5th annual wave away the waiting shines photo 9 spotlight ... · organ/tissue donors in illinois....
TRANSCRIPT
The Organ/Tissue Donor Program celebratedits 5th annual Wave Away the Waiting event,in conjunction with National Minority DonorAwareness Month, on Aug. 1 at the James R.Thompson Center in Chicago. Entertainers,dancers, musicians, transplant recipients anddonor advocates joined Illinois Secretary ofState Jesse White on the James R. ThompsonCenter plaza for a day of increasing aware-ness about the need for more minorityorgan/tissue donors in Illinois.
“The need for minority individuals to say yes toorgan/tissue donation is great,” said SecretaryWhite. Increasing the number of donors inIllinois ensures a greater chance of a success-ful transplant for everyone.”
Addressing the crowd gathered on the plazawere Secretary White; Jack Lynch, Director ofCommunity Affairs for Gift of Hope Organ &
Tissue Donor Network; Chicago Police Super -intendent Eddie Johnson, kidney recipient;Darvece Monson, kidney recipient; IbrahimHaleem, liver recipient; and Lisbeth Leanos, aliving donor to her father, Santos Leanos.
Many health and wellness booths inside theThompson Center provided information abouttopics of health and healthy living to those inattendance. Vendors included the Secretaryof State’s Life Goes On Organ/Tissue DonorProgram, Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue DonorNetwork, National Kidney Foundation ofIllinois, Lifesource, University of ChicagoCollege of Medicine, Rock River Valley BloodCenter, Be The Match and many other partic-ipants. Entertainment was provided by aChicago Metropolitan Symphony Orchestraquartet, the Jesse White Tumblers and Dawnthe Diva, who hosted a line dancing session.
(cont. on pg. 2)
It was a busy summer for donor pro-gram staff as they traveled acrossthe state promoting donor aware-ness at many fairs and festivals. Fallbrings additional donor awarenessopportunities in high school driver’seducation and health classrooms;fairs; and other events. One of themost exciting events in the Secre -tary of State’s office this summerwas the signing into law of the Drivefor Life Act, allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to join the Illinois DonorRegistry for the first time since2005. This new law goes into effecton Jan. 1, 2018.
We also held the 5th annual WaveAway the Waiting celebration inobservance of National MinorityDonor Awareness Month on Aug. 1in Chicago. Recipients shared theirtransplant stories at an outdoor cel-ebration with music, entertainmentand health and wellness displays. Aspotlight was also placed on theneed for more minority donors in thestate.
As always, a big thank you to all ofthe Driver Services facility staff whohelp strengthen our mission of pro-moting donor awareness with cus-tomers increasing the donor registryin our state.
Jesse WhiteSecretary of State
5th Annual Wave Away the Waiting shines spotlight on minority donation
The need for more minority donors is great
Printed by authority of the State of Illinois. November 2017 — 2M — EX 34
Secretary of State Jesse White
• Fall2017
Secretary of State Jesse White addresses the crowd at the Thompson Center in honor of Wave Away the Waiting marking NationalMinority Donor Awareness Month. To Secretary White’s right is Chicago Police Department Superintendent Eddie Johnson, whowas waiting for a kidney transplant. He received his transplant on Aug. 30.
Like us @JesseWhiteSOS
Follow us@ILSecofState
#LifeGoesOn
Did You Know? In 2016, 61 percent of individuals who receivedtransplants were over the age of 50, but only 33percent of organ/tissue donors were over theage of 50. Please encourage everyone you knowto register as an organ/tissue donor today tohelp cover the shortage of organs available fortrans plant. Any age is the right age to register asa donor. Many older Americans are very success-ful tissue and cornea donors if they are ruled outas organ donors.
Photo 7 — Students at Wheaton Warrenville SouthHigh School in Wheaton support organ/tissue dona-tion in driver’s education class on Aug. 25 with all-day classroom presentations. A poster displayed intheir classroom was the 2014 overall poster contestwinner with artwork submitted by Allison Davis, asophomore at the high school.
Photo 8 — Driver education students at HinsdaleSouth High School in Darien support organ/tissuedonation in driver education teacher Dean Norman’sclasses. A few students had organ donor storieswithin their own families.
Photo 9 — Cartrina Sheard, of East St. Louis, IL,registered her donor decision at the 6th AnnualTouchette Regional Hospital’s “Keeping Healthy”event on Aug. 15 at the Community Center inCentre ville.
Photo 10 — Some members of the Lenzini donorfamily of Park Ridge visited the organ/tissue donortable during the Destination Asia Festival in Augustat Morton Aboretum in Lisle. Pictured from left:Genevieve Sciortino; Emma Lenzini; and CathyLenzini.
Photo 11 — Kathy Armstrong, Cahokia Public Librarydirector, who is waiting for a kidney transplant andcurrently undergoing dialysis, shared her story dur-ing a donor registration drive at the library duringNational Minority Donor Awareness Month.
Photo 12 — Karen Ludwig, a kidney recipient, vol-unteers with the Rockford Life Goes On Committee.She attended the 10th Annual Colby Smith MemorialRun honoring donor Colby Smith.
Donor events(cont. from pg. 2)
PROGRAM DIRECTOR (CHICAGO)Connie Boatman
[email protected] PROGRAM DIRECTOR
(SPRINGFIELD)Samantha [email protected]
REGIONAL COORDINATORSDamarius Blanks (Metro east)
[email protected] Bush (southern Illinois)
Jan Eschen (northern Illinois)[email protected]
Elizabeth Hager (central Illinois)[email protected]
Karen Kohnke (Bloomington)[email protected]
Dan Lietz (Chicago)[email protected]
Margaret Pearson (suburban Chicago)[email protected]
DONOR PROGRAM STAFF LIST
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Organ and blood donationface similar challengesOrgan/tissue donation not onlydonation affected by ethnicityAccording to Lifesource, genetically similarblood is best for those who need large orrecurring blood transfusions. It is a similarsituation with organ donation — a comparablegenetic match may ensure a more successfultransplant. Blood that closely matches thepatient’s ethnicity is less likely to be rejectedby the patient. African-Americans can makea monumental difference in the organ, tissueand blood supply in this country by donatingblood regularly and signing up to be organdonors. Sickle cell is a common inheritedblood condition among African-Americans.Those affected may require frequent bloodtransfusions throughout their lives. Accord -ing to Lifesource, African-Americans aremore likely to have type O or B blood, themost commonly used blood types for African-Americans.
Drive for Life Act signed into lawAllows 16- and 17-year-olds to join the state’s donor registry
The Drive for Life Act, passed by the Illinois General Assembly earlier this year, wassigned into law in August. The law allows 16- and 17-year-olds to join the state’sdonor registry for the first time since 2005.
“This is good news for the donor registry in Illinois,” said Illinois Secretary of StateJesse White. “We have the potential to add 350,000 names to the donor registry eachyear as a result of this legislation, saving more lives.”
The donor decision in Illinois has been a legal decision since 2006, thereby excludingminors from being asked to participate. However, effective Jan. 1, 2018, the law willallow for as many as 350,000 16- and 17-year-olds to be added annually to the donorregistry in Illinois when they receive their driver’s license or state ID.
Chicago police superintendent receives kidneyEddie Johnson gets lifesaving kidney from son on Aug. 30
Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, 57, received a kidney from his 25-year-old son, Daniel, on Aug. 30 at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. The trans-plant was a success, and Johnson returned to work following a few weeks of recovery.Johnson was diagnosed with an acute inflammation of the kidneys when he was hisson’s age. He lived many years knowing his kidneys might shut down at any point. Hisoriginal diagnosis projected that his kidneys would likely fail in four or five years. Hiskidneys functioned for more than three decades prior to his August transplant.Johnson spoke with Secretary of State Jesse White and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanualat an Organ Summit in Chicago in February. Without a living kidney donor, Johnsonwould have been required to be on dialysis or might have had a five-year wait for atransplant.
Spotlight on HealthHow is it decided who gets a transplant?
Have you ever wondered how organs are distributed to patients in need? A groupcalled the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) maintains a centralized computernetwork that includes all organ procurement organizations (OPO) and transplant cen-ters. In Illinois, the two OPOs are Gift of Hope and Mid-America Transplant.
When there is a potential donor, the OPO enters the donor’s vital information and thecomputer network generates a list of ranked, suitable potential recipients for thosedonor organs. This list is called a “match run.” Criteria includes medical urgency, tissuematch, time on waiting list, immune status, likelihood of a successful match and loca-tion of the donor and recipient because distance can be a factor in a successful trans-plant. The transplant center then contacts the first matching potential recipient. Thepotential recipient and his or her doctors either accept or reject the organ based oncondition of organ, condition of the recipient and transportation factors. The team hasabout one hour to make this decision. If accepted, the transplant surgery is scheduled.If declined, the organ is then offered to an alternative recipient. This process continuesuntil the organ is placed.
TOP RIGHT: Secretary White, center, stands with aquartet from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra atthe Wave Away the Waiting event at the ThompsonCenter in observance of National Minority DonorAwareness Month.
BOTTOM RIGHT: Chicago Police Department Super -intendent Johnson, who was waiting for a kidneytransplant, addresses the crowd during the WaveAway the Waiting event. He received a kidney trans-plant from his son on Aug. 30.
FAR RIGHT: The Jesse White Tumblers perform dur-ing the Wave Away the Waiting event.
Donor events acrossthe statePhoto 1 — Secretary White addresses a groupgathered for the Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue DonorNetwork’s 30th Anniversary Gala on Aug. 18 at theBridgeport Art Center in Chicago. Kevin Cmunt, CEOof the Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network,was also in attendance.
Photo 2 — HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital, the MaconCounty Life Goes On Committee and the MaconCounty Health Department celebrated NationalMinority Donor Awareness Month by holding adonor drive at HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital in Decatur.Pictured left to right: Marisa Hosier and AlainaKramer of the Macon County Health Department;Lisa Stanley, Macon Township Supervisor; and Sr.Ritamary Brown.
Photo 3 — Current and former students from CaryGrove High School support organ/tissue donation attheir “Jamming For Julie” donor awareness night onAug. 2 at the Cary Lions Park. High school banddirector Marty Magnini’s wife, Julie, underwent atransplant earlier in the year.
Photo 4 — The Springfield Life Goes On Commit -tee’s colorfully decorated entry in the Aug. 10 IllinoisState Fair Twilight Parade in Springfield.
Photo 5 — Sr. Ritamary Brown, Richard Shelby, EricaSmith and Stacie Reichensperger pictured at theTwilight Parade for the Illinois State Fair.
Photo 6 — Nathan Wells, a 10-year-old heart recip-ient from Villa Grove, presented the Tuscola DriverServices facility with a countertop display in July.Nathan is living his dream of being able to playbaseball.
(cont. on pg. 4)
Wave Away the Waiting(cont. from pg. 1)
Employee ConnectionWoodstock Driver Services facilityemployee member of donor family
When Pam Brockman’shusband, Al, suddenlydied in February 2015,Pam made the donordecision for him. Stafffrom the Gift of HopeOrgan & Tissue Donor
Net work contacted Pam, collected Al’s med-ical information and proceeded with theprocess of donation. Pam was excited toreceive a letter from Eversight Illinois amonth after Al’s death explaining that herhusband’s corneas were donated to two menin Ohio. She was even more elated to receivea second letter, forwarded to her fromEversight Illinois, from one of Al’s cornearecipients. A section of the letter read, “Thankyou so much for my gift of sight! I am a dis-abled veteran and second cornea recipient!Your generosity is overwhelming! With outyour loved one’s gift I would be blind.” Thesewords helped Pam confirm that her donordecision was a positive one following Al’sdeath. “Although losing my husband so sud-denly was heartbreaking, knowing that ‘lifegoes on’ and that he was able to give the giftof sight with his cornea donations helped methrough my grief,” said Pam.
1 2
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5 6
LIFE GOES ONBE AN ORGAN/TISSUE DONOR
REGISTER AT
LIFEGOESON.COM
LGO Fall 2017.qxp_Life Goes On Summer 2007 11/17/17 2:43 PM Page 2
Organ and blood donationface similar challengesOrgan/tissue donation not onlydonation affected by ethnicityAccording to Lifesource, genetically similarblood is best for those who need large orrecurring blood transfusions. It is a similarsituation with organ donation — a comparablegenetic match may ensure a more successfultransplant. Blood that closely matches thepatient’s ethnicity is less likely to be rejectedby the patient. African-Americans can makea monumental difference in the organ, tissueand blood supply in this country by donatingblood regularly and signing up to be organdonors. Sickle cell is a common inheritedblood condition among African-Americans.Those affected may require frequent bloodtransfusions throughout their lives. Accord -ing to Lifesource, African-Americans aremore likely to have type O or B blood, themost commonly used blood types for African-Americans.
Drive for Life Act signed into lawAllows 16- and 17-year-olds to join the state’s donor registry
The Drive for Life Act, passed by the Illinois General Assembly earlier this year, wassigned into law in August. The law allows 16- and 17-year-olds to join the state’sdonor registry for the first time since 2005.
“This is good news for the donor registry in Illinois,” said Illinois Secretary of StateJesse White. “We have the potential to add 350,000 names to the donor registry eachyear as a result of this legislation, saving more lives.”
The donor decision in Illinois has been a legal decision since 2006, thereby excludingminors from being asked to participate. However, effective Jan. 1, 2018, the law willallow for as many as 350,000 16- and 17-year-olds to be added annually to the donorregistry in Illinois when they receive their driver’s license or state ID.
Chicago police superintendent receives kidneyEddie Johnson gets lifesaving kidney from son on Aug. 30
Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson, 57, received a kidney from his 25-year-old son, Daniel, on Aug. 30 at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. The trans-plant was a success, and Johnson returned to work following a few weeks of recovery.Johnson was diagnosed with an acute inflammation of the kidneys when he was hisson’s age. He lived many years knowing his kidneys might shut down at any point. Hisoriginal diagnosis projected that his kidneys would likely fail in four or five years. Hiskidneys functioned for more than three decades prior to his August transplant.Johnson spoke with Secretary of State Jesse White and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanualat an Organ Summit in Chicago in February. Without a living kidney donor, Johnsonwould have been required to be on dialysis or might have had a five-year wait for atransplant.
Spotlight on HealthHow is it decided who gets a transplant?
Have you ever wondered how organs are distributed to patients in need? A groupcalled the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) maintains a centralized computernetwork that includes all organ procurement organizations (OPO) and transplant cen-ters. In Illinois, the two OPOs are Gift of Hope and Mid-America Transplant.
When there is a potential donor, the OPO enters the donor’s vital information and thecomputer network generates a list of ranked, suitable potential recipients for thosedonor organs. This list is called a “match run.” Criteria includes medical urgency, tissuematch, time on waiting list, immune status, likelihood of a successful match and loca-tion of the donor and recipient because distance can be a factor in a successful trans-plant. The transplant center then contacts the first matching potential recipient. Thepotential recipient and his or her doctors either accept or reject the organ based oncondition of organ, condition of the recipient and transportation factors. The team hasabout one hour to make this decision. If accepted, the transplant surgery is scheduled.If declined, the organ is then offered to an alternative recipient. This process continuesuntil the organ is placed.
TOP RIGHT: Secretary White, center, stands with aquartet from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra atthe Wave Away the Waiting event at the ThompsonCenter in observance of National Minority DonorAwareness Month.
BOTTOM RIGHT: Chicago Police Department Super -intendent Johnson, who was waiting for a kidneytransplant, addresses the crowd during the WaveAway the Waiting event. He received a kidney trans-plant from his son on Aug. 30.
FAR RIGHT: The Jesse White Tumblers perform dur-ing the Wave Away the Waiting event.
Donor events acrossthe statePhoto 1 — Secretary White addresses a groupgathered for the Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue DonorNetwork’s 30th Anniversary Gala on Aug. 18 at theBridgeport Art Center in Chicago. Kevin Cmunt, CEOof the Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network,was also in attendance.
Photo 2 — HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital, the MaconCounty Life Goes On Committee and the MaconCounty Health Department celebrated NationalMinority Donor Awareness Month by holding adonor drive at HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital in Decatur.Pictured left to right: Marisa Hosier and AlainaKramer of the Macon County Health Department;Lisa Stanley, Macon Township Supervisor; and Sr.Ritamary Brown.
Photo 3 — Current and former students from CaryGrove High School support organ/tissue donation attheir “Jamming For Julie” donor awareness night onAug. 2 at the Cary Lions Park. High school banddirector Marty Magnini’s wife, Julie, underwent atransplant earlier in the year.
Photo 4 — The Springfield Life Goes On Commit -tee’s colorfully decorated entry in the Aug. 10 IllinoisState Fair Twilight Parade in Springfield.
Photo 5 — Sr. Ritamary Brown, Richard Shelby, EricaSmith and Stacie Reichensperger pictured at theTwilight Parade for the Illinois State Fair.
Photo 6 — Nathan Wells, a 10-year-old heart recip-ient from Villa Grove, presented the Tuscola DriverServices facility with a countertop display in July.Nathan is living his dream of being able to playbaseball.
(cont. on pg. 4)
Wave Away the Waiting(cont. from pg. 1)
Employee ConnectionWoodstock Driver Services facilityemployee member of donor family
When Pam Brockman’shusband, Al, suddenlydied in February 2015,Pam made the donordecision for him. Stafffrom the Gift of HopeOrgan & Tissue Donor
Net work contacted Pam, collected Al’s med-ical information and proceeded with theprocess of donation. Pam was excited toreceive a letter from Eversight Illinois amonth after Al’s death explaining that herhusband’s corneas were donated to two menin Ohio. She was even more elated to receivea second letter, forwarded to her fromEversight Illinois, from one of Al’s cornearecipients. A section of the letter read, “Thankyou so much for my gift of sight! I am a dis-abled veteran and second cornea recipient!Your generosity is overwhelming! With outyour loved one’s gift I would be blind.” Thesewords helped Pam confirm that her donordecision was a positive one following Al’sdeath. “Although losing my husband so sud-denly was heartbreaking, knowing that ‘lifegoes on’ and that he was able to give the giftof sight with his cornea donations helped methrough my grief,” said Pam.
1 2
3 4
5 6
LIFE GOES ONBE AN ORGAN/TISSUE DONOR
REGISTER AT
LIFEGOESON.COM
LGO Fall 2017.qxp_Life Goes On Summer 2007 11/17/17 2:43 PM Page 2
The Organ/Tissue Donor Program celebratedits 5th annual Wave Away the Waiting event,in conjunction with National Minority DonorAwareness Month, on Aug. 1 at the James R.Thompson Center in Chicago. Entertainers,dancers, musicians, transplant recipients anddonor advocates joined Illinois Secretary ofState Jesse White on the James R. ThompsonCenter plaza for a day of increasing aware-ness about the need for more minorityorgan/tissue donors in Illinois.
“The need for minority individuals to say yes toorgan/tissue donation is great,” said SecretaryWhite. Increasing the number of donors inIllinois ensures a greater chance of a success-ful transplant for everyone.”
Addressing the crowd gathered on the plazawere Secretary White; Jack Lynch, Director ofCommunity Affairs for Gift of Hope Organ &
Tissue Donor Network; Chicago Police Super -intendent Eddie Johnson, kidney recipient;Darvece Monson, kidney recipient; IbrahimHaleem, liver recipient; and Lisbeth Leanos, aliving donor to her father, Santos Leanos.
Many health and wellness booths inside theThompson Center provided information abouttopics of health and healthy living to those inattendance. Vendors included the Secretaryof State’s Life Goes On Organ/Tissue DonorProgram, Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue DonorNetwork, National Kidney Foundation ofIllinois, Lifesource, University of ChicagoCollege of Medicine, Rock River Valley BloodCenter, Be The Match and many other partic-ipants. Entertainment was provided by aChicago Metropolitan Symphony Orchestraquartet, the Jesse White Tumblers and Dawnthe Diva, who hosted a line dancing session.
(cont. on pg. 2)
It was a busy summer for donor pro-gram staff as they traveled acrossthe state promoting donor aware-ness at many fairs and festivals. Fallbrings additional donor awarenessopportunities in high school driver’seducation and health classrooms;fairs; and other events. One of themost exciting events in the Secre -tary of State’s office this summerwas the signing into law of the Drivefor Life Act, allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to join the Illinois DonorRegistry for the first time since2005. This new law goes into effecton Jan. 1, 2018.
We also held the 5th annual WaveAway the Waiting celebration inobservance of National MinorityDonor Awareness Month on Aug. 1in Chicago. Recipients shared theirtransplant stories at an outdoor cel-ebration with music, entertainmentand health and wellness displays. Aspotlight was also placed on theneed for more minority donors in thestate.
As always, a big thank you to all ofthe Driver Services facility staff whohelp strengthen our mission of pro-moting donor awareness with cus-tomers increasing the donor registryin our state.
Jesse WhiteSecretary of State
5th Annual Wave Away the Waiting shines spotlight on minority donation
The need for more minority donors is great
Printed by authority of the State of Illinois. November 2017 — 2M — EX 34
Secretary of State Jesse White
• Fall2017
Secretary of State Jesse White addresses the crowd at the Thompson Center in honor of Wave Away the Waiting marking NationalMinority Donor Awareness Month. To Secretary White’s right is Chicago Police Department Superintendent Eddie Johnson, whowas waiting for a kidney transplant. He received his transplant on Aug. 30.
Like us @JesseWhiteSOS
Follow us@ILSecofState
#LifeGoesOn
Did You Know? In 2016, 61 percent of individuals who receivedtransplants were over the age of 50, but only 33percent of organ/tissue donors were over theage of 50. Please encourage everyone you knowto register as an organ/tissue donor today tohelp cover the shortage of organs available fortrans plant. Any age is the right age to register asa donor. Many older Americans are very success-ful tissue and cornea donors if they are ruled outas organ donors.
Photo 7 — Students at Wheaton Warrenville SouthHigh School in Wheaton support organ/tissue dona-tion in driver’s education class on Aug. 25 with all-day classroom presentations. A poster displayed intheir classroom was the 2014 overall poster contestwinner with artwork submitted by Allison Davis, asophomore at the high school.
Photo 8 — Driver education students at HinsdaleSouth High School in Darien support organ/tissuedonation in driver education teacher Dean Norman’sclasses. A few students had organ donor storieswithin their own families.
Photo 9 — Cartrina Sheard, of East St. Louis, IL,registered her donor decision at the 6th AnnualTouchette Regional Hospital’s “Keeping Healthy”event on Aug. 15 at the Community Center inCentre ville.
Photo 10 — Some members of the Lenzini donorfamily of Park Ridge visited the organ/tissue donortable during the Destination Asia Festival in Augustat Morton Aboretum in Lisle. Pictured from left:Genevieve Sciortino; Emma Lenzini; and CathyLenzini.
Photo 11 — Kathy Armstrong, Cahokia Public Librarydirector, who is waiting for a kidney transplant andcurrently undergoing dialysis, shared her story dur-ing a donor registration drive at the library duringNational Minority Donor Awareness Month.
Photo 12 — Karen Ludwig, a kidney recipient, vol-unteers with the Rockford Life Goes On Committee.She attended the 10th Annual Colby Smith MemorialRun honoring donor Colby Smith.
Donor events(cont. from pg. 2)
PROGRAM DIRECTOR (CHICAGO)Connie Boatman
[email protected] PROGRAM DIRECTOR
(SPRINGFIELD)Samantha [email protected]
REGIONAL COORDINATORSDamarius Blanks (Metro east)
[email protected] Bush (southern Illinois)
Jan Eschen (northern Illinois)[email protected]
Elizabeth Hager (central Illinois)[email protected]
Karen Kohnke (Bloomington)[email protected]
Dan Lietz (Chicago)[email protected]
Margaret Pearson (suburban Chicago)[email protected]
DONOR PROGRAM STAFF LIST
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LGO Fall 2017.qxp_Life Goes On Summer 2007 11/17/17 2:43 PM Page 1