Despite immense need for organs, only one-third of California drivers are donors
When Raquel Armstrong learned that her mother had three years to live because of her advanced cirrhosis of the liver, she refused to accept that prognosis.
For years, Armstrong doggedly pursued any and all avenues to save her mother, Rena Aguirre, and she ultimately learned that she could donate a portion of her own liver, which could grow into a healthy, functioning organ after being transplanted.
In 2016, two years after the diagnosis, Aguirre’s health took a turn for the worse and her life expectancy was shortened to one month. With new urgency, Armstrong strong-armed her way into the operating room — opting to donate 50% more of own liver than originally planned to improve the transplant’s chances of success — and extended her mother’s life.
Nearly a decade later, Aguirre is living her life to the fullest, traveling and spending time with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Armstrong shared during a Thursday event hosted by the California Department of Motor Vehicles recognizing state workers who were involved in organ donation and to raise awareness about the ever-present need for donors.
Armstrong, who is a DMV employee in the South Sacramento office, said the experience reminded her of the importance of advocating for loved ones. Now, she’s advocating for California drivers to register as organ donors through the DMV.
“My story is not unique. Thousands of people are waiting on the waiting list for a life-saving transplant,” Armstrong said. “If you are considering signing up to be an organ donor, know that you can change someone’s life in ways you can’t even imagine.”
While an overwhelming majority of the public is in favor of organ donation, only a third of people with driver’s license and identification cards had a donor designation on their card, according to the California DMV.
Since 2006, the DMV has helped register over 19 million organ, eye, and tissue donors by partnering with Donate Life California, the state’s donor registry. Of those who agreed to be potential donors, 95% signed up while visiting California DMVs, Ed Swenson, the DMV’s chief deputy director, said Thursday.
“Despite our progress, the need for donors remains. Each day, 150 people are added to the national organ transplant waiting list, and 20% of those are living here in California,” Swenson said.
‘A second chance of life’
Carlos “Giovanni” Woods, was one of those people who signed on to be a potential donor when he got his license. After Woods was involved in a serious car accident at the age of 18 that left him brain-dead, doctors approached his family about the possibility of transplanting his heart after they learned he had elected to be an organ donor.
“They asked my mother if she was willing to honor his wishes,” Zeida Woods, the sister of Carlos Wood, recalled during Thursday’s event. “Without hesitation and through her pain, she said yes. She said yes because my brother had already said yes.”
Because of the courageous decision her brother made, someone else got to live, Zeida Woods said.
Woods, a manager with a DMV office in Costa Mesa, said she has been able to share the story of her brother’s decision to be an organ donor with customers who are questioning whether they should agree to that designation on their licenses.
Wiping tears away from her face, Wood said she continues to advocate for others to join the donor registry because she recognizes the good that can come from the darkest moments in families’ lives.
“His heart — that beautiful, strong heart that had carried his hopes, his dreams, and his love — was now beating inside someone else, giving them a second chance of life,” Woods said.
Ever-present need for donations
The experiences of Armstrong and Woods represent the two ways people can share their organs: living and deceased donation, respectively.
For those who elect to be organ donors through the DMV, donation will only occur if that individual dies in a narrow set of conditions, said Luis Mayen, the vice president with the Donor Network West, one of four organ procurement organizations that operates in California.
Mayen, who donated a kidney to a New York mother last year, said that a lot of people think that when they sign up to be organ donors, they will end up donating organs. But that’s not true.
Few people, about 1%, who die are able to donate, Mayen said. In order to be a successful donor candidate, someone typically needs to be on a ventilator and die in a hospital, he said.
As a result, there is a constant need for donors. According to Donor Network West, there are more than 20,000 Californians waiting for a kidney, liver, heart or other organ transplant.
Negative press leads to opt-outs
While there is a significant amount of support for this life-saving intervention, negative stories about organ donation can cause a spike in people removing their name from donor registries, Mayen said.
After a New York Times article raising concerns about organ donation was published in July, Donate Life California reported that more than 2,500 people in the state removed themselves from the state’s organ donor registry.
Jim Martin, the CEO of Donate Life California, said that organ, eye and tissue donation is a personal decision, but he has no doubts about the current system in the United States. Martin encouraged people to learn more about the process to better understand donation procedures and safeguards.
In a statement, the donor registry said, “Every person who unregisters as a donor represents a missed opportunity to save or heal lives.”
