End the wait - for whom?

I have been wondering for some time now how the whole transplant system works. I understand that there are many factors that determine how organs (kidneys in my case) are "allocated (http://bit.ly/organallocations)." Blood type, weight, health, age, BMI, organ availability, etc. is some of the factors in determining how quickly you receive a transplant.

What gets me is how some celebrities especially in the last 2 years seem to get a new kidney much quicker that the average Joe/Jane. I'm talking about ball players, entertainers and government officials. To be fair, I don't know the situation surrounding many of these transplants. I know (through the media) that some of these celebrities received kidneys from living donors. That’s great. But what about the celebrities that we hear about that are diagnosed with kidney failure and before the ink dries on the newsprint you read that they just received a new kidney...way earlier than the "average" wait time of others in their region. Maybe they had a directed donation. Hmmm!

How come the wait seems to be so short for people that have celebrity status? Is this coincidental? Are the regular folks out there not following diets, maintaining their weight and the chemistry of their bodies? I hope that these celebrities were just perfect patients and their number just came up. Good for them.

How do we get the message out to the public that organs are desperately needed to save the lives of those on transplant lists? What are people afraid of with the donation process? Maybe it’s the family of many deceased that are hesitant during the initial grief to make the decision to save other lives with the body of their loved one that’s now gone. Maybe we need to make the process of helping a family through the donation process even better so that they feel comfortable that they and their loved one are treated with dignity.

For those of us that are drivers in the United States we can become donors (http://bit.ly/organdonations)when we (re)apply for our driver’s license. Others can make their wishes known in wills, or final directives. Is mandatory organ donation around the corner?

We need to truly end the wait. There are way more “healthy” people dying (tragically unfortunately) that everyone needing an organ can get one.

The wait isn’t over…