Many people have questions about the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) on organ and tissue donation and transplantation. To bring all the information to you, we contacted Donor Alliance, the federally-designated, non-profit organ procurement organization and an American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB) accredited tissue bank serving Colorado and most of Wyoming. As a recognized leader in facilitating the donation and recovery of transplantable organs and tissues, Donor Alliance’s mission is to save lives through organ and tissue donation and transplantation.
When it comes to organ, eye and tissue donation and transplantation, it’s important to get the facts, especially when discussing coronavirus and other diseases. Keep reading to learn more about COVID-19 and donation and transplantation.
Exposure to COVID -19 Does Not Prevent Future Donation: Recovered Coronavirus Patients May Be Eligible to be Organ Donors
A person who is through the acute phase of the disease may be eligible for organ donation now and in the future. Just as with other viral diseases, like the flu or Epstein Barr, historical exposure is not a rule out for donation.
Anyone, regardless of age, lifestyle or medical condition, can sign up to be a donor. Patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes, hepatitis and cancer can also potentially save and heal lives through donation. Eligibility for organ, eye and tissue donation is medically evaluated at the time of death.
Don’t rule yourself out. If you support organ, eye and tissue donation, we encourage you to sign up to be a donor now and let the medical professionals determine eligibility at that time.
Is Coronavirus a Rule-out for Organ Transplants?
With no existing treatment or cure, acute or active COVID-19 is currently a medical rule out for both organ and tissue donation. However, once recovered, donation and transplantation are both possible, as is the case with many other viral illnesses. As with many other illnesses, medical
science is likely to change that over time and even active coronavirus is not expected to be a rule out for donation in coming years, much like the flu.
The decision to utilize donor organs ultimately rests with transplant surgeons who manage complex decisions around patient care.
The Waitlist Can’t Wait: Why Does Organ Donation Matter, and What’s the Urgency?
Donor Alliance’s mission is to save lives through organ and tissue donation and transplantation. With nearly 2,000 people, including more than 181 Blacks and African Americans in our area waiting for a lifesaving transplant right now, the need for transplantable organs is an ongoing public health crisis.
The waitlist can’t wait; waitlist candidates’ illnesses do not pause, even as the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s why it so important that more people sign up to be organ, eye and tissue donors.
Continue to Advocate for Organ and Tissue Donation
Even though we have limited in-person activities, you can still help your community and show your support virtually! Visit our Facebook pages @DonateLifeColorado or @DoneVidaColorado to learn how you can join us in educating and inspiring public support of organ, eye and tissue donation or visit our website and sign up as an Advocates for Life Volunteer and complete training virtually.
Living Organ Donation
It is important to note the information above pertains to deceased organ and tissue donation. Living donation is facilitated directly through the transplant centers. Please contact one of the four transplant centers in our area for more information.
Thank you for your support of organ, eye and tissue donation. If you already registered as a donor, please take some time to discuss your decision with your loved ones. If you haven’t signed up yet, we encourage you to do so during this Holiday season and share the Gift of Life. One heroic decision can save and heal lives!
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Everyone is at risk of breast cancer – but some of us are at higher risk than others. In Colorado 1 in 7 women are at risk of developing breast cancer in their lifetime. Approximately 240,000 women will be diagnosed in 2020 and over 40,000 will die.
Overall, breast cancer incidence (rate of new cases) is lower among Black women than among Caucasian women. However, breast cancer mortality is higher in Black and African American women. Breast cancer mortality is approximately 40% higher in Black women than in Caucasian women. African American women are often diagnosed at a later stage when treatments are limited, costly and the prognosis is poor. They are often diagnosed at a younger age and with more aggressive breast cancer.
In the past, African American women were less likely than White women to get regular mammograms. Lower screening rates in the past may be a possible reason for the difference in survival rates today.
With all of that information in mind, what can each of us do to take care of ourselves and achieve health equity for African American women?
For breast health/cancer information and materials visit www.komen.org to find facts, warning signs and symptoms, statistics, etc.
For information specifically for the African American community visit https://Knowyourgirls.org.
- Know breast health basics.
- Pay attention to your body and know your “girls”.
- Get your mammogram.
- Be your own advocate.
EARLY DETECTION IS THE KEY TO SURVIVAL.
In the past few years, our local Komen African American Advisory Council impacted the community by participating in health fairs, speaking opportunities, walks and other community events. As a result of the pandemic, we are doing what we can virtually via your newsletters, church bulletins and other media outlets/postings.
Please help us to reach out to the community by posting this article in your community so we can all do our part to lower the mortality rate in the African American community. We appreciate your support.
Thank you
African American Advisory Council
Susan G. Komen
“God is a member of my healthcare team” was a theme throughout focus groups that explored the impact of the church and spirituality on Black Americans with chronic illness. Dr. Shaunna Siler, a nurse researcher at the University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus partnered with Colorado Black Health Collaborative and five predominately Black churches in the Denver- Metro area. One focus group was conducted at each of the five churches during October and November 2019. A total of fifty Black Americans, age 55 and over, with at least one chronic illness, participated. Family members who cared for someone with a chronic illness were also in attendance. We had great food, good company, and rich conversations.
We found that majority of participants used spirituality to cope with their illness, collaboratively, inviting God to assist with their healthcare decisions and get through difficult times. Practices such as personal prayer, reading the bible, showing gratitude, and giving to others were mentioned. It was indicated that focusing on gratitude and giving to others through the church community was a distraction from their illness. One member stated, “We’re not dwelling on our illness or disability because we’re helping somebody else.” Participants spoke of giving and receiving support physically, emotionally, and spiritually through their church. For many, spirituality gave a sense of peace and purpose in life. Another reason spirituality or faith in God was so important is that they relied on spirituality to cope with systemic racism for generations as expressed in the following statement, “I think people of color, we had no choice but to have a source, we had to have a source because the way we were treated as people, not equal, you had to have a relationship with God.”
Research shows that spirituality may have a positive effect on mental and physical health. Black Americans are “markedly more religious on a variety of measures than the U.S population as a whole, including level of affiliation with religion, attendance of religious services, frequency of prayer, and religion’s importance in life” (see article). During a time where social distancing is mandated and social injustice is escalating, you may find encouragement in nurturing your spiritual health. An online article written by Alexander Levering Kern, Director of the Center for Spirituality at Northeastern University, provides us with 13 tips for caring for self and others during difficult times (please see below).
Tips for Caring for Self and Others During Difficult Times:
- Breathe. Breathe some more. Take time in your day, at any moment, to take ten deep even breaths. Carve out 5-10 minutes to meditate or practice mindfulness or contemplative prayer. Start here, now, wherever you are.
- Ground yourself in the present moment. Focus your awareness on something real, enduring, or beautiful in your surroundings. Look up often. Discover the wonder and awe that is already here.
- Acknowledge your fears, anxieties, concerns. Offer them up in prayer, if you pray. Write them in your journal. Share them with others. Feel what you feel, honor it, and know that it is not the final word.
- Remember you are not alone. You are surrounded by care and support. Reach out.
- Create and sustain community. Show up for one another. Listen compassionately. Practice empathy. Even while avoiding “close physical contact,” message the people you care about. Stand with those most vulnerable and those who suffer the brunt of prejudice and fear. Check-in on folks. Call your mother, father, guardian, mentor, little sibling, long-lost friend.
- Unplug, judiciously. While staying aware of developments, do not let the Corona-chaos govern you, but forgive yourself when and if it does.
- Practice kindness. There is a temptation in health scares to view others as potential threats. Remember we are in this together. While practicing health guidelines and appropriate caution, remember to engage one another. Smile when you can. Bring good deeds and good energy into our world.
- Stay healthy through sleep, diet, and exercise.
- Make art. Discover, imagine, engage your hopes and fears, the beauty and ugliness of our world. Write, paint, sing, dance, soar.
- Practice gratitude. In the face of crises, make note of the things for which you are grateful: your breath, the particular shade of the sky at dusk—or dawn. The color blue, the color green, the gifts and strengths you have, other people in your life, the ability to laugh. A pet.
- Connect with your spiritual, religious, humanist, cultural, or other communities. Find strength and solace and power in traditions, texts, rituals, practices, holy times, and seasons.
- Pray as you are able, silently, through song, in readings, through ancestors. Remember the long view of history, the rhythms, and cycles of nature, the invisible threads that connect us all.
- Practice hope. Trust in the future and our power to endure and persist, to live fully into the goodness that awaits.
Shaunna Siler, Ph.D., RN, Emma Jackson, MSN, MA, RN, and Tracy Gilford
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When people witness a traumatic event there is a change in one’s behavior and/or cognition. For over 400+ years there has been racial injustice in the United States (U.S.) against Black people. This is discrimination based on one’s race. There is now a call to action as we look at the racism in America and the effects on Black peoples’ Mental Health. Black people may experience long-term effects on mental health that may include post-traumatic stress disorder (and symptoms such as reliving the traumatic events, withdrawal, intrusive memories, flashbacks, mood swings, and feelings of panic).
The duration, and intensity play a role in how impactful the traumatic injustice is. There are small t’s and Large T’s. This means there are small trauma’s which encompass everyday life events. These events are more threatening to one’s self-esteem (EGO) and are usually not life threatening. For example: financial concerns, divorce, conflicts at work, or differences with family members. Whereas Large T’s are life threatening. These events leave people feeling a great deal of helplessness, and faintness. For example: abuse, assault, a major accident, or catastrophic happening. At times, people respond to traumatic events with fear, avoidance, a change in one’s worldview, and severe negative emotions.
The extent to which people are traumatized happens either from environmental factors or genetic inherited ones, and under certain conditions. With racial injustice there is discrimination based on nativism (innate traits), that may also perpetuate empiricism (based off sensory experiences).
There is motivation to tell the vulnerable population the importance of staying emotionally regulated even during difficult times, and when subject to heinous acts against Blacks. When emotions are not regulated there is an increase in impulsivity and spontaneity. We are not talking about the types of automatic thinking that come from repetition like riding a bike (learning, practicing, and repeating). This lack of impulse control can lead to risks such as accidents, self-injury, missing danger signs, blurting out things one may not intend to say, violent behaviors, and destroying property. Or even worse.
Tips for emotional regulation when responding to trauma pertaining to racial injustice (take deep breaths):
- Take a time out – Stop the current action and take a break to think things through.
- Mindfulness – Be self-aware (listen to your internal dialogue) and know your triggers (emotional response to an event or situation) – Having an awareness of physiological reactions and your emotions when in distress will help people be present, and in the moment.
- Learn your physical symptoms when in distress – Taking notice of symptoms like trembling, shaking, sweating, dizziness, twitches, tingling, headaches, breathing, fatigue, or heart palpitations tells you how your body responds to a threat or perceived threat.
- Search for cognitive clarity – When thinking clear people reduce cognitive distortions (thinking errors) and irrational thoughts, which decreases risks.
- Schedule time with your providers (doctors, psychotherapists, psychiatrists) – Process thoughts, emotions, behaviors, physical symptoms (how your body is responding to stress), and for medication management.
- Remember the intended outcome – Don’t get sidetracked by triggers. Remember your goal to create change.
- Staying informed, knowing the law, and your rights – With education you can petition for the change you hope to experience.
By Janelle Johnson, MA, LPC, NCC