Organ Donation

Spurred by the relentless encouragement of one of his constituents, Rep. James C. Greenwood has introduced legislation to create a five-year, $125 million pilot program to increase organ donation, including a federally funded life-insurance program for people who agree to donate their organs when they die. The bill means at least a partial victory for Eugene Epstein, a retired Bucks County businessman who has spent nearly three years and more...

Daily News columnist Elmer Smith stated this week that he doesn't believe that families whose loved ones died in the hospital should be approached and offered the option of organ donation. Even though laws mandate that families be offered the option when a loved one has died, even though it is often the only way a family will consider organ donation and even if three out of four times the family will say "yes" to donation, Elmer is uncomfortable with the idea. Elmer does not see the "good" in organ donation even when we save the lives of men, women and children of all races and income levels, even when families of organ donors tell us that the "donation" was the only positive thing to come from the tragic death of a loved one. Even then, Elmer doesn't think it's right.

The organ donor may be a trauma victim, like the young man whose heart and liver were transplanted into Gov. Casey. More commonly, organ donations come from people who suffered a stroke or brain hemorrhage. Whatever the cause, the sudden tragedy brings family members to huddle outside a hospital's intensive care unit. The patient may linger for days or weeks. Sometimes it's a matter of minutes. Once the family learns their loved one is very likely brain dead, they are faced with the question of organ donation.

Making the pledge to be an organ donor is simple. Consider doing the following: Talk to your family and friends about your wishes. Make sure they understand your decision to be a donor. Also, make sure you understand the wishes of your loved ones. Sign and carry a donor card. Have your next of kin or family members witness the card. If necessary, photocopy the card and provide copies to your next of kin. Inform others about your decision. In Pennsylvania, say yes to organ donation in order to be included in the donor registry when obtaining your driver's license; in New Jersey, you may indicate your wishes for organ donation on the back of the drivers license.

NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue urged area business leaders to purchase high-end seats and suites in order to help the New England Patriots build a new stadium. "Everybody knows it's going to be difficult," Tagliabue told about 500 people yesterday at the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce annual meeting and dinner. "There will be suites that need to be purchased. There will be premium seats that need to be purchased. " Tagliabue said a partnership between the NFL, state government and private investors is needed to make the stadium work.

I am a 30-year-old woman whose husband was diagnosed with irreversible kidney disease last fall. Based on my experience, the Philadelphia Daily News March 3 editorial regarding "presumed consent" for organ donation missed the point of State Sen. Mike Dawida's proposed legisla-tion. To simply label the policy as "wrong-headed and invasive" is not accurate. The bill in no way proposes to violate anyone's civil liberties. Under the legislation there would be no possible way a person's organs could be donated unless a surviving family member gives permission.

About four years ago, I joined a select group of Americans who have had heart transplants. Now, as a healthy heart transplantee, I could simply say, "I've got mine, pal" and go out dancing every night. But I have watched too many people - too many friends - die while waiting for the chance I received: a new heart and a new chance at life. Quite simply, there are not enough donor organs to fill the need, and at least 2,000 people die each year while waiting for a new heart to be found.

Pat Lewis always wears two small pins tacked to her shirt. On her left collar she wears a green ribbon, symbolizing organ-donor awareness. To her right sits a shining gold guardian angel. "I think it's nice to think that everyone has a guardian angel watching out for them," she said from her Warrington living room. She pauses, looks upward briefly and smiles. "I know we have one. " Pat and Don Lewis' daughter, Tricia, is their guardian angel - she died in a car accident at age 28 in 1990.

Even now, as she marks the fifth anniversary of her son's death, Connie Renegar gets cards and flowers in his memory. They are kind gestures, and she is grateful. But the most enduring remembrance is when people sign organ-donor cards, or carry driver's licenses imprinted with the words organ donor, she said. Eric Renegar, 17, was a junior at Upper Darby High School when he died Feb. 12, 1994, at Hahnemann University Hospital while waiting for a donor heart. Just three months earlier, he had been a healthy teenager who loved baseball.

After a bullet meant for someone else struck her son in the head, Alice Johnson was faced with one of the toughest decisions an unprepared family member must make at the time of death: whether to allow organ donation. "I found his donor card in his pocket," said Johnson, who works in the nursing rehabilitation unit at Crozer-Chester Medical Center. "He was on life support, but his brain waves were flat. He was brain-dead. I felt that I had to respect his wishes and give his organs to others who could use them.