ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 2, 1996 TAG: 9604020071
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: What's On Your Mind?
SOURCE: RAY REED
Q: How do organ-donor programs differ in regard to the donor's family or estate incurring surgical fees for removal of donated organs? M.F., Stewartsville
A: The programs don't differ.
There's no charge to the family or estate once death of the donor has been pronounced and the organ procurement agency is authorized to begin its procedure.
The notion that families could be charged for removal of donated organs resulted from a hospital billing error in Florida about five years ago.
An accounting-department statement mailed from the hospital looked enough like a bill to fool the family and a reporter. The result: headlines around the country proclaimed that a mother had been charged for donating her son's organs.
It was totally an error on the hospital's part, but the impact obviously lingers.
Ann Landers' column also carried some letters from donor relatives that contributed to this scare.
Landers since has written repeatedly that families of organ donors incur no expenses in the donation procedure.
A patient's family or estate still is responsible for the cost of all life-saving procedures attempted.
The Virginia Organ Procurement Agency, the donor program for the region from Roanoke to Charlottesville, received 105 organs - hearts, kidneys, livers and lungs - in 1995, and 137 in 1994.
These came from 25 donors in 1995 and 33 donors in 1994. None of the families had to pay for organ removal. Pull-tab diversion
Three weeks ago, a reader asked about collecting metal tabs from soft-drink cans to be redeemed for time on kidney dialysis for needy patients.
I said it wasn't so, but that the tabs had some value in recycling.
At least three readers called to insist the tabs are good for dialysis and I ought to check further. Urban legends are indeed persistent.
Following is the partial text from a brochure provided by the National Kidney Foundation office in Richmond:
"This program might have a familiar ring. False rumors have plagued the aluminum industry and the National Kidney Foundation for years concerning beverage can pull tabs and kidney dialysis. ... Many well-intentioned yet misinformed groups and individuals collected pull tabs only to find there was no pull tab-kidney dialysis donation program. It never existed. Anywhere."
The legend has been so persistent that it has become, in a limited sense, real.
People can now take aluminum cans - tabs and all - to a Reynolds Aluminum Recycling site. They'll send the check for the proceeds to the National Kidney Foundation if you ask.
In Roanoke, Reynolds has a recycling center at Salem Avenue and 24th Street Southwest, just south of Shaffers Crossing. It's open Tuesday-Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Further information is available from the National Kidney Foundation of Virginia, 5001 West Broad St., Suite 217, Richmond, Va., 23230.
Have a question about something that might affect other people, too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Give us a call at 981-3118. Or, e-mail Roatimes@Infi.Net. Maybe we can find the answer.
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