Organ recipients, families gather to celebrate gift of life

One person can make a significant difference in life — especially by being an organ donor.

That was the pivotal message Tuesday at the Intermountain Medical Center as Utah organ transplant recipients, living donors and family members of deceased donors gathered to talk about their experiences as part of National Organ and Tissue Awareness Week.

"Transplants are no longer an experimental procedure," said Dr. Diane Alonso, a transplant surgeon at Intermountain Medical Center, noting that more than 70 percent of transplant patients live five years or more as the success rate has doubled in the past two decades.

She said about 1 million of Utah's 2.7 million residents are signed up to be donors, and even though the Beehive State has one of the best rates in the nation, there is room for improvement.

The need for organs and tissues for transplants still far exceeds availability, and in the U.S., 17 patients die every day waiting for an available organ.

Penne Swenson, 51, who lives on a 5,000-acre dry farm in Cut Bank, Mont., received a heart transplant in January 2003 after severe heart failure. Ninety-seven days after checking into the hospital, she was out with a new heart.

She described her health before that time as perfect most of her life.

"I had a brand new chance to enjoy what God has given me. … I can't tell you how much it really meant to me to live long enough to see my grandkids … I can't say thank you enough for my donor," she said.

Carol Holmes, from Liberty, Weber County, received a liver transplant on Feb, 25, 2006.

"I was home in six days," she said. "I'm very grateful for the gift of life."

The donor's mother, Gerri Osman, of Salt Lake City, now works at Intermountain Donor Services. Her son, Sebastian, was 16 and had signed up to be a donor less than three weeks before he was killed in a pedestrian accident.

"I wasn't against it, but I didn't support it," Osman said of the donor program. "Most of us don't think it will ever pertain to us. … I had to put my own fears aside."

She said she's grateful her son had the foresight and willingness to sign as a donor, a simple act but one where she has gotten to see Holmes continue to be a mother.

"Sebastian knew he could make all the difference to someone in the world," she said.