100s IN STATE ON WAITING LIST FOR ORGANS

By Erin France/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF

One in six people die while waiting for an organ.

This fact, along with other information about organ transplants, was presented by Boyd Ward to the Pine Bluff Rotary Club at the Pine Bluff Country Club Tuesday.

Ward is the executive director of the Arkansas Regional Organ Recovery Agency, an organization that contacts eligible candidates when an organ becomes available.

“It’s not a short process,” Ward said. “It’s like juggling a lot of balls in the air at the same time.”

In Arkansas, Ward said there are about 250 to 300 people waiting for organs. Those on the waiting list could be in the need of lungs, liver, heart, kidneys or other body tissue.

But organs cannot be transferred from every person who dies.

“Less than 1 percent of all deaths are organ donors,” Ward said.

Most organ donors are brain damaged by a head injury and on ventilation, he said.

Another hurdle the organization faces is coordination between doctors, hospitals and patients. And then there’s finding the specialized doctors.

“Transplant surgeons are rare birds indeed,” he said.

Several in the crowd had family or friends who had experience with the organ donation waiting list.

Ward encouraged Rotary members to become organ donors. This can easily be accomplished by telling the Department of Motor Vehicles, which adds a small heart to a driver’s license to mark a donor and includes names on the donor registry.

Ward also recommended talking about the decision with family members.

“I hope that if you’re not in the registry, you get in the registry.”