19th month with her new lungs. Not only did she finish nursing school but she became a nurse for transplant pulmonologist Dr. Adaani Frost at The Methodist Hospital where she received her transplant. Although she knew there was a donor shortage, Schneider stayed confident during her wait, trying to live as normally as possible. She remembers going with her son on a Boy Scout camping trip in November 1997 with an oxygen tank over one shoulder and an IV bag over the other. Just when she hit her lowest point, mentally and physically, the phone call came that two lungs were available. And she was ready. "It was like JC Penny's called to tell me my order was ready," says Schneider, who handled the news calmly and had to be convinced not to drive herself to the hospital. Oddly enough, the night before her transplant she had bought some yellow and blue nail polish and had painted smiley faces on her fingers and toes - a delight for surgeons the next night. Nationwide, there are about 65,000 people waiting for organ transplantation and there are about 20,000 transplants performed annually. There are far more people waiting for organs and a second chance of life than there are organs available. National Organ/Tissue Donor Awareness Week is April 16-22 and Schneider wants people to pay attention. "We know people are dying and no one is donating," she says. "It is a precious gift and my donor gave me 19 more months of life with my children." Just one organ and tissue donor can provide seven life saving organs and quality enhancing tissues for another 20 people. Transplant experts say it is vital for families to discuss organ donation. A recent study by LifeGift, the local organ procurement agency, showed that 94 percent of the respondents say they would be more likely to donate their loved one's organs had they discussed the subject first. "Pick up a donor card, bring it home and talk to your family about what it means. Talk about how giving the gift of life is the ultimate gift. The death of a family member is devastating, but organ donation can stop the grief of 20 other families," says Sherrill Lanthier, manager of The Methodist Hospital/Baylor College of Medicine's Multi-Organ Transplant Center (MOTC). Lanthier says donor cards can be found at the MOTC, LifeGift or downloaded from the Internet at www.methodisthealth.com. Schneider says she recently wrote a letter of gratitude to her donor's family because she has so much to be thankful for. Three years ago, she was so sick she had to send her children to live with relatives. Her husband had to feed her and she could barely breathe. "Thanks to that generous donor and family, I can wake up every day and see my children and yell at them to clean their room," she says.
©2006 Texas Medical Center E-Mail: tmcinfo@texmedctr.tmc.edu URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/04_15_00/page_05.html |