By CLARA CARTRETTE

You might think you’re reading an old column, one that ran in July 2005, but you’re not.

This column is a new plea for an old need, and I am repeating part of a column I wrote last year. But a plea for organ donations can’t be used too often, so if you haven’t done so, please sign an organ donor card. Don’t delay; do it today.

How can you do that? To become a donor in North Carolina you must take three steps:

1. Sign a legal donor card (the only legal document for donation).

2. Put the “heart” on your driver’s license (this enters you into the intent registry).

3. Discuss your wishes with your family.

Jeannine Sato, director of communications and marketing for Carolina Donor Services, provided information about the “gift of life.”

“We pull the data from www.unos.org, and the waiting list numbers are updated once a month on our website,” Sato said. “There are 2,890 people waiting for transplants in North Carolina. In 2005 there were 783 transplants, from both living and deceased donors.”

You can download an organ donor card by visiting www.carolinadonorservices.org. If you have difficulties, send an e-mail requesting a donor card to info@carolinadonorservices.org or call Carolina Donor Services at 1-800-200-2672.

I’ve written many stories about successful organ transplants involving Columbus County people. One that I haven’t written about yet is Dustin Ezzell, an Old Dock 6th grader who was able to march into class last Friday because somebody cared enough to sign an organ donor card. Dustin had his liver transplant more than a year ago and now appears to be a healthy youngster, according to Principal Richard Gore. Dustin resides with his grandparents, and unfortunately, fire destroyed their home several weeks ago.

One of the most awesome interviews I’ve ever done was with Don Peacock and Carlton Baldwin. They sat across my desk one Saturday morning, alive only because someone had taken the time to sign an organ donor card and inform their families that they wanted their organs to help other people live.

Don became the first person from the two Carolinas, Georgia and possibly other Southern states to undergo a heart transplant. He inherited the heart of a man in his early 20s on Jan. 20, 1984 in Houston, Texas.

Houston would also play a role in Carlton’s transplant. A kidney from a 29-year-old Houston man who suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the head was implanted into Carlton’s body on May 25, 1984 in Chapel Hill.

Their transplants resulted in seven and a half more years of life for Don, 10 more for Carlton. Don was able to do things he hadn’t considered for many years, such as going parasailing in the Bahamas. I was in Florida when Don died, and then went on a cruise to the Bahamas. As I watched the parasailers, I remembered that Don had told me he went parasailing in the Bahamas and it struck me that I should do that in honor of my friend.

Carlton, who had done his dialysis exchange himself four times a day, even while on his mail delivery route, returned to his U.S. Postal Service job after his transplant.

I wrote several stories about a young Hallsboro woman who needed a kidney. Then I wrote about her transplant and her recovery. I lost touch with Cathy Pierce for awhile, then one day I saw someone in a crowd who looked familiar.

“Cathy? Is that you?” I inquired. She began to smile as she wrapped her arms tighter around the toddler she was holding. She not only had survived, but she had made a new life for herself. It was her child she so lovingly cuddled.

Cele Nance underwent liver transplant surgery in the mid-1990s. I did not know her before she went on the transplant list, but learned to love her and her husband Dick when I was writing about them. She could have come home for the Christmas holidays after her transplant, but she and Dick decided not to take a chance that she might contact a flu bug or some other germ that might be harmful. They said sharing a sandwich lunch in the hospital was about the most exciting Christmas dinner they ever had.

Harvey Williams, a former deputy sheriff and private investigator, became a minister after a long career in law enforcement, thanks to someone who cared enough to sign a donor card. He was the recipient of a liver transplant.

Joyce Jones, a wonderful lady who worked in the county Economic Development Office, had her life extended through a lung transplant.

Tyneeshi Harley of Tabor City was 7 years old when she underwent a liver transplant several years ago in the spring and was able to return to school in the fall.

Roger Earp Jr. of Beulaville, son of Bobbie Arp of Tabor City, suffered polycystic disease, the disease that his father died of. Roger had a live donor, a young man from Florida who said God told him to give his Christian brother a chance to live.

P.E. Dawsey had a heart transplant and continued his Christian ministry in China. He has since died.
Harold Hughes, a retired high school agriculture teacher and former Tabor City councilman, finally got his kidney transplant and is doing well.
Those are some of the locals who have benefited from organ donations. From another perspective, organs, skin, bone and tissue donated by 37-year-old Diane Williamson Harrell of Lake Waccamaw gave life, or a better quality of life, to more than 200 people.

Diane suffered a brain aneurysm in March, 1987 and before doctors pronounced her dead, a member of her family found an organ donor card in her wallet. She was kept on a respirator until arrangements could be made to harvest her organs. Her mother, Verna Williamson of Lake Waccamaw, said the family was told that the tissue alone would help more than 200 people.

When Nicholas Green, the little boy from Bodega Bay, Calif., was shot in Italy by a car bandit, his organs were donated to seven Italians. His father, Reg Green, wrote a heart-warming book about the experience. This act led to an outpouring of love by the people of Italy, a sharp increase in organ donor rates, and a deluge of media attention. “The Nicholas Effect” is a book that will make you cry, make you glad you’re a human, and make you want to do something great, like sign an organ donor card.

What organs/tissues can be donated? The heart, liver, lungs, pancreas, kidneys, small intestine, heart valves, eyes/corneas, tissue grafts, bone grafts, skin, tendons and ligaments can be donated. Your family decides which organs and tissues you would like to donate.

We always think of heart, kidney, liver and major organ transplants, but skin and other tissue is just as important. One of the most interesting programs I’ve ever listened to was when Dr. Bill Ogden spoke at a Shrine Club meeting several years ago. Having done his residency at a Shrine Hospital, Dr. Ogden told about the orthopedic surgeries (his specialty), but the thing that intrigued me most was what can be done for burn victims. Using a video to illustrate his talk, he showed how a 4-inch square of skin can be used to cover an area three times that large.

I have just learned that the first successful organ transplant was done 101 years ago in Austria when Edward Zirm transplanted a cornea. Remember when the first successful heart transplant made news all over the world when Dr. Christian Bernard successfully in transplanted a heart in South Africa?

Medical science is wonderful, therefore transplants have become “old hat” and now rarely make the news, except on the local level.

I had my first experience with organ donations back in the 1960s at one of the early, if not the first, Merchants-Farmers Expo sponsored by Whiteville Lions Club. The Lions Club had forms to sign for those who wanted to donate their eyes so others could see, and I didn’t hesitate. The first chance I had to sign off on donating any and every part of my body that could be used to give life or a better quality of life to others, I eagerly signed. When the breath has left my body, there’s no need to waste the rest of it.

None of us will need our bodies after we die — no matter where we’re going — so why not will it to “gifts for life?”