Medical center contributes to record year for life-saving organ transplants in Sacramento area

UC Davis Medical Center employees played a significant role in supporting Golden State Donor Services as it reached a milestone in 2005. For the first time in its 20-year history, the organ recovery agency had 61 donors in the area it serves (Sacramento and 10 surrounding counties, plus the community of Santa Rosa), representing a nearly 22 percent increase over 2004. In comparison, GSDS had 48 donors in 2004. (The agency’s previous record of 52 donors occurred in 2003.)

“The staff at UC Davis Medical Center were among those who worked with GSDS to serve an unprecedented number of families consenting to organ and tissue donation,” said Tracy Bryan, manager of public relations for Golden State Donor Services. Those efforts provided new life to 202 people, in addition to giving hope for many thousands of patients needing transplants of heart valves, bone marrow and other donated tissue.

Many patients are eligible to donate tissue, but in only about 2 percent of deaths are patients medically eligible to become organ donors – thus creating urgency for UC Davis Medical Center staff to continue ensuring that the family of every patient eligible to donate is given the option to do so through Golden State Donor Services.

Golden State Donor Services relies on referrals from UC Davis Medical Center and other hospitals to identify those eligible patients and work with its medical teams to coordinate the donation process with the patient’s family, hospital staff and transplant teams. As required by Hospital Conditions of Participation established by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, hospital staff report all imminent deaths and deaths to Golden State Donor Services for evaluation of these patients as potential organ and tissue donors.

Currently, about 570 people wait for a life-saving transplant in the GSDS area. All 570 people depend on UC Davis Medical Center’s ongoing commitment to provide the option of organ donation to every donor family, said Bryan.