| Transplant recipient, CKMC encourage eye donations |
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All Rose Meyeres knows about one of her guardian angels is that he was a 48-year-old man from Denver. The other she knows nothing about.
Meredith Joiner, Central Kansas Medical Center clinical recruiter, and Wolf Miggiani, M.D., CKMC Emergency Room physician, review documents about eye donations. March is National Eye Donation Month.
Meyeres, 68, Great Bend, was diagnosed in May 2002 with cornea dystrophy. She underwent a cornea transplant in her left eye in May 2002 and another in her right eye last September.
The cornea is the clear front wall of the eye.
“My vision had become cloudy and blurred,” Meyeres recalled. “And I couldn’t see distances. Both eyes have definitely improved and I don’t even have to wear glasses.
“My vision didn’t become extremely bad before I had the transplants,” she added. “We didn’t let it progress that far.”
Since March is National Eye Donation Month, Meyeres wants to raise awareness about the importance of making arrangements for cornea donations.
“It is going to help somebody,” Meyeres said.
She noted that because people are more aware of eye donations, she didn’t have to be on a waiting list; if enough people continue to donate, others won’t have to wait either.
“There is not the waiting list that there used to be,” Meyeres said. “When my mom had her transplant 25 years ago, she had to be ready at a moment’s notice. In fact, she was called at 2 in the morning.”
Meredith Joiner, Central Kansas Medical Center clinical recruiter, is also encouraging the community to consider eye donations. CKMC collaborates with Heartland Lions Eye Banks (HLEB) in Hays.
“We do not approach family members about this,” Joiner noted. “Trained professionals are called upon for this important role. All of our nurses know how important this is and take the appropriate steps.”
A driver’s license notation is not enough to ensure a desired donation, Joiner added. “People need to mention their desires to their loved ones and, even more important, declare their organ-donation wishes in a living will. This is important for anyone at any age, no matter his or her health status.”
Living will forms are available at CKMC’s website, www.ckmc.org.
Sylvia Reinhardt, R.N. at HLEB, said that CKMC continues to be a good resource for donor families and the Eye Bank.
“CKMC was able to help restore sight to seven individuals in 2007 and 12 last year,” Reinhardt said. “The hospital is also wiling to allow the use of its facilities to smaller hospitals that don’t have all the resources required. CKMC is definitely a team player in giving the gift of sight.”
Each year, more than 46,000 cornea transplants are performed in the United States, allowing people to regain vision lost due to ocular disease, disorder or injury, Reinhardt said.
“Vision loss compromises a person’s quality of life, making it difficult to accomplish every-day tasks such as reading or even recognizing faces at a distance,” Reinhardt added. “Fortunately, through the medical miracle of cornea transplants, sight restoration is possible.
“This process depends on the priceless gift of eye donation from one human to another,” Reinhardt continued. “Thanks to the generous pledge to become an eye donor after death, one’s legacy of giving can live on in another’s restored sight.”
CKMC’s Joiner also noted that even though March is dedicated to eye-donation awareness, organ and tissue donations are also vital.
“We make it a priority at CKMC to honor these gifts of life,” Joiner said. “It is a wonderful way for someone to give quality of life after death.
“One donor can have an impact on the lives of maybe 50 people through eye, tissue and organ donation,” Joiner noted. “This is remarkable.” |
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