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By Globe
Staff
A very sick 30-year-old man in Kentucky will see another
Christmas this year because a family in the Berkshires was
able to turn part of its grief after losing a son into a life-saving
act of generosity. When their 12-year old boy Quinn was killed
in a freak hockey accident earlier this month, the Connallys
of Cheshire made the decision to donate his heart for transplantation.
The Kentuckian was one of about 70,000 Americans (2,400 in
Massachusetts) on a waiting list for an organ. In 1999, more
than 6,000 died while awaiting a donated organ. The waiting
lists would not be so heartbreakingly long if more families
would act as charitably as the Connallys did.
According to Dr. George Lipkowitz, the director of transplantation
at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, about 60 percent
of families in Connally's situation decide to donate a loved
one's organs. The Connallys also donated their son's kidneys,
liver, and pancreas to patients in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Less than half of one percent of all deaths in the United
States last year were in circumstances permitting transplantation.
Safety measures like airbags, seat belts, bicycle and motorcycle
helmets, and campaigns against drunken driving have greatly
reduced this toll. Such deaths are especially rare in New
England states, which have some of the lowest highway-fatality
rates in the country.
The scarcity of potential donors makes it particularly important
when a healthy person suddenly faces death that his or her
survivors know the person's wishes about organ donation. While
it is helpful if the accident victim has a donor sticker on
a driving license, it is also crucial that individuals make
their wishes known to family members before an emergency occurs.
An organ donation coordinator will always ask next of kin
for consent, even if the deceased carried a license sticker.
Many more organs would be available for use, Lipkowitz said,
if US donation rates approached those in Scandinavia, which
are close to 100 percent. African-Americans have a particularly
low level of donation, while roughly one-third of all patients
waiting for donated kidneys are blacks, a result of the disproportionate
rates of high blood pressure among blacks. But among all population
groups, Lipkowitz said, "We have to make it unacceptable
to bury good organs."
The lucky individuals benefiting from the Connally's decision
would second that.
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