Gift of Hope

Yesterday was bad news for the organ transplant community. When I saw the headline in the Trib I said "Oh No, Oh NO, oh NO". I used to work at Gift of Hope ( Dec 04- Oct 06)and certainly empathize with the news that 4 recipients developed HIV after receiving organs from one high-risk donor back in January. Its sad because this hasn't happened since 1986 way bad when AIDS was "new". I'm sure my colleagues in Hospital Development (HD) will have a bit tougher job over the next few weeks. I'll continue to rant about the unfairness of people complaining about this, its a matter of the lab tests not being able to detect HIV in a high risk donor who had only recently acquired it. The Elisa test does not pick it up, but the PCR test is more sensitive and maybe able to detect earlier development of AIDS in the body. The problem is that not enough people choose to donate, so that doctors and patients are basically forced to choose between the possibility of developing a disease from a high-risk donor, and Death if they choose not to. So I sent a message of support to my friends in HD to let them know I'm with them in spirit, and to thank them for being on the front lines! Its a hard job... and emotionally demanding.