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Judie Kleinmaier: Donated kidney added years to my younger sister's life

Judie Kleinmaier  —  5/06/2008 6:14 am

Ten years.

That's how much time I figure a donated kidney gave my younger sister. Since she got the transplant when she was 35 -- in 1984 -- and died at 45, those 10 years represented a significant portion of her life.

My sister had juvenile diabetes -- the bad kind. She was 12 when she was diagnosed. I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I remember my dad crying. One of them was after he came home from dropping my sister off at the hospital so they could confirm the diagnosis and get her system regulated.

From then on, it was shots every day. And back in those days -- the early 1960s -- my mom was regularly boiling needles and syringes to sterilize them.

My mom and dad knew only too well how bad diabetes could be. Two of my 28 first cousins had been diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at even younger ages. One of them died at 28. The other -- who also benefited from a donated kidney -- made it to 53 and had the chance to finish the job of raising his two children.

Thousands of people have years added to their lives because they have received donated organs. With surgery methods and anti-rejection drugs improving over the years, the quality of their lives is also improving.

But too many people die before an organ becomes available.

About 3,700 transplant candidates are added to the national waiting list each month, according to the Web site www.womenshealth.gov/faq/organ_donation.htm. Each day, about 77 people receive organ transplants. However, 18 people die each day waiting for transplants.

There are now more than 92,000 people on the waiting list. Experts suggest that each of us could save or help as many as 50 people by being an organ and tissue donor.

So I want to encourage you to put the orange organ donor dot on your driver's license, and tell your family you are willing to be a donor. With any luck -- for me -- I'll be so old when I die that no one will want my organs. With better luck -- for everyone -- stem cell scientists will be able to figure out how to grow kidneys and lungs and hearts from a person's own cells, and we won't need cadaver donors.

In the meantime, the orange dot's on my driver's license. If the doctors think my organs can be used, someone is welcome to them.

Judie Kleinmaier is an opinion editor for The Capital Times.

Judie Kleinmaier  —  5/06/2008 6:14 am