Proposed upgrades would streamline organ donation

By Clint Confehr

April 3, 2006

Organ, eye and tissue donations are discussed after a Shelbyville Rotary Club meeting including, from left, Andy Lile, Kathy Prater, Gail Binion, Boyd Fulton, Joanne Holland and John Stewart. (T-G Photo by Clint Confehr)

Improvements proposed for Tennessee's organ donor registry were revealed Thursday when Shelbyville Noon Rotary Club members were told the program is subject to votes by the state Legislature this spring.

Perhaps best known for the line to sign on the back of a driver's license, the current organ donation program "doesn't work very well," said Boyd Fulton of Brentwood, the Rotary luncheon speaker.

One of the problems reveals itself after a traffic accident and a driver's license can't be found by hospital personnel who realize their patient is fatally injured, but has not expired. Permission for organ donation might then be sought from the next of kin.

"I know the heart and soul is good," Fulton said of relatives who might hesitate to authorize organ donation without knowing the patient's intentions, or a document to show what's to be done. "It's the system."

Since the organ donor registry was created, great progress has been made in automation and an Internet-based, pass word-protected registry is proposed.

Another change in the system is how driver's license application forms are laid out and filed by the Tennessee Department of Safety. There's to be a separate portion of the form where prospective donors may sign their consent for organ donation.

That separate portion of the driver's license application form is then electronically added to the donor registry which may be accessed by hospital staff after a car crash. The form may then be presented to relatives of a victim on life support with no chance of survival and steps may be taken toward transplantation.

Age and several other factors won't prevent someone from being a donor, and names may be added or removed from the registry by administrators, Fulton said.

State Rep. Curt Cobb (D-Shelbyville) and state Sen. Jim Tracy (R-Shelbyville) support legislation to improve the system.

"It's a good thing," said Tracy, a member of Rotary; "anything ... to speed up the process to match organ donors and recipients."

Fulton told club members and guests that he'd been told the bill in the Legislature reflects a prospective first-year cost of some $290,000 with considerably less operational costs.

Tracy said he was told Thursday that officials at the General Assembly "are working on the fiscal note to make it cost less."

Cobb said Fulton, a Rotary district governor in 1995-96, visited his legislative office at the War Memorial Building and the Shelbyville representative has concluded that he supports anything to improve or promote organ donation.

Money to fund programs promoting awareness of organ donation and transplantation is raised by voluntary contributions made at county court clerk offices and Bedford County's clerk, Kathy Prater, attended Thursday's Rotary Club meeting.

During Fulton's luncheon discussion, he was asked by Brenda Shelton, "Who pays for the transplantation" after a donor's organ is harvested?

"Insurance does," Fulton replied. "It does not cost the donor's family."

Nor does it prevent an open casket funeral, according to a Rotary brochure promoting the Donate Life program that says a commitment to donation will not interfere with anyone's medical care.

Eyes, tissue and organs such as kidneys, livers and hearts are transplanted and during the luncheon, there was a request for people to stand if they or their family had been affected by such donation. Four stood.

"It's impressive," said Jim Devlin of Tullahoma, district governor-elect for this area's Rotary clubs. "It's the first time I've seen so many people stand up when asked if their family had been affected by organ donations."

Among those standing was Johnny Stewart, 56, who said that on April 19 he will celebrate the first of two birthdays this year. On that day a decade ago, he entered surgery at 4 p.m. in St. Thomas Hospital where he received a heart transplant and then from 7-11 p.m. a kidney was transplanted.

Gail Binion is chairman of the Shelbyville Rotary Club committee for organ donation, and she said proposed improvements to the organ donor registry is important so information is available in a timely manner.

Fulton said he believes the system will also save more lives of people waiting for transplantation.

With 176 Tennesseans on a waiting list for organ donations, Fulton said 110 died waiting last year.

Fulton, a Brentwood resident who is a member of the Green Hills Rotary Club, concluded his discussion with an emotional story that caused him to pause before he sat down.

He was present when the parents of a young man met the recipient of his donation. The parents were asked, "Would you like to hear his heart beat?"

And, separately, the parents placed an ear to the recipient's chest, he said.

Copyright © 2006 Shelbyville Times-Gazette.

This article posted April 23, 2006.