Organ recipients say organ donation decision important

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    By Daniel Hodson

    Heather Ward, a senior from Ruston, La. majoring in recreation management and youth leadership, sees things through an organ donor’s cornea. Ward says that she has never looked at her challenge negatively, but says it has helped her know that she can overcome anything.

    Though the cornea is not as life threatening as other vital organs, thousands of patients die each year waiting for organ donations. According to the National Kidney Foundation of Utah, more than 68,000 U.S. patients are currently waiting for an organ transplant with more than 2,000 new patients being added to the list each month.

    Ward is an organ donor herself and says that it’s not necessarily right or wrong whether or not you donate; it’s a decision you make.

    “This is one of those decisions you have to make before you have to make it,” Ward said.

    Dale Anderson said that he didn’t notice his daughter Ward had a problem until she was learning how to read at age four.

    “Her right cornea had something speckled on it … whether it was because of a chicken pox infection or (a result of) forceps used in delivery, we don’t know,” Anderson said.

    Ward’s mother, who is a medical technologist, tried everything that she could to help her daughter see well again. Anderson said that once they found out that Ward could receive a cornea transplant, they only had to wait for two or three months.

    Ward’s cornea was donated by a 12-year-old boy who was killed in an auto accident while vacationing with family in Salt Lake City.

    “My biggest wish is that I could thank the mother that was caring enough to think of other people, when I’m sure it was the most devastating moment for her,” Ward said.

    “Organs donated from one person can save up to 13 lives,” said Ward’s uncle, Allan Watts, who is the recipient of two liver transplants.

    Watts was diagnosed with Hepatitis C and had to wait six months to receive his first liver from a ten-year-old Orem boy, which didn’t take because of a minor error. He had to wait three weeks on life support until a liver from a Bountiful girl was available after two other collection agencies wouldn’t accept it because it was damaged. Watts has been living for five years on two-thirds of a liver.

    Many are able to live relatively normal lives after a transplant like Ward’s, who says many of her closest friends don’t even know that she’s had a transplant. Unlike his niece, Watts is still waiting to become completely whole. He’s waiting for a cure to Hepatitis C, which was only discovered in 1989.

    Watts helped Public Relations Student Society of America’s organ donation campaign in its booth in WSC on Friday.

    “By offering organs through a loved one, you’re giving the gift of life,” Watts said.

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