Giving life

Baby Finn is on the move. He climbs around the inside of his play set. Next he’s off to race an Elmo car. After that, he’s crawling to his dad, then over to a toy basket nearby. This active little boy was laid up in a hospital for a kidney transplant in July.

“We were organ donors before and didn’t realize how important it was,” said Tara Simmons as Finn batted a balloon covered in basketballs and soccer balls. “We always thought of adults, not really of babies.”

Finn Simmons was born March 3, 2008, the fourth child of John and Tara Simmons, of Waynesboro. When Finn stopped gaining weight at two months old, Tara took him to the doctor. She was immediately sent to the U.Va. Medical Center, where they discovered he had renal dysplasia.

Finn’s kidneys were too small, poorly formed and not growing. He would need a transplant, and had to reach 22 pounds before he could be put on the waiting list. In the meantime, he had seven surgeries, was on dialysis 10 hours per day, endured daily growth hormone injections and received shots every other week to help him make blood.

Like Finn, thousands of people across the country anxiously await organs. Organ donation is administered by the United Network for Organ Sharing, in Richmond.

All transplant centers across the United States are members of the organization, according to Mandy Ames, UNOS spokesperson.

On the national waiting list, there are 103,012 candidates waiting for organs. Three-fourths of those people are waiting for kidneys.

“Some people wait for upwards of seven years,” said Ames.

Although the need for organ donors is dire everywhere, central Virginia fares better.

“Our waitlist is reasonably rapid compared to other places’ waitlists, like D.C. and Baltimore,” said Dr. Victoria Norwood, Finn’s doctor at University of Virginia, who theorizes that waiting for an organ might take longer depending upon by higher populations, if there are people willing to donate and if hospitals are aggressively seeking and talking with donor families.

U.Va. Medical Center is currently waiting on 536 organs, according to the UNOS database, second in Virginia only to Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in Richmond. There are 2,585 candidates total on Virginia’s waiting list. So far this year there have only been 122 donors. Out of the 15 children on Virginia’s waiting list, 10 are at U.Va.

Fortunately for Finn, kids under 18 are given priority. He was put on the list last May, and only had to wait two months before he was given the kidneys of a 19-year-old. He received his transplant on July 29 in his 8th surgery since birth.

“You don’t get the full picture outside of the hospital,” said John Simmons, Finn’s father, as he watches his lively little boy crawl around the floor. During the surgery visit, even his mom, Tara, couldn’t hold the little guy for a week because of all the tubes.

Luckily, Finn had a positive response right away. Usually it takes 3-4 days for blood levels to return to normal in a successful transplant surgery; Finn’s were like a normal baby’s in 12 hours, said mom. Now that he’s home and healthier, Finn’s mood has improved. He eats more and he had a ‘real’ bath for the first time since he was 2 months old. So far, checkups with his doctor have gone very well.

Now the Simmons tell everyone they know to be an organ donor.

Norwood suggests three ways to become one: “One, register on your license. Two, tell all your family and close friends it’s something you want. Three, make sure it’s on your living will.”

These are all places the medical systems can access and confirm a person’s wish to be a donor.

In addition, you can find out about organ donation in your area through UNOS’s sister organization, Donate Life America. Their Web site, DonateLife.net, has information about how to become an organ donor in Virginia.

Organ donation has changed Finn’s life.

No more dialysis. No more growth hormone shots. And hopefully no more future surgeries.

“He’s been a totally different kid,” said Tara, as Finn crawled out of the room and disappeared behind the corner. “He used to sleep a lot; now it’s a fight. He feels so good he doesn’t want to waste time sleeping.

“The doctors are saying he is the most stable patient they have.”