Resident embarks on organ donation campaign // She has witnessed benefits of transplants with family members
April 1, 2004
Diane
Gallegos knows firsthand what it means when someone decides to be an organ
donor. It could mean the difference between a life on a machine and a healthy
normal life. It could mean the difference between life and death. On Dec. 19, 2003, Christopher Powell received a new kidney from a live donor
after nearly three years of searching. Powell, 19, was diagnosed with kidney
failure in February 2001 and was told by doctors his kidneys were rapidly
deteriorating and would need a kidney transplant. Powell was on dialysis until
his transplant.
``Christopher is doing excellent,'' Gallegos, his grandmother, said. ``He's
better than normal.''
He is attending adult education classes and will be transferring to
Saddleback College in the spring.
``He's interested in being an X-ray technician,'' Gallegos said.
Now that the family's struggle is over, Gallegos' new mission is to spread
the word about organ donation. Gallegos has become an ambassador with OneLegacy,
which is a transplant donor network, servicing Santa Barbara down to Orange
County.
The group is a bridge between the hospitals and the transplant center, and a
bridge between donors and transplant recipients, said Tenaya Wallace, manager of
communications with OneLegacy.
Gallegos made her first speaking engagement Sunday morning at St. Clement's
By the Sea Episcopal Church. She will be speaking to clubs, churches, hospitals
and any other group who will lend an ear. Her primary goal is education --
speaking to people about the importance of organ donation and the need that is
out there. Part of it includes encouraging people to let their family members
know that they wish to become organ and tissue donors.
As she educates, Gallegos is also promoting the Gift of Life Run/Walk,
benefiting OneLegacy. That is on April 17 at California State University,
Fullerton.
Right now the waiting time is a minimum of five years for any organ, Gallegos
said. This month Gallegos is also spreading awareness of April as National
Donate Life Month.
`I will share our story,'' she said.
Gallegos said her family has been touched by donors twice. The second time
was through her granddaughter, Andrea Valdez, who received two cornea
transplants. She's a young mother with two children.
``She would have never seen her baby (her second child),'' Gallegos said,
``or have been able to see her children grow. It was because someone was kind
enough to fill out their donor card and let people know. Our family has been
blessed by people who will do this.''
OneLegacy works with deceased donors. So the organization emphasizes
communication in the family about organ and tissue donations. It is important
not only to fill out the donor card but to speak with family members and next of
kin about it, Wallace said.
``Usually the donor card isn't with the person when they've passed away,''
Wallace said. Often if the family is approached at the time of a loved one's
death, it's a difficult time and if they don't know what the person wanted, it
is hard for them to decide, she said. If they did speak to the loved one about
it, the family can just give consent.
``It's critical to have a conversation (with) your family about donations,''
she said.
Wallace said OneLegacy focuses on organ and tissue donations, they don't work
with blood and marrow. She said there is more than 83,000 people waiting for
organs -- kidney, liver, heart, lungs, pancreas and small intestines -- in the
United States. ``One ambassador described to me -- that (many people) would fill
a Super Bowl stadium,'' she said.
She said 17 people die every day in this country because they don't receive
the organs they need. Another name is added to the waiting list every 13
minutes, she said. One deceased donor can save up to eight people's lives from
all the different organs in that one body.
Another fact, according to Wallace, in tissue donations, one person can
enhance lives for up to 50 people. Tissue donations include: corneas (to give
sight), skin (for burn victims), heart valves, cartilage and tendons (for knees
and ankles), veins (to resource circulation), and bone (for instance, if you
have bone cancer, doctors can take the tumor out of the bone and replace that
part of the bone with a donated bone).
Wallace said that many people have been touched by transplantation,
especially since diseases leading to the need are often common. The No. 1
disease that leads to the need for a kidney transplant is diabetes/hypertension,
she said. Furthermore heart disease, a huge killer, can lead to receiving heart
transplantation, Wallace said.
``More and more doctors are seeing it as a good option for people with organ
failure,'' she said. ``Because there are so many people in need, the average
time waiting for a kidney is five to six years.''
For more information, visit
www.onelegacy.org/
prod/components
www.giftoflifeoc .org