Green Bay Press Gazzette
February 14, 2010
In the summer of 2008, Tanya Conrad sent an e-mail to about 50 relatives and close friends, asking if anyone could do her a favor: give up a kidney.
“It is very hard for me to ask you guys this,” she wrote. “But I am in need of help.”
Nearly two years later, Conrad, 36, of Abrams, has joined 1,500 other Wisconsin residents on a transplant waiting list that organ donation advocates wish did not even exist.
About 46,000 people in the state die every year, providing more than enough kidneys, hearts, livers and other organs for everyone who needs a transplant. However, not enough are donors to fulfill the need.
For Conrad, who was diagnosed with kidney disease 10 years ago, that means a life of agonizing uncertainty, with no assurance that a donor will be found before her health deteriorates even further.
“There’s nothing I can do about it,” she said. “That’s what is frustrating about it. I can’t do anything to help myself.”
To promote organ donation, a number of health organizations and others have designated today as National Donor Day — an occasion for people to consider organ, tissue or blood donation.
In Wisconsin, proponents hope to see a significant increase in donations starting in April, when Wisconsin launches a new online organ donation registry.
Rather than waiting to declare themselves organ donors when their driver’s licenses come up for renewal, people will be able to register online. Wisconsin is one of the last states in the country to provide such an online service.
Trey Schwab, outreach coordinator for the University of Wisconsin Hospital Organ Procurement Organization, said he hopes the registry will boost donations statewide from the current 54 percent of all residents aged 16 or older to more than 70 percent — the level in Oklahoma and other leading states.