Originally published August 7 2005
Organ donations are on the rise
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Because of measures taken by the U.S. government, organ donations have risen this year. While organ donation is a hard decision to make, it may help save the life of someone else.
Danny Sadlon's last words to his stepmother were: "Adam oughta get his own damn car."
At dawn the next morning, hustling back from a Halloween celebration in Madison to get to his roofing job on time, Sadlon, 20, hit an oncoming car, killing its driver.
A northern Wisconsin man who received Sadlon's liver can drive South and winter on the Gulf Coast again.
And Charlie Pluth, a retired air-conditioning sales engineer from Madison who couldn't walk a block before he received Sadlon's heart, now can walk as far as he pleases.
This year's numbers will be even higher, thanks to hospitals nationwide that have upped their donation rates with the help of an unsung little federal initiative.
More transplants mean increased demand for donated organs, however, as more doctors seek that option for dying patients.
Families who've decided to donate loved ones' organs deal with different but equally exotic emotions, as do transplant recipients.
At first, "you feel so guilty," Pluth, 67, said of his November 2003 transplant.
Hospitals that are trying to increase organ donations usually look up the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison, whose organ-donation efforts cover the state except for the Milwaukee area.
Last year, the system persuaded 78 percent of potential organ-donor families to donate their dying loved ones' organs, tying for the nation's highest rate with San Diego's Lifesharing Community Organ Donation.
Long-flat organ donor numbers hit all-time highs nationally in each month since January 2004.
Since each donor's organs can extend multiple lives, as in Sadlon's case, a potential donor is considered a precious opportunity.
Its secret is nurses such as Peg Grambsch, 42, the outgoing, sturdy, intuitive veteran intensive-care nurse who runs Theda Clark's organ-donation program.
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