Jennifer would never have had to undergo surgery if
enough people donated after death, says Elaine Berg,
president of the New York Organ Donor Network.
On Thursday night, the network marked its 25th
anniversary with a dinner at the Waldorf, an evening by
turns heart-wrenching and heartwarming. At a pre-dinner press conference, a lovely, melancholy
woman spoke. She was Amanda Hemley, the aunt of
Lyric Benson, the beautiful Yale graduate and aspiring
actress who was shot in the lobby of her Chinatown
apartment building in April by an ex-boyfriend who
then killed himself. Her family saved five people by
donating Lyrics kidneys, heart, lungs, liver, bone and
skin. We are comforted by the thought that other lives
were saved, that other sons and other daughters will
have a second chance, Ms. Hemley said.
Dr. Lewis Teperman, the networks departing chairman
and the director of transplantation at N.Y.U. Medical
Center, said that organ donations dipped after Coma,
the 1978 medical thriller about the black market for
organs, and oddly, after 9/11. Other than that, he says,
organ donations are flat, even though the need for
transplantation has increased almost logarithmically.
He wants the myths about organ donation to be dispelled,
so that people in emergency rooms will no
longer worry that doctors will cut them loose if they've
signed donor cards. Nothing could be further from the
truth, he says.
More than 83,000 Americans are waiting for an organ,
a number that is expected to hit 100,000 by 2010.
Advocates want to see the president and members of
Congress sign their donor cards in a very public way;
see the subject taught in school, from elementary to
medical school; see doctors routinely remind patients
of the value of donation; and see people make their
wishes explicitly known to their families.
Anna Quindlen, the evenings guest speaker, said that
when you lose those who are close it may not be
enough to know that they live forever inside of us.
What if they could live on in someone else as well?
she asked. What if a devoted mother could help
another woman care for her own children for another
decade or two? What if the indefatigable sportsman
could help another guy stand again on the banks of a
stream and fly-cast? What if one beloved child could
resurrect another? . . . What if you had something that
you didn't need, and giving it to another person would
save his or her life?
Once you have witnessed a life saved by an organ
donation, that question becomes a no-brainer.
When the organ shortage caused Jennifer to offer part
of her liver to her uncle, it created much angst. Irish
families are notoriously loath to reveal emotions
anyhow, and our emotions were raw and mostly
unspoken. Her parents were frightened and sleepless,
and even Michael was hesitant about letting a young,
healthy woman take such a gamble.
But the fears dissolved at the hospital the minute
Jennifer and Michael woke up. Within two months,
they both had fully functioning livers. Michael and his
wife and Jennifer's parents were at the dinner Thursday
night. They beamed as Jennifer, wearing a black dress
with a cut-out middle, proudly showed her Mercedeslogo-
shaped scar to admiring transplant surgeons.