MU hospital's organ donation program honored

By Krystin Arneson

Published Nov. 6, 2009

For the fourth year in a row, University Hospital retained the distinction of being the only hospital in mid-Missouri to be awarded the Medal of Honor for Organ Donation, according to a UM Health Care System news release.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services presented the award in September. The hospital achieved a 75 percent organ conversion rate over the past year, meaning that 75 percent of eligible, deceased donors who have signed up to donate actually had their organs donated.

University Hospital was also recognized for the second consecutive year for attaining a benchmark growth of 20 percent in transplantations, which they met by increasing their renal, or kidney, transplant program.

"Any little bit that one hospital can do has a multiplying effect across the country," said Mark Wakefield, director of the renal transplant program and assistant professor of surgery in the School of Medicine.

Both nationwide and at University Hospital, the need for organ donation continues to climb. According to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients report, there were 66 patients on the University Hospital kidney transplant waitlist in January 2008. By December, 10 more patients were waitlisted, and the transplant rate was 37 percent. That is a statistic Wakefield and Lori Kramer Clark, Midwest Transplant Network hospital services coordinator, see as cause for motivation.

"One of the most pressing public health issues we, as a nation, face today is the disparity between available transplantable organs and those in need," Clark said in the release.

Wakefield agrees on the importance of donation.

"It's our ethical responsibility to help give families the gift of life, gift of hope," Wakefield said. "One donation can help hundreds of people."

He said the collaboration allows hospital representatives to give advice on strengths and weaknesses.

"Some hospitals are really good at conversion, some at organs per patient donated," Wakefield said. "If we could learn among ourselves how to get good at all those things, we could increase number of organs available."

Although collaborating to such a large extent could require a lot of coordination and determination, the intended benefits are tangible. University Hospital has a kidney transplant wait time of 16.6 months — less than the national average of around 43.2 months, according to the 2008 SRTR report.

Wakefield said persuading a grieving family to allow surgeons to recover organs from a recently deceased family member could be the most difficult challenge. In the past few years, hospital nurses, chaplains and social workers, rather than the hospital physicians, have convinced families to follow through with the deceased's wishes to donate his or her organs.

"What people don't see, is that there are people waiting to improve their quality of life and live longer," Wakefield said.

He said perhaps the most meaningful part of the donor-recipient relationship is when the donor's family and the recipient are able to meet each other. Events sponsored by University Hospital have helped form close bonds between the two parties said Matt Splett, UM Health Care System spokesman and graduate student.

"I know there's been some connections between the two when you have the recipient and donor there at the same time," Splett said.

Wakefield, who has also seen those close connections, agreed.

"There are incredible bonds between people who give," he said. "It's just amazing. It's humbling to see how people give so much."