COURTESY PHOTO After Herbert Mitsuda, 60, died July 23 from a fall, his organs were transplanted in patients here and in San Francisco.

Organ donations in isles
set record last month

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By Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.com

Family and friends were to gather for a private service today to remember Herbert H. Mitsuda, "who made his final contribution to society" with organ donations.

Mitsuda, 60, an electronic technician, died July 23 after a fall.

His family could not find his driver's license to determine if he was an organ donor, said his brother, Daniel M. Mitsuda.

"Regardless," he said he and his sister, Lorraine Kameda, "felt that it was something that could very well help others."

The family recalled that Herbert Mitsuda's wife, Jane, died in 1994 waiting for a liver transplant.

"We came to realize it's very important, especially since they went through that torment waiting for a donor and none came about," Mitsuda said.

His brother's organ donations contributed to a record-breaking organ donor month, said Robyn Kaufman, executive director of the Organ Donor Center of Hawaii.

In 11 days, from July 18 through Sunday, seven donors contributed 21 organs, she said.

"We've never had seven organ donors in one month, let alone in such a short period of a month. We also had a tremendous surge in tissue, with 11 tissue donors this month."

From January through July this year, there were 15 organ donors, with a total of 50 organs recovered, Kaufman said.

There were 71 organs recovered in all of last year.

"We're way ahead on organs recovered," Kaufman said.

Mitsuda's kidneys were transplanted locally; his liver was transplanted in San Francisco, and all recipients are doing well, said Felicia Wells-Williams, aftercare coordinator at the Organ Donor Center. His corneas also are suitable for transplant, she said.

Donna Pacheco, heart and liver transplant coordinator at St. Francis Medical Center, said July was a record month for transplants, with 19 patients receiving organs from nine donors.

"We ended up doing three liver transplants, a pancreas alone, a kidney-pancreas dual operation, and the rest were kidneys alone."

Since all patients were there at the same time, it was extremely busy, she said. They were wondering where they would put all of them, since they must be in specific rooms tested for air quality, but it worked out, she said.

"We think we did all these, then we look at the list." She said 22 people are waiting for a liver, two for a pancreas and 340 for kidneys.

"We add about 10 a month, so even if we do that many (transplants), we're always behind," Pacheco said. "It goes consistently with the highest number per capita of renal disease in the United States.

"We're dramatically increasing our living kidney program, too, and can't even make a dent."

Two heart transplants were done in May, and no patients currently are on the heart wait list, Pacheco said. Kaufman and Pacheco said they cannot explain the high number of donors in July.

"There is never any rhyme nor reason," Pacheco said.

"It's not holidays, not a full moon. It's just how it works."

To learn more For more information, call the Organ Donor Center of Hawaii at 599-7630.

Kaufman lauded hospitals for "tremendous efforts ... to work with us. We had five donors from Queen's (Medical Center). The staff there really worked hard to make it happen, as did our staff.

"It was really a couple of amazing weeks."

Media coverage, greater public awareness, some new donor management techniques and supporting federal and state legislation also have helped, she said.

A law passed by the Legislature in 1999 that gave the center access to driver's license data went into effect in July last year, Kaufman noted.

"For the first time, we were able to go to the family and say their loved one indicated he or she wanted to be a donor.

"We haven't had one potential organ donor's family say 'no' when they know what their loved one wanted. ... It really makes the case for people to put it (organ donor) on their license."

Mitsuda, an international banker and consultant, said his brother's organs were donated "so that others could see and live their lives as he would have wanted, as well as for medical science advance."

He said his brother would be happy that his organ donations will prevent the recipients from suffering the same fate as his wife.