76 | HealthLinksSC.com With tens of thousands of lives hanging in the balance, getting the word out about the importance of organ donations is a never-ending and critically important job, according to Tracy Moore, CEO and executive director of Donate Life South Carolina. “Right now, 120 thousand Americans are waiting on the list for a transplant,” said Moore. “In South Carolina, impressively, over 2.6 million people have said they are willing to donate and have ‘yes’ noted on their driver’s licenses, but less than 1% of those people meet criteria – by way of death. They can donate sight and tissue but not major organs.” The push to raise awareness and the number of organ donations continues; at the same time, hospital and business partnerships are opening miraculously efficient paths for transplants and organ sources as well. Kingstree, South Carolina, resident Norman McGill’s heart transplant story is perhaps the best example of the unique way donations occur. In October 2023, McGill’s heart was barely beating, despite multiple forms of intervention. In medical terms, he was in persistent end-stage heart failure, and he had ventricular tachycardia, which can be a fatal arrhythmia. He was being supported with a mechanical pump, but, even with that help, he was in desperate need of a transplant. McGill spent two months in the hospital waiting for a miracle that arrived when a team of cardiothoracic surgeons at the Medical University of South Carolina, led by Dr. Arman Kilic, made history. They transplanted into McGill the first heart in the Palmetto State obtained by donation after circulatory death. Traditionally, organ donors have no neurological function; they are considered “brain dead.” However, organs from DCD donors are available after a patient meets the criteria for circulatory death once life-sustaining assistance stops. The decision to donate is sometimes difficult for families, but an ALWAYS NEEDED: ORGAN DONORS NEW PATHS AND PARTNERSHIPS HELP By Lisa Moody Breslin
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