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This story aired on "CNN Live Sunday" on September 17, 2006. Here is an unofficial transcript: Now every 90 minutes someone in America dies waiting for an organ transplant. There's a group to improve the odds that those who need a transplant will get one. It's based on the premise that in order to receive you first must be willing to give, and that has riled some medical ethicists. Here's CNN's Kareen Wynter. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JENNIFER ZWETTLER, LIFESHARERS MEMBER: It's terrifying to wake up knowing, let alone going through the surgery, but am I going to get this surgery? Is my life going to be saved? KAREEN WYNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jennifer Zwettler was in the prime of her life when she was stunned by a sudden health scare five years ago. She thought she'd need a liver transplant and joined the national organ transplant registry, but was afraid it wouldn't come through in time. Luckily, she didn't need it. ZWETTLER: It was the scariest thing that -- I mean, you can't even imagine what it feels like. WYNTER: Terri Wallis has had no such health scare, but was concerned about her chances of receiving a life-saving organ. Both Wallis and Zwettler belong to a unique organ donor club where membership has potentially life-saving privileges. Members agree to donate their organs within the group before making them available to the general public. TERRI WALLIS, LIFESHARERS MEMBER: If anybody in the group needs body parts -- I know it sounds awful, doesn't it -- but if anybody needs them, we get first dibs on it. WYNTER: There were 28,000 transplant operations performed last year according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. But some would-be recipients never made it to the operating room. (on camera): Nearly 90,000 people are on the national organ transplant waiting list. Thousands die each year waiting on organs. That's why Dave Undis created LifeSharers, a nonprofit network of organ donors. DAVE UNDIS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, LIFESHARERS: It occurred to me, if you tell people that you're going to put them at the front of the waiting list if they donate their organs when they die, more people will donate. WYNTER (voice-over): Not everyone who receives an organ on the national transplant waiting list, Undis says, has agreed to donate an organ. UNDIS: Giving a transplant to someone who won't donate their own organs is like giving the Powerball jackpot to someone that didn't buy a ticket. It just doesn't make sense. WYNTER: Bryan Stewart with California's state donor registry disagrees. BRYAN STEWART, ONE LEGACY: Any time you work outside of the established allocation process, you're not necessarily giving the organs to people that are most in need. WYNTER: Stewart says there are 600,000 registered organ donors in California, whereas LifeSharers only has 6,000 members nationwide. Since no members within LifeSharers have died since its inception four years ago, no one has received a transplant. STEWART: The likelihood that someone in LifeSharers is going to benefit from a donor that is part of LifeSharers is extremely low. WYNTER: Carolyn Fagundo was given 18 months to live when she was placed on the established national waiting list for a lung transplant. She got a new lung 28 days later. CAROLYN FAGUNDO, TRANSPLANT PATIENT: I counted on the system to work for me and it did, so I do believe the system does work. It's just a matter of, you know, time. WYNTER: But Jennifer Zwettler feels LifeSharers gives her an advantage. (on camera): You've been faced with life or death decisions in the past. How much faith do you have in LifeSharers? ZWETTLER: I have a lot of faith. I probably would have been dead if I would have thought negatively and not put any trust or faith in anybody. WYNTER: Kareen Wynter, CNN, Los Angeles. (END VIDEOTAPE) |
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