Last Thursday, George Carman was doing what plenty of people around Maine were doing. He was blowing snow from his driveway in New Gloucester.
For a lot of people, that may sound like a chore.
For Carman, it was a celebration of life.
The 45-year-old man has cystic fibrosis, a life-threatening genetic condition where sticky mucus builds up in the lungs, inhibiting breathing and draining a body’s energy. Many people with this disease do not live much past their teens, and those who do struggle every day to breathe.
It’s a debilitating condition with an average life span of 37 years
With the help of a supportive and generous community, Carman has defied the odds.
Last February, he received a double lung transplant after waiting five years to get on the organ transplant list and another five months for lungs to be located.
This husband and father is alive because a 17-year-old boy died; the healthy organs were donated to help seven patients, including Carman.
In 2004, Carman’s friends and family organized New Lungs for George, raising money to help with medical expenses and raising awareness about the need for organ transplants.
The group would like to see this effort evolve into something bigger to help others with cystic fibrosis, and we encourage that work.
Cystic fibrosis can be managed, but it cannot be cured, so the work of this group is to raise money and instill hope that the need for more organs can be addressed, one person at a time.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a patient is added to the organ waiting list every 10 minutes, that’s six new names every hour, 144 people a day.
And, each day, an average of 79 people receive organ transplants, which means the demand for organs outstrips the supply, and an estimated 18 Americans die every day because of that shortage.
That gap in supply and demand is greater now than it was 20 years ago.
In 1989, 17,917 people were waiting on the transplant list. There were 13,140 transplant surgeries using organs from 5,922 donors.
In 2009, there were 105,567 people on the list, and 28,463 transplant surgeries from 14,630 donors.
Right now, there are 113,146 patients waiting, including 1,800 children.
Last year, the number of donors dropped to 10,558, reducing the number of surgeries to 21,354, or 7,109 fewer than in 2009.
The number of patients in need has skyrocketed in the past two decades and the rate of available donors has simply not kept pace.
The DHHS states that nearly everyone in this country has heard of organ donation, and an estimated “90 percent of Americans say they support donation, but only 30 percent know the essential steps to take to be a donor.”
For living donors, those who donate kidneys and bone marrow, for instance, the process is less complicated because they are physically and mentally able to grant necessary permission to donate.
For deceased donors, the process is more complicated.
It’s not enough to put a sticker on a driver’s license.
You need to register as an organ or tissue donor, and tell your friends, family, doctor and minister about your decision. The decision should also be clearly noted in a will or living will, because a family’s decision to donate is often done while in grief; clear instructions can eliminate confusion and speed donation to a needy patient.
If your family is unaware of your wish to donate, they won’t be able to give the necessary permissions and your desire to help will be lost.
Carman was fortunate, and he’s thankful to his donor and the donor’s family.
His is an inspiring story of love and support, and the generosity of the donor and his family is overwhelming.
There are thousands of other patients out there who could use help, and thousands of people capable of donating a small piece of themselves to improve and save lives. It’s the gift of life.
The opinions expressed in this column reflect the views of the ownership and the editorial board.
For information on organ donation, go to http://organdonor.gov/index.html
To register as an organ donor, go to http://organdonor.gov/becomingdonor/stateregistries.html
Comments are no longer available on this story