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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
THURSDAY, MAY 5, 2005
Life
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1A
right
"At 19, you wish he could have those organs. You wish he could undo it," she said. "But long term, it's the gift that keeps giving."
Linda said leaving her son in the hospital was one of the hardest moments of his death.
"Organ donation is a very difficult thing for a family to do because they keep the body on life support to make him look alive, and you walk away from your loved one — apparently alive," she said.
The accident happened Dec. 20 when Connor and Doug were driving to their grandmother's house in Omaha, Neb. Their car hit a patch of black ice and slid into a pick-up truck. Both brothers went into comas.
Doug woke up the next day, but Connor did not. He had suffered brain damage. He died at 7:50 a.m. on Christmas Eve.
His driver's license, as of May 2003, showed he wanted to be a donor.
The Nebraska Organ Recovery System, which took care of Connor's body, kept him on a ventilator to keep his lungs breathing and his heart pumping.
Nebraska state law prohibits interference - including family objections - from the deceased
person fulfilling his or her registered obligation, said Cynthia Wofford, Clinical Nurse Coordinator at the Nebraska Organ Recovery System.
The Midwest Transplant Network, however, under special
circum-
stances, such as unexpect-
ed deaths, gives family members the option, to override the donation, Schons said. She said the network would respect the family's wishes in a situation that involved a donor dying unexpectedly before he got the opportunity
the gift of life "
Organ registry still young
"O rgan donation is a very difficult thing for a family to do because they keep the body on life support to make him look alive, and you walk away from your loved one apparently alive.
to remove his name from the registry.
Although it's rare, Schons said she would tell the family member to get a wider family consent if she thought that person was imposing personal beliefs to override the donor's wishes.
More than 87,000 people are waiting for an organ in the United States and most of them will die, Schons said.
It's this power of final consent that makes families the real heroes, not the surgeons or social workers, Schons said.
Linda Meigs
Connor Meigs' mother
"It's these families who give
Contributed photo
The need for organs is more urgent now than it was before the Kansas state registry came into existence in Jan u a r y 2003. The waiting list is growing rapidly because technology allows people to live longer and most dialysis patients, who wouldn't have been considered for transplants several years ago, are now being considered, she said.
Connor Meigs with his mother, Linda, and sister, Kit, during the reception after his brother's wedding on July 10, 2004. This was one of the last photos taken of Connor with his immediate family.
More than 170,000 donors are registered in the state of Kansas, which is only 6.3 percent of the state's 2.6 million people. And only 32,934 registered donors are between the ages of 18 and 24 years old, according to the Midwest Transplant Network.
In Douglas County, 7,651 people of the total population of 99,962 are registered. Of 18- to 24-year-olds. 1.982 are registered.
Schons said she didn't like to favor one age group over another, but younger donors were desperately needed.
peratively needed.
"Young people tend to have better organs," she said. "No ifs, ands or buts that the younger we are, the healthier we are."
Donation gives second chance
Andy Miller will forever be grateful to the family who, five years ago, allowed him to have a better life.
Miller got in a car accident when he was 16 years old. Doctors ran blood tests and discovered he had kidney reflux disease.
Registered waiting list of organ candidates
Some of the urine was pushed back into the kidneys rather than leaving completely through the urethra. That meant parts of the kidney broke off, Miller said.
sis. For the Louisburg resident,
this was the worst part.
After two years of medication, doctors placed Miller on dialy-
Dialysis can be an exhausting process for people with failing kidneys because it consumes a lot of time, said Julie Duncan, nurse and communication center supervisor at the Midwest Transplant Network.
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