April is Organ Donor Awareness Month, an opportunity where people learn about the value of becoming a donor — and transplant recipients can celebrate their second chance at life.
Keith Burns considers Sept. 23, 2010, his second chance.
Burns, 64, received a heart transplant that day, following his 1989 diagnosis of cardiomyopathy, or heart-muscle weakening.
After his diagnosis, he was told by doctors at Emory University that he may need a heart transplant within six months to live.
But he took medication and managed the disease, moving to Philadelphia 14 years ago to enroll in a graduate study program at La Salle University.
But, in 2001, he ended up at Temple University Hospital for four months. He later received a mechanical heart, which he lived with for several years before the transplant.
Burns was placed on a transplant waiting list at the Gift of Life Donor Program, the region’s organ and tissue donation network.
When he received the call that his transplant was delivered, he said it was a bittersweet moment.
“I was called at 2 o’clock to come down to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital because they received my heart,” he said. “They received it from a juvenile. He was a young man of 17 years old.”
There are currently 6,400 people on the Gift of Life Donor Program’s organ and tissue transplant waiting list.
Patients are evaluated by physicians who specialize in transplants to determine how detrimental their status is. The waiting list varies by organs, with medical urgency, blood, tissue and size determining the time on the waiting list.
Burns, who was on the list for 18 months, said he couldn’t have made it through his transplant process without his partner of nine years, Tony.
“He supported me with unconditional love,” he said. “He went through a training process at the hospital. He is a contributor for my survival. He was very dedicated every day — learned how to do the IV and medications and still manages that. You have to have another person to go through this, you can’t do it alone.”
Having the support of Gift of Life has also been invaluable, he said.
“I appreciate my time more and don’t waste my time and don’t waste anyone else’s time,” he said. “I have a strong faith and have stayed really positive and it can be an emotional thing to go through but being strong and having a good support system is most important.”
Gift of Life hosts an annual party called THE Party, founded in 2001 by a group called Organs Donors Are Heroes, to celebrate donors and recipients.
Gift of Life director of community relations John Green said the event usually brings in more than 600 people. This year, the organization hopes to raise more than $150,000, with proceeds going to Gift of Life’s educational programs.
“Gift of Life is dedicated to reaching the community and educating them about how to register to be an organ and tissue donor,” Green said. “We are on a mission to save lives.”
To become an organ donor, a person just has to give legal consent on his or her state-issued photo ID card or driver’s license. Organ and tissue donation does not cost money to either the donor or the family of the donor.
THE party will take place at 8 p.m. April 4 at Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia, 1 Logan Square. For more information or tickets, visit http://donorsareheroestheparty.com.
For more information on Gift of Life and organ and tissue donor services, visit www.donors1.org.