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Organs
Continued from page 5
number of transplants performed each year at his hospital and the number of people on the waiting list (170 and 1,400, respectively) — help tell the story of the importance of encouraging donations.
“That number of those waiting is grow- ing by roughly 10% a year,” he noted, adding that there is a huge backlog of cases. And as people wait longer, their odds for achieving quality of life grow longer.
Organ Players
Auerbach quipped that it was easier for him to get into Mass General’s kidney- donation program than it was to get into the drama program at Yale.
He was exaggerating, obviously, but only to a degree. And the logistics of getting into a program constitute only one of the many challenges facing those who need a kidney — or any other organ.
For many, including Auerbach, there is the emotional trauma that comes with the news that they are essentially on a clock — they have so much time (in his case, 18 months to three years) to secure a donor before they will have to go on dialysis, or worse.
“That was a punch to the gut,” he told Berry on his radio program. “And I felt very alone at the time. My family, my partner, everybody was like, ‘that’s too bad — we’re here for you.’ But that’s not necessarily what I needed at the time. The only way for me to move forward was to take charge of my own life and to do my own planning.
“I thought, ‘worst-case scenario, if 18 months to three years is reality, you better have a will, you better have a way to transi- tion out of your business, the people who work for you and depend on you — you better plan for that,’” he went on. “The other things is, do you want to be hooked up to a machine, or do you want quality of life? And I chose the good quality of life. But ... my life will be expanded, knock on wood, if a donor comes through.”
And then, there is just the waiting, and not knowing if the phone is going to even- tually ring with a caller delivering the news that a kidney has been found.
Unfortunately, as the population ages and with the numbers of donated kidneys — both from living donors and those who have died — being relatively stagnant, the number of people living in limbo (that’s the kindest word to use) is only increasing, said McPartland, noting that there are generally between 150 and 175 on the waiting list at Baystate Health at any given time.
As noted earlier, those without living donors may stay on the list five years or longer waiting for a kidney to be donated, he went on, adding that, for some, espe- cially older patients, their condition may
“If someone has a living donor, they can get
a transplant pretty much right away, which is usually within a few months. But if they don’t, they sometimes have to wait five to seven
years to get a transplant.”
kidney disease, which he called a “silent disease” because those suffering from it generally do not experience pain or dis- comfort, isn’t detected until late in life — in many cases, too late, as their disease has progressed to the point where they cannot move up a waiting list in sufficient time
to ultimately improve their quality of life through a transplant.
This is why early detection is important, he said, adding that blood tests can reveal if and to what degree the kidneys are in decline.
Overall, the average wait time for a kid- ney is six years, said Riella, adding that this
Please see Organs, page 66
deteriorate while they are waiting — to the point where they become too sick to qualify for a transplant.
For quality-of-life reasons, someone needing a kidney will certainly fare much better if they can receive that organ before
they need dialysis, McPartland added. “The way to really help patients is to get a trans- plant before they ever start dialysis. The patients do better, they live longer, and the kidneys work better and for longer.”
Riella agreed, noting that, in many cases,