For the fourth year, April is being observed as National Donate Life Month, a time to raise awareness of the shortage, importance and need for organs, marrow, tissue and blood donations.
As of March 22, there were 91,501 people throughout the country on organ transplant waiting lists, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. As of Feb. 24, 65,388 people were waiting for a kidney; 17,204 were waiting for a liver; 1,729 were waiting for a pancreas; 2,508 were waiting for both a kidney and pancreas; 2,996 were waiting for a heart; 3,113 were waiting for a lung; 140 were waiting for a heart and lung; and 196 people were waiting for a portion of an intestine.
Champions of Organ Sharing (COS), a local organ transplantation support group, welcomes and supports not only recipients but also donors, caregivers and family members of recipients and donors.
Marie Hanlon, president of COS, said the group functions to provide any form of support to those in need, besides financial support.
"Everybody needs help," said Hanlon, who underwent a liver transplant in 2003. "Even if you think you can get through it on your own, it really does help to have the support."
Hanlon was told her liver wasn't functioning properly at the age of 13, but it took about 30 years for her organ to put her in a coma, at which time she was placed on the organ waiting list.
"The group is like one big family. We can relate to what the others are going through, and it really helps to have an idea of what you're going to face," she said.
Jerry Prose serves as the vice president of COS and also is a heart transplant recipient.
"The whole key to the National Donate Life Month is to get more people to donate organs," Prose said. "One person can save the lives of eight people and enhance the lives of many, many more."
One person can save the life of eight others because eight major organs, if healthy and functioning properly, can be donated and transplanted. And numerous lives can be improved through the donation of anything from tissue to muscle to skin.
In 1992, while stationed at the Pentagon and serving as a major in the U.S. Army, Prose, then 38, went on his routine 4- to 6-mile morning run.
"I felt a little dizzy and I passed out," said Prose, 52. "I thought it was dehydration or something like that."
Prose was convinced by his fellow servicemen to go to a clinic and get checked out.
When he walked out of the clinic, disbelief set in. Prose had an irregular heart beat and after a slew of tests, he was diagnosed with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, which meant his heart muscle was slowly dying.
"A normal heart pumps at about 65 to 70 percent of the blood," Prose said. "When I was first diagnosed, my heart was pumping at 50 percent, and one year later it was pumping at 34 percent. In August 2000 I was really weak and it was at about 10 percent ejection."
In 1998, Prose was placed on the waiting list for a heart at the UCLA Medical Center. After progressively weakening and remaining on the waiting list for about two years, Prose received a late-night phone call telling him a heart was available.
"By 2:30 a.m. we were at the North Las Vegas Airport," he said. "You have to have all the arrangements in place, and in about one hour we were at UCLA."
After the transplant, Prose and his wife stayed near the hospital for a few weeks because of numerous check-ups and return trips to the doctor. But they also snuck back to Las Vegas to see their newborn grandchild.
"I left the hospital in seven days and within seven weeks I ran my first mile," he said proudly. "I was the 1,054th person to get a (heart) transplant."
Prose also competed in the 2002 Transplant Games, an Olympic-type event for organ recipients and donor families.
"It's to show that you can return to a normal lifestyle," he said. "I now have different priorities. You really realize that every day is an extra day, a true gift of life."
Hanlon shared similar sentiments.
"I'm lucky to have another day each day," she said. "Every day that my feet hit the floor is a wonderful day."
Champions of Organ Sharing meets on the third Wednesday of each month at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center. For more information, visit www.cosnv.org.
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