Would-be Donors Urged To Share Wishes
Newcastle Herald
Monday June 1, 1998
INSIDE the bodies of these Hunter Region people are organs from unknown donors.
Their new organs have allowed them to live without illness for the first time in years.
But if not for the consent of the organ donors' families, they would all still be gravely ill.
`The most important thing is for people to tell their family that they want to donate their organs,' heart recipient Mrs Robyn Buxton, of New Lambton, said.
`Please donate ? it is the most important thing that you can do.'
Hunter Health organ donation coordinator Ms Janice Crooks-Vadnjal said 3000 Australians were waiting for organ transplants.
About 15% would die waiting.
Ms Crooks-Vadnjal said many people thought the organ donation consent section on their driver's licence was ironclad.
`We still have to get the family's permission,' she said.
`Deciding to be an organ donor can all be for nothing if you don't tell the right people.'
The issue has prompted the Australian Kidney Foundation to issue a new organ donor card.
The launch of the card yesterday coincided with National Organ Donation Awareness Day.
Organs that can be transplanted include kidneys, the heart, lungs, the liver, the pancreas, corneas, heart valves and bone marrow.
Australia has one of the best transplant success rates in the world, with more than 15,000 people receiving organs since 1965.
But the nation still has one of the lowest rates of organ donation.
? Lisa Tait
© 1998 Newcastle Herald
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