Chances of infection low, organ donation official says

By Scott Weybright

November 27, 2007

While the news that four recipients in Chicago became infected with HIV and hepatitis C after organ transplants caught many off guard, the head of a Lansdowne-based organization that helps facilitate organ donations in Maryland said chances of another such incident are slim.

Charlie Alexander, president and chief executive officer of the Living Legacy Foundation on Twin Springs Road in an industrial park off Washington Boulevard, said the last report of an organ recipient contracting HIV from a donation had been in 1986.

He said more than 300,000 organ transplants have occurred nationally since then.

In the Chicago case, tests on the organs for HIV, hepatitis and other conditions had came back negative before the transplants occurred in January.

The recipients didn't learn about the infections until earlier this month.

Alexander said the most common test for those conditions could come up negative if the donor had contracted one of those diseases within two months of the test.

That's because the test is for antibodies produced in reaction to the disease, which may not appear that quickly.

He said Living Legacy, which facilitates organ and tissue transplants across the state, has that test performed plus a newer test, which can pick up the viruses within a few days to a week of exposure on the donated material.

The newer test, which detects the presence of the virus rather than an immune system response, isn't widely available or convenient.

A Living Legacy employee must transport a sample to New Jersey, where the nearest lab that runs the test on call 24 hours a day is located.

"It's not inexpensive or easy logistically," Alexander said. "We think it's a responsible thing to do."

No amount of testing, with current technology, can be 100 percent accurate, he said.

"There is an inherent risk to receiving a donated organ," Alexander said.

But that doesn't mean people should turn down a chance at a life-saving organ transplant due to a very slight chance of infection, he said.

"The benefit often outweighs that small risk and that's why they proceed," he said.

The Living Legacy Foundation works with 36 hospitals in Maryland, including St. Agnes Hospital, the University of Maryland Medical Center and the Johns Hopkins Hospital, to coordinate organ donations, said Patricia Van De Ryt, the foundation's spokeswoman.

The foundation, which has more than 100 employees, doesn't perform transplants.

"We're the ones that support donor families and make these organs and tissues that save lives available to transplant programs," said Alexander, who has been with the organization for 13 years.

He said Living Legacy doesn't just help organ recipients, which was why the group changed its name from the Transplant Resource Center of Maryland last year.

Organ donations are seen as a way of continuing a donor's legacy.

"Every family that donates is one of our families forever," Alexander said.

The foundation relies heavily on volunteers to add a personal touch to encourage organ donations.

Gwyneth Spangler, one such volunteer, said skepticism about becoming an organ donor is common.

The Catonsville resident said she has an easy way to convince people of the importance of donating.

"I wouldn't still be here, most likely, if I hadn't gotten the transplant," said Spangler, who has cystic fibrosis and said she needed an oxygen tank with her 24 hours a day.

Spangler, 37, said she had been on a waiting list for 4 1/2 years before receiving a double lung transplant in October 2004.

Her donor was a 51-year-old mother of two who had had a brain aneurysm. The woman, whose family Spangler has since met and gotten to know, wasn't listed as a donor.

But her family gave the OK on donating her organs when doctors determined she could not survive.

Becoming an organ donor is as simple as checking the "yes" box on the organ donation line when renewing a driver's license.

For more information or an organ donation card, go to www.thellf.org.

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This article posted December 24, 2007.