DONATE LIFE ORGAN DONATION AWARENESS - COLORADO

Life death & choices

BY SARA B. HANSEN • FOR LOVELAND CONNECTION

Tracy Sanders never regrets the decision she and her husband, Kendal, made in 2002 to donate their 7-year-old son's organs.

Sanders was driving her minivan filled with her three sons and the two children of a friend when she stopped to make a left turn. The pickup behind her stopped, too. But the delivery truck behind it didn't. It slammed into the pickup, which then struck Sanders.

She and four of the children weren't seriously hurt, but the back seat broke, and her 7-year-old son, Collin, suffered a traumatic brain injury similar to shaken baby syndrome.

Her middle son was taken to Poudre Valley Hospital, then airlifted to Children's Hospital in Denver.

The boy never woke up and the family had 24 hours to say goodbye.

Both Sanders and her husband are registered organ donors, and while they never wanted to think about the possibility they'd have to make that choice about their children, they had discussed the possibility.

When her older son, Ryan, was 7 and in Cub Scouts, Sanders and Ryan talked about organ donation for his donor patch one day in the car. After she explained what being a donor meant, he wasn't sure he would ever want to do that. Younger brother Collin, then 4, piped up from the backseat.

" 'I'll do it, Mommy,' " Sanders remembered. "He was that kind of kid. He gave and gave and gave."

Sanders said there are many difficult decisions to make when a child dies, including selecting his coffin, choosing what he'll wear for the funeral and picking the flowers for the service.

"But deciding to donate his organs wasn't one of them," she said.

Since donating their son's organs, the family has learned both his kidneys went to adults in Iowa. His liver went to Jacob Smirl, a 20-month-old boy at the time, in Girard, Kan.

Kendal Sanders' parents volunteered at the hospital where the boy was treated, and the two families met last spring when the Smirl family traveled to Windsor to meet the Sanders family.

"It's an amazing thing," Sanders said. "The people who have Collin's organs have pictures of him in their homes. He's become part of their lives and their families."

Sanders said at the time of Collin's death, she was disappointed to learn that his heart had been too badly bruised in the accident to be donated. But all of the heart valves could be used, she said.

He also was too small to be a tissue donor. And if she had it to do all over again, she would have donated Collin's corneas. At the time, that decision felt too painful.

"It was such a senseless accident that I'm glad something good could came of it," she said.

Another mother's choice
When Carolyn Gallaher received the phone call in the middle of the night that no parent ever wants to receive, she had no idea how hard she'd have to fight for her daughter.

Melissa Gallaher, a CSU student, was fatally injured Sept. 18 when she was struck by a car while crossing a dark Fort Collins street. She was taken to Medical Center of the Rockies, and her parents in Tulsa, Okla., were notified by telephone she was gravely injured.

"I believe in God," Carolyn Gallaher said. "I wanted to believe she could come back. We were still in shock and wanted recovery time, and they were trying to persuade us to give them permission to take her organs."

Gallaher's time at her daughter's bedside was interrupted when she, her husband and her other daughter were pushed to attend ethics committee meetings where they had to listen to presentations about Melissa's rights as an organ donor, she said.

"I know my daughter wanted to be an organ donor," Carolyn Gallaher said. "But I also believe she had a right to them first and that she could have recovered if she'd had a chance."

Melissa Gallaher died Sept. 24 of cardiac arrest brought on by low blood pressure. Her organs were not donated.

Carolyn Gallaher said she thinks people shouldn't list that they are organ donors on their driver's licenses and that her other daughter plans to remove that designation from her license.

"Ultimately, families need to be able to make that decision," Gallaher said. "It shouldn't be something that is already decided."

Kevin Darst, Medical Center of the Rockies spokesman, said he couldn't comment specifically on the Gallaher case, but said the hospital is obligated to act on behalf of the patient.

"When a patient is an organ donor, we are obligated to make an effort to follow through on the patient's wishes."

Jennifer Moe, communications director for the Donor Alliance, also couldn't comment on the Gallaher case, but said once an organ donor is declared brain dead and machines are keeping the organs alive so they can be transplanted, the organs are viable for a limited amount of time. That window varies, but in general it's anywhere from 24 to 72 hours.

Sharing your decision
The Donor Alliance, based in Denver, serves Colorado and most of Wyoming. It is one of 58 federally-designated organ procurement agencies in the country. The alliance serves as a liaison between donor families and hospitals and also oversees the state donor registry, Moe said.

The alliance works with 100 hospitals in Colorado; the state has one of the highest rates for registered organ donors at 64 percent. Most states average 40 percent to 50 percent, Moe said.

Unlike many states, Colorado offers donors first-person consent.

"When you register, you are making that advanced decision," she said.

Still, it's important for prospective donors to make sure they tell their family members about their decision.

"At that critical moment, that will be one less thing they will have to think twice about," Moe said. "If they know your wishes, they will be able to more easily support those wishes."

Sanders agreed.

"For us, it was an easy decision to donate Collin's organs because we knew it was the right thing to do," she said. "But it's important to talk about. You need to make sure you tell your loved ones that's what you want to do."

In general, Moe said most families find solace in knowing that, through death, their loved one is able to help others. Usually, one donor is able to donate eight organs that can potentially save eight lives. Tissue donors can potentially heal 100 people.

"We have found in speaking with family members that they find comfort and hope in knowing that there is a legacy of their family member that goes on," Moe said.

"It can be comforting for them to know that by making the donation, they can potentially spare another family from having to face that loss."

Sanders said she and her husband attended last summer's U.S. Transplant Games and felt overwhelmed by the gratitude they felt from organ recipients.

"There were 13,000 people there, and they all wanted to thank you," Sanders said.

BECOME A DONOR

Visit donatelifecolorado.org to become an organ donor. You also can become an organ donor when you get or renew your Colorado driver’s license.
By the numbers
> Nationally, more than 109,000 people were on the waiting list for an organ transplant in 2009.
> Nationally, 50,000 people received organ transplants in 2009.
> In Colorado, 1,900 were waiting for an organ transplant in 2009.
> In Colorado, 313 people received organ transplants in 2009.
> Nationally 69 percent of people waiting for an organ transplant need a kidney.
> Organs that are donated: heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, pancreas and small intestine. Each donor can save up to eight lives.
> Tissue donors can provide skin, corneas, bone, tendons and help heal cancer, sports injuries and burn patients. A single tissue donor can heal and save more than 100 lives.
Source: Donor Alliance