Organ Recipients Speak to Need for Donations of Life
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Denise Swistak owes her life to a man from Oklahoma whom she'd never met.
And it's all because he had checked off the box to be an organ donor on his driver's license application.
"A man from Oklahoma saved my life. I'll never know him, I thanked his family for his generosity and for the unselfish gift they decided to give to me," said Swistak, tearing up at the memory. "They gave me a new life. I will be forever connected to that family in Oklahoma. I'll probably never meet them, maybe, god willing someday, I will."
Swistak's message was delivered on Tuesday at City Hall to raise awareness of the ease of signing up to be an organ or tissue donor — right when you apply or renew your driver's license. The event was attended by Mayor Richard Alcombright and state Rep. Gailanne Cariddi, who both provided official proclamations, Registry of Motor Vehicles Registrar Erin Deveney and Matthew Boger of New England Organ Bank.
Swistak, of Adams, and Glen Wiley of Granby both testified as the personal faces of organ donation.
"The vast majority of people who [sign up] do so at the RMV here in Massachusetts or DMV in the other states," said Matthew Boger of New England Organ Bank. "That voluntary question, 'would you like to register as an organ or tissue donor,' is a grand one and one we take great pride in."
Some 60 to 70 percent of individuals go to their Registry of Motor Vehicles at some point, and nearly 99 percent of all those who check the box to be an organ donor do so through the RMV.
Organ banks, federally designated, non-profit organ procurement organizations, have partnered with departments of motor vehicles for years. The New England bank is one of 58 regional OPOs working with professional partners in the organ donation network, as well as with donor families and recipients.
Deveney said her staff "very prominently asks this very critical question, which is 'would you like to become an organ and a tissue donor?' It's a small thing but our staff recognizes they have a chance to save lives ...
"That very simple check mark can make the difference for so many people," she added.
Organ bank representatives are available to do training with RMV personnel, and a video on becoming a donor can be played at RMV offices while customers are waiting their turn at the counter. Deveney said the RMV website has also been redesigned so that donor signup is easily visible for those applying or renewing licenses and identification cards. It's also easy to go online and remove your name from the list, as well.
"I've been a very proud organ donor since 1988 and I did that when I got my license in Brockton," said Deveney. "So I think that's a very important civic duty that we can perform and it's a way that we can give back to the community."
It also, very specifically, saves lives.
Swistak was diagnosed with liver disease about four years ago. She became so debilitated that she had to leave her job of 34 years and be fed and bathed. She was already on her way to a doctor's appointment when the call came from University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center that a liver was available. Swistak was at the hospital in 10 minutes, in the operating room in two hours.
Two and half years later, she recalled how close to death she was. She was suffering from a side effect of liver disease, hepatic encephalopathy, "my filter in my body wasn't working so the toxins in my blood were poisoning me and I basically lost my mind."
When the nurse called about the liver, she remembered telling the nurse, "I don't like liver." Swistak thinks if she had been home when the call came, she might have refused the transplant in her delusional state.
Wiley was in a similar situation. He'd been diagnosed with liver cancer in early 2015.
"We had no idea where I was going to go what my options were ... we were kind of pessimistic about our future," he said. At least until he went to Massachusetts General and "entered the world of transplants."
"I was very lucky," he said and received a liver transplant last November. "It saved my life, changed my life. And if it wasn't for the generosity of checking off that box and saying yes, 'I will be an organ donor,' I probably wouldn't be standing here talking to you now."
Thousands of people die waiting for organs, said Wiley.
About 30,000 transplants were performed last year. That's compared to about 125,000 people still waiting for tissues or organs.
More than 5,000 live in New England, and more than 3,000 in Massachusetts. According to the federal Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, a name is added to the national list every 12 minutes - and 23 people die each day waiting for a transplant.
Individuals can determine what they wish to donate, but a full donation can help up to 50 people.
Boger stressed that, unlike as shown on some television shows (i.e. "Gray's Anatomy"), the doctors, hospitals, fire, police, and emergency medical technicians treating patients have no connection or decision-making when it comes to determining organ donation.
"That process only starts when we are contacted," he said. "We want people to live as long as possible. Our motto is to 'donate life,' we don't want anyone to die ... organ and tissue donation is a voluntary choice."
Encouraging people to make that choice was behind Tuesday's event, "ambassadors" such as Wiley and Swistak, campaign materials and the latest edgy commercial making its way around the internet that shows even an asshole can save a life.
Organ donation is bittersweet, said Swistak, because she knows the day that she regained her life, that man in Oklahoma lost his. But she carries a piece of him with all the time.
"I hate to think of anyone becoming an organ donor, but I've talked with many families of donors and the sense of solace they get knowing their family member helped so many people," Wiley said. "Because it's not just one person that a donor helps, it's many, many."
Those interested in becoming organ donors can sign up at massrmv.com or through the national registry.
Tags: organ donor, RMV,
