THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 4, 1994 TAG: 9408040572
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PATRICK K. LACKEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines
A double-lung transplant saved Debra Gibson's life in October 1991.
Nine months later she won three medals at the 1992 U.S. Transplant Games, an Olympics for recipients of life-saving organ transplants - kidneys, lungs, hearts, livers and pancreases - or bone marrow.
She won the gold medal in the long jump, silver in the 400 meters and bronze in the 4x100-meter relay - even though her lung donor had been an occasional smoker.
Gibson, 35, of Virginia Beach, is among 18 Hampton Roads organ transplant recipients flying to Atlanta today for the 1994 U.S. Transplant Games this weekend. They will be among the 33 members of Team Virginia and 2,000 contestants nationwide.
The Transplant Games are held every two years to draw attention to successful transplants and to pay tribute to the more than 4,000 American families who donate the organs and tissues of their deceased relatives each year.
Gold, silver and bronze medals will be awarded in badminton, track and field, running road race, 3-on-3 basketball, swimming, bicycling, table tennis, bowling, tennis, golf, racquetball and volleyball.
Gibson, a registered nurse at Eastern Virginia Medical School, will compete in the 100- and 400-meter dashes, plus the long jump and mile run.
Prior to the lung transplant, cystic fibrosis restricted Gibson's lungs to 20 percent of capacity. Her frantically compensating heart pumped 120 times a minute, when she was resting. That's the target rate for distance runners while they are running.
The morning after her 12-hour operation, her resting pulse was 80. Today it's in the 60s and she feels great.
``Someone saved my life,'' she said. She doesn't know whom, or even if the donor, who died in an accident, was a woman or man. But she is grateful. She had waited seven months for new lungs, and doctors told her she would have lived only one or two months longer without them. Today, she said, the average wait for lung transplants is a year to 18 months.
Thirty-three thousand Americans are on the national waiting list for organ transplants, according to the National Kidney Foundation. Six to seven Americans die each day awaiting an organ transplant, according to foundation figures, and a person is added to the national organ transplant waiting list every 18 minutes.
To become an organ donor, you can sign the back of your driver's license, along with two witnesses.
But beyond that, Gibson said, you must tell relatives of your intentions. The organ transplants need to occur shortly after death, and relatives shocked to discover you signed as a donor might block the organ transfer.
Potentially, Gibson said, a single donor could save five lives, one each for heart, kidney, pancreas, liver and lungs.
The Transplant Games are staged by the National Kidney Foundation and sponsored by Stadtlanders pharmacy, a national medication delivery and insurance billing service, and Sandoz Pharmaceuticals Corp., makers of Sandimmune, an anti-rejection drug. MEMO: For more information about organ transplants, call LifeNet Transplant
Services, a non-profit organization, at 464-4761.
ILLUSTRATION: Staff color photos by CHRISTOPHER REDDICK
[Debra Gibson]
Gibson, 35, of Virginia Beach won three medals at the 1992
Transplant Games.
Staff photo by CHRISTOPHER REDDICK
Nine months after receiving a double-lung transplant, Debra Gibson,
35, of Virginia Beach won three medals at the 1992 Transplant Games,
an Olympics for recipients of organ transplants.
Graphic
33,000 Americans are on the national waiting list for organ
transplants.
Six to seven Americans die each day awaiting an organ
transplant.
One person is added to the national organ transplant waiting list
every 18 minutes.
TO BECOME AN ORGAN DONOR:
Sign the back of your driver's license, along with two
witnesses.
Tell relatives of your intentions.
Potentially, a single donor could save five lives, one each for
heart, kidney, pancreas, liver and lungs.
Statistics from the National Kidney Foundation
by CNB