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CNN SUNDAY MORNING
Interview With Rick Lofgren, Rodney Varnell
Aired February 23, 2003 - 11:15 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: There is sadness this morning after a young transplant patient loses her fight for life. Jesica Santillan was declared dead yesterday late afternoon, after doctors determined she had no brain function. The 17-year-old Mexican girl died just two days after a second heart and lung transplant surgery. Doctors had originally transplanted organs of the wrong blood type. And that happened two weeks ago. The family declined to donate any organs from Jesica's body after the failed second transplant.
For more perspective now on the complications from organ transplants, especially as they affect children waiting for organs, we're joined by Rick Lofgren, president and CEO of the Children's Organ Transplant Association. Also with us, Rodney Varnell. His two young sons are awaiting double lung transplants. Good to see both of you. Thanks for joining us.
Well, Rick, let me begin with you. Let's talk about the complicated process of organ transplants. Your organization says about 80,000 people are waiting for organ transplants. Can you give us a sense as to how many, what percentage of that 80,000, will likely get organ matches?
RICK LOFGREN, CEO, CHILDREN'S ORGAN TRANSPLANT ASSOCIATION: Well, Fredricka, right now on the waiting list, 16 or 17 of those people will pass away today. And that's the sad fact that we deal with. Our estimates are that about 25 percent that are there now will be transplanted shortly. About 21,000 over the next year, but the bottom line is that too many people are waiting, because not enough people sign a donor card and are willing to make that gift of life at the end of their time.
WHITFIELD: So 25 percent will be transplanted. So that does support some statistics I've seen, where the majority of people who are waiting for organs are likely not to live?
LOFGREN: That's correct, yes.
WHITFIELD: While they're waiting for those organs?
LOFGREN: That's right. Kidney transplant patients that are currently on dialysis sometimes wait five and six years, waiting for a kidney transplant.
WHITFIELD: And so, the complication is only exacerbated when you've got a child involved, because so few child donors exist out there. Isn't that indeed the big problem with why it's so complicated to find matches for children who are in need of transplants?
LOFGREN: That's correct. There are so many things that go into the process, including the size of the body of the donor, that is very difficult for kids to be transplanted. And that makes it that much more difficult for each of our families that we work with, like Jake and John.
WHITFIELD: Rodney, in fact, let me bring you in here, talking about your sons Jake and John, 13 and 14-year-old boys who are in need of double lung transplants. How long have your boys been on the list?
RODNEY VARNELL, FATHER OF TWO SONS AWAITING DOUBLE LUNG TRANSPLANTS: They've been on about two years now. I think it was February of 2001 they were put on the list.
WHITFIELD: Now, their situation is, they were diagnosed as infants with cystic fibrosis. But was it your feeling that you were to wait until they were teenagers to have a better chance of finding transplants, or is it because this is only within the past couple of years have they been in need of transplants?
VARNELL: Right. I really wasn't aware of transplants until 2000, the year of 2000. The doctor brought it to my attention that that was a possibility for Jake and John to have a lung transplant. So at that point in time I took it into consideration and we pursued with it.
WHITFIELD: Have you been given any guidance as to how much longer your boys would have to wait?
VARNELL: No, we were in St. Louis a couple of weeks ago, and they did inform us that they had had offers, but they're not at the top. They had had a couple matches to their body sizes, but they're also -- health condition isn't quite to the point where they needed it.
WHITFIELD: And, Rick, what kind of advice can you give Rodney and other families like his, who have children who are awaiting for organs?
LOFGREN: Well, I guess the biggest piece of advice is to keep on, and to keep praying that it will come. We find that many of our families do wait a long time, but it does happen. And so in their case, they just need to have someone make that gift of life, some family out there to have that discussion at home that if that were to happen to them, that they'd be willing to donate. That's the biggest thing that we wait for, people that talk about it and say they want to do it, but actually following through and signing a donor card and having that discussion with their family, that's what needs to happen all over the country.
WHITFIELD: OK. Rick Lofgren of the Children's Organ Transplant Association, and Rodney Varnell, as your two sons are awaiting the gift of life for double lung transplants, thank you very much, gentlemen, for joining us. I appreciate it.
LOFGREN: Thank you.
VARNELL: Thank you.
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