Potential changes in organ transplant policy could be longer wait times in Wisconsin

WDJT, Milwaukee | David Ade

There are more than 120,000 people waiting for an organ transplant in this country. Some will never make it to operating table. A national group is exploring options of balancing the donor pool to help change that.

For Wisconsin's Lauren Chapman, life is becoming easier after receiving a kidney earlier this year.

“I feel better energy wise. I know with dialysis I was anemic and I was really really tired all the time. I’m still kind of tired, but I feel I have better moments where I have lots of energy and I can be up. And I’m back to work.” Chapman says.

She’s was on the waiting list at Froedtert Hospital in for almost five years. She says, “They can just say oh you’re on the list, they can’t tell you where you are or anything because of confidentiality… which gets frustrating.”

Last September Chapman decided to join a second wait-list, this one at the University of Wisconsin. By late February, Chapman got the life changing call she’d been waiting years for. She said, “They said how soon can you get here? So we got everything together and raced down to the UW hospital and I got the kidney the next morning.” Continue reading

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You have the power to SAVE Lives. To learn more, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov