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Organ Transplant Organization Helps Both the Organ Recipient and Donor Families
By Julia Campbell
Intermountain Donor Services is based in Salt Lake City and oversees the procurement of organ and tissue donation in Utah, southeastern Idaho, western Wyoming and Elko, Nev. It is a nonprofit community service organization dedicated to recovery and transplant of organs and tissues. IDS also provides many donor family services including education and counseling.
Steve Bird, donor liver recipient, and Lisa Osmond, donor Adam Glen Osmond’s mother, are volunteers for IDS to take the message of the organ donor program to the public.
Bird received a new liver from Osmond’s son when he died Oct. 29, 2003. Bird and his wife, Doralee, met Lisa and her husband, Vic, along with their children about a year later in Oct. 2004.
Many times Bird and Osmond present the donor program at the same function as they each tell their story. They tell of their appreciation for the donor program and inform people of what the donor program does. If they need to speak at any function or if IDS comes down, they are available to help.
“We take a message out, mainly facts about being a donor,” Bird said. “A lot of those kids coming up on 16 years of age want to get their driver license and they mark yes, no, or undecided on being a donor.”
Bird said there are about 97,000 people on the list right now waiting for a donor. The majority of organ donations are kidneys, but others include liver, heart, lungs, pancreas, as well as tissue donations. Surgeons started doing split livers in 1988. The smaller portion of a split liver can go to an infant or child.
“Tissue donations of one person alone can help 50 or more people. Being an organ donor can help up to nine people and help save their lives,” Steve Bird said.
Both Osmond and Bird are also employed by IDS in the education system as they go around to the intermediate, middle, and high schools to tell their story. Bird covers Hurricane, Cedar City, and Parowan while Osmond covers the rest of Washington County. They usually present about an hour program during a health class on educating the kids on becoming donors to give them correct information. The kids can then go home and talk to their families about whatever they decide.
Before getting involved with the donor program almost two years ago, Osmond was involved with teaching about drugs in the schools.
Upon receiving his liver transplant, Oct. 29, 2003, Bird said there are many ups and downs the first year after a transplant. He had three rejections where he had to undergo steroid treatments the first time and an increase of medication the last two times. His weight went from 175 pounds before the operation down and bottomed out at 128 pounds.
Even though many lives are saved through organ transplantation, the number of organs donated doesn’t keep pace with the need. Thousands of people die each year waiting for an organ donation.
Bird said he is thankful to wake up in the morning and be able to see his family grow, referring to his grandchildren. He believes it a miracle he is still here. He said the technology of the doctors and his faith brought much intervention when he went through his transplant. A lot of prayers were offered from many denominations in his behalf.
“You can be a live donor for a liver and a kidney, but that is quite remarkable anymore. You can be a live donor for a liver, because the liver is the only organ in the body that will regenerate itself,” Doralee Bird said. “The liver has over 450 different functions in the body.”
Bird and his wife moved from Salt Lake to La Verkin in June 2005. Osmond and her family live in St. George.
Wearing a green donor bracelet to remind him of being a donor recipient, Bird said it also gives him an opportunity to tell other people about getting the gift of life. Osmond and Bird both believe it is imperative to get the IDS message out to help people realize the importance for both people registering to donate and donor recipients to receive the gift of life.
Call (800) 833-6667, (801) 366-6744, or check out www.idslife.org or call 24-Hour Donor Hotline: (800) 833-6667.

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