This story aired on "CNN Live Sunday" on September 17, 2006. Here is an
unofficial transcript:
Now every 90 minutes someone in America dies waiting for an organ transplant.
There's a group to improve the odds that those who need a transplant will get one.
It's based on the premise that in order to receive you first must be willing to
give, and that has riled some medical ethicists. Here's CNN's Kareen Wynter.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JENNIFER ZWETTLER, LIFESHARERS MEMBER: It's terrifying to wake up knowing, let alone going through
the surgery, but am I going to get this surgery? Is my life going to be saved?
KAREEN WYNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jennifer Zwettler was
in the prime of her life when she was stunned by a sudden health scare five years
ago. She thought she'd need a liver transplant and joined the national organ transplant
registry, but was afraid it wouldn't come through in time. Luckily, she didn't need
it.
ZWETTLER: It was the scariest thing that -- I mean, you can't even
imagine what it feels like.
WYNTER: Terri Wallis has had no such health scare, but was concerned
about her chances of receiving a life-saving organ. Both Wallis and Zwettler belong
to a unique organ donor club where membership has potentially life-saving privileges.
Members agree to donate their organs within the group before making them available
to the general public.
TERRI WALLIS, LIFESHARERS
MEMBER: If anybody in the group needs body parts -- I know it sounds awful, doesn't
it -- but if anybody needs them, we get first dibs on it.
WYNTER: There were 28,000 transplant operations performed last year
according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. But some would-be recipients
never made it to the operating room.
(on camera): Nearly 90,000 people are on the national organ transplant
waiting list. Thousands die each year waiting on organs. That's why Dave Undis created
LifeSharers, a nonprofit network of
organ donors.
DAVE UNDIS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, LIFESHARERS: It occurred to me, if you tell people that you're going to put them
at the front of the waiting list if they donate their organs when they die, more
people will donate.
WYNTER (voice-over): Not everyone who receives an organ on the national
transplant waiting list, Undis says, has agreed to donate an organ.
UNDIS: Giving a transplant to someone who won't donate their own organs
is like giving the Powerball jackpot to someone that didn't buy a ticket. It just
doesn't make sense.
WYNTER: Bryan Stewart with California's state donor registry disagrees.
BRYAN STEWART, ONE LEGACY: Any time you work outside of the established
allocation process, you're not necessarily giving the organs to people that are
most in need.
WYNTER: Stewart says there are 600,000 registered organ donors in California,
whereas LifeSharers only has 6,000
members nationwide. Since no members within LifeSharers have died since its inception four years ago, no one has received a
transplant.
STEWART: The likelihood that someone in LifeSharers is going to benefit from a donor that is part of
LifeSharers is extremely low.
WYNTER: Carolyn Fagundo was given 18 months to live when she was placed
on the established national waiting list for a lung transplant. She got a new lung
28 days later.
CAROLYN FAGUNDO, TRANSPLANT PATIENT: I counted on the system to work
for me and it did, so I do believe the system does work. It's just a matter of,
you know, time.
WYNTER: But Jennifer Zwettler feels LifeSharers gives her an advantage. (on camera): You've been faced with life or
death decisions in the past. How much faith do you have in
LifeSharers?
ZWETTLER: I have a lot of faith. I probably would have been dead if
I would have thought negatively and not put any trust or faith in anybody.
WYNTER: Kareen Wynter, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
