Letter to the Editor | Organ Donations

Dear Editor,
I wanted to write a letter and discuss a need in our community that does not receive the attention it needs. Organ Donation. I, like most people gave this matter very little thought until it became personal for me.
Last April, while returning from a vacation in New Mexico, my 22 yr. old son, Tyler Miera, started having severe chest pains, his speech was very slurred and he kept falling down. We immediately took him to the hospital where we were told that he had stage 5 kidney failure and congestive heart failure that was brought on by the kidney failure. The Doctors informed us that to stay alive he would need dialysis three days a week for four hours at a time.
This is where the need for organ donation comes in. He is on the Kidney Transplant waiting list, so we wait every day for that call that they have a deceased kidney donor for him. A new kidney would change my son’s life. He struggles to balance college, Dr. visits, and doing the normal things that every 22 yr. old does.
Last year the University of Utah performed 136 kidney transplants, 64 of them were from live donors. Since my son has become sick I have learned of the advantages of having a live kidney donor versus receiving one from a deceased donor.
    1. The average wait time for a transplant from a deceased donor is approximately 3-5 years.
    2. A living kidney will last 12-20 years. A deceased donor kidney only lasts 8-12.
    3. Living donor transplants occur faster and can be scheduled for the convenience of both the donor and the recipient.
The bottom line is that there are more people waiting for a kidney transplant than there are organs available. Every single day in America 21 people die while waiting for a kidney. I am determined to bring awareness to this issue before my son becomes one of the statistics.
For information on how you can become a kidney donor for a person in our area you can go to https://heathcare.utah.edu  or call 1-801-581-2634 and let them know you are interested in donating to a member of your local community.
—Melanie Jensen Orangeville, Utah