First helicopter landing on top of Ohio Health Mansfield Hospital
The first helicopter landing on top of Ohio Health Mansfield Hospital was on May 12, 2022.
Zach Tagle, Mansfield News Journal
It gave her a great relief when Jill Summerton found out she had a matching donor, just as she felt life was overwhelming.
But not all patients are that lucky, said Andrea Ross, a clinical educator at Ohio Health Mansfield Hospital.
“Ohio has 3,000 people on the waiting list for all organs,” Ross said. “There's a huge need.”
Some patients, like Summerton, can be helped by live donors. The rest of the donations come from families who are committed to ensuring that life continues.
One donor can save eight lives and increase the lives of another 75. organdonor.govHealth Resources & Services Administration website.
“We currently have 100,000 people in the US waiting for a transplant,” Ross said. “About 17 times a day, a person dies because they don't have any available organs.”
Not all recipients will find a match
She noted that if people knew more about the process, more organ and tissue donations could be made each year.
For the majority of Ohioans, the decision to become a donor or not is made in a BMV in just a few seconds.
“When you're licensed, it's kind of an unruly question,” Ross said. “I think that's probably all I've heard about that.”
Even within hospitals, topics are rarely discussed.
“Nurse is not allowed to suggest or speak to any organ donation with a family unless the family raises it,” Ross said. “Even so, we're supposed to postpone them and tell them we're getting someone.”
Around 60% of Ohio are registered as organ donors, but there are so many variables (mostly body size and blood type) that not all desired recipients match.
“There's a lot of screenings,” Ross said. “There's a lot to match. Some patients find it harder to find a match than others.”
Even people who may be ill can become donors to people with the same illness.
And the level of human health and fitness does not prevent them from giving. Everyone can help others.
“You shouldn't say, 'I'm not healthy enough to be a donor' or 'I'm not too old to be a donor',” Ross said.
For the deceased donor, the process is cautious and respectful, and is invisible afterwards.
“They take them exactly the same way they remove organs from living people,” Ross said. “They sew patients exactly the same.”
Families have a say in the process even after their loved one has passed, just in case they disagree with their donation decision.
Anyone who wants to know more about organ donation can ask their doctor.
If someone decides to donate, they can visit and update their status lifelineofohio.org.
“You can register online and won't see it in your license,” Ross said.
“The phone rang and they had hope.”
Waiting is not easy for terminal patients and their families.
The nurse remembers the woman who waited so long, so she was sure that she would never get a transplant.
“They were planning what life would look like without them,” Ross said.
She explained to her children that she would die. She told them to make sure they were going to college. She told them she hoped they had found someone worthy of marriage.
“It's really sad. It's difficult,” Ross said. “And then the phone rang and they had hope.”
However, not everyone receives donations. A small number of patients do not have the opportunity to organize things neatly before time runs out.
“Some of them are very sick and can't leave the hospital for months because they are waiting,” Ross said. “They are people who need life support and artificial means, especially the mind.”
Living donors can help many patients, such as Summerton, whose bodies need a unique match before they receive a bone marrow transplant during cancer treatment.
The doctor first tried everyone in her family, but even her children were 50% of the games.
“Then they found the perfect match for me,” Summerton said.
She received five treatments for the donor's bone marrow without thinking about who they were.
“I didn't know who she was for a year,” Summerton said. “So I had this perfect stranger somewhere, and it could have been from any country.”
It turns out to be the 31-year-old mother of two from South Dakota.
Oddly, the woman had signed up to be a donor 14 years ago, but she hadn't heard anything about how unusual her specs were.
“She's going, 'I actually forgot about it,'” Summerton said. “But she still wanted to donate.”
The two talked about the process over the phone a year after treatment was completed.
Recipients rarely talk directly to donors, but almost everyone is closed after the procedure.
“They are very grateful to them. They know what a sacrifice it was for their family,” Ross said. “They meet their families and exchange letters and photos. They can get pretty close.”
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