NEWARK BETH ISRAEL MEDICAL CENTER PROMOTES NATIONAL AND LOCAL INITIATIVES TO INCREASE THE NUMBER OF REGISTERED ORGAN DONORS

The Alternative Press | Beth Salamon

Transplantation gives hope to thousands of people with organ failure, helping them to achieve renewed and active lives. Currently, more than 110,000 men, women and children in the U.S. are awaiting organ transplants to save their lives. Thousands more are in need of tissue and cornea transplants to restore their mobility and sight. With organ donation producing such life changing results, it is surprising that while 90 percent of Americans say they support donation, only 38 percent of licensed drivers are registered to be organ donors.

“The hope is that people will read news stories about how patients’ lives have been changed so dramatically because of the gift of organ donation, and that this will prompt their registration as an organ donor,” says Sadanand Palekar, M.D., Program Director of the Renal and Pancreas Transplant Program at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center (NBIMC). The Renal and Pancreas Transplant Program of Barnabas Health is one of the world's most progressive transplant programs and one of the largest among 240 in the U.S.

Patients like Alvaro Gutierrez, a medical technologist who received a second chance at life from a kidney donation, are walking advertisements for the benefits of organ donation. When Alvaro was 13 years old, he was diagnosed with cancer, was treated and recovered. Years later, he was told that the chemotherapy treatments affected his kidneys and one day, he would need a transplant. Alvaro came to the Renal and Pancreas Transplant Center at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center in 2005 and in 2009 he received a kidney from a deceased donor.
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