By Eric Stevick
Herald Writer
Students in Joan Kelly’s classroom are preparing to confront ethical and logistical issues facing organ transplants 20 years from now, but they spent Tuesday morning learning about one family’s everlasting gratitude.
In a few weeks, Kelly’s class of advanced placement fourth- through sixth-graders at Snohomish’s Seattle Hill Elementary will be given complex hypothetical issues that could surface in the future. The class will be asked to offer solutions covering everything from health insurance and organ transplantation to cloning and consent.
On Tuesday, they came face to face with Ray Page, a Wenatchee man with a barrel chest and white crewcut who received a kidney transplant. Page and others received organs from Kristopher Kime, a 20-year-old Kent resident who was beaten to death while trying to help a woman who had fallen during the Mardi Gras riots last February.
Page described the genetic condition that caused his kidneys to fail, his dialysis treatments, the 55 pills he had to swallow each day and the 22 vials of blood siphoned from him in search of an organ match. He also explained the stiff diet regimen he had to adopt and the disappointment he initially endured believing a donor had been found only to realize it wasn’t a good match.
In his heart, Page knew his donor the day the doctor told him he had received the kidney of a 20-year-old head trauma victim. Kime’s death had been a lead story in the news.
"He made a nice choice in life to help people," Page said, adding that he would be willing to donate his organs, including his one good kidney, someday.
"Out of something very, very tragic came something very, very good," said Debbie Whitlock, Page’s daughter, who lives in Seattle.
The students also heard from staff members at LifeCenter Northwest, an organization that coordinates organ transplants from Alaska to Montana. They dispelled misconceptions, including that age is a barrier to organ donation.
"We have donors who were a couple of days old and over 80 years old," said Dan Stockdreher, director of clinical services for LifeCenter Northwest in Bellevue.
Sixth-grader Josh Bishop was struck by the immensity of the list of patients seeking donors nationwide. Every 13 minutes another name is added to the national transplant waiting list and an average of 15 people die each day because of a lack of available organs.
More than 75,000 people are on the waiting list.
"I had no idea there were that many people," he said. "I’m pretty sure I want to be an organ donor, knowing more how it affects people’s lives."
In the weeks ahead, the class of future problem-solvers will discuss everything from mandated-choice programs that require adults to declare whether they are willing to donate their organs when they die, to bionics — the science of designing organs, instruments or systems modeled after living organisms.
Page was amazed at the breadth of knowledge in the classroom.
After sixth-grader Nicole Ford asked about "presumed consent," a law that would automatically make all adults organ donors when they die unless they have prepared documentation objecting to it, he shook his head.
Page will speak to four civic groups next month.
"You know more than all of them combined," he said.
You can call Herald Writer Eric Stevick at 425-339-3446
or send e-mail to stevick@heraldnet.com.
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