Pulse

Volume5/1991_April19PULSE UNIVERSITY OF UTAH HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER April 19, 1991 Tree Transplanting Marks Organ and Tissue Donor Week U of U Medical Center is celebrating National Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Week by transplanting a tree next week on Arbor Day in Red Butte Gardens and Arboretum. Each year hundreds of Utahns' lives are saved or improved through heart, kidney, cornea, skin and other trans-plants. Yet the supply of donor organs and tissue falls far short of the demand. Nationally some 19,000 individuals are awaiting vital organ transplants, according to the Salt Lake City- based Inter-mountain Organ Recovery System ( IORS). Thirty percent of those people will die before organs become available. The theme of this year's week- April 21- 27- is " Organ and Tissue Donation: Planting Life • Hope • Promise." The tree- planting ceremony reminds Utahns that, through donation, life can be recycled. On hand to transplant the tree will be two Utahns who have benefitted from organ donation. Dean Lamb, 63, was the recipi-ent of the first cadaveric kidney transplant in the state of Utah. His transplant was performed on Jan. 25,1965, at the old Salt Lake County General Hospital by Larry P. Stevens, M. D., clinical instructor at the U medical school, who now prac-tices at LDS Hospital. Lamb, a retired cattle and sheep farmer from Moroni, Utah, is believed to be the longest surviving cadav-eric kidney transplant patient in the world. Lamb will be joined by Judy and Dennis Toone and their 21- month- old daughter, Talyisa, who just last June received a liver transplant. The tree transplantation is one of several events planned throughout the state next week to raise public awareness of the critical need for donor organs and tissue. A donor awareness fair will be held Tuesday, April 23,11 a. m.- 2 p. m. on UH's first-floor bridge, featuring displays from several transplant pro-grams. " Organ and tissue donation has been found to be beneficial for families grieving at the time of a loved one's death. Donation helps them to find something positive in what is otherwise an emotionally difficult time," said Mary Jayne Stevens, director of the Utah Lions Eye Bank, based at the U Medical Center. Last year her center was respon-sible for coordinating more than 375 cornea transplants, ranging from a 2- week- old girl to a 96- year- old woman. Coordinators of the week's events hope that Medical Center staff, as well as people statewide, will take advantage of this time to fill out a donor card and let their families know of their decision. Dreaming of a White Classic It was a day for diehards. Last week's University Hospital Classic 5K greeted 214 runners with slushy roads, white- frosted lawns and brisk tempera-tures. But the race went on. Kip Jenkins led the pack, clocking 17: 07 on the course. The overall women's winner was Karen Swenson, who came in at 19: 03. The seventh annual run/ leisure walk culminated more than two months of work for the organizing committee, chaired by Dick Alexander. Special thanks to Coca Cola and Meadow Gold, which donated refreshments, and Creative Awards, donor of the medallions. Classic T- shirts continue to be sold through the cashier's office. Into Recycling We've Got Spirit, Yes We Does your department dream of the day when it can claim the Hospital Games championship- the bed race?! We need a few good teams capable of more than pillow talk. We need people who can make a mattress fly around the track. We dare you to organ-ize a team that can outlast the reigning champs from Rehab II. The 2nd Annual Hospital Games are UH's way of celebrating National Hospital Week, May 12- 18. The games and a free lunch are slated for Thursday, May 16,11 a. m.- l: 30 p. m. in front of the Hospital. The games A Look at Health Care's The School of Medicine and University Hospital are sponsor-ing " Health Care in the Next Quarter- century," a seminar commemorating the 25th anni-versary of UUMC on Saturday, May 11. National and local experts, including C. Rollins Hanlon, M. D., immediate past executive director of the Ameri-can College of Surgeons; Richard D. Lamm, director of the Center for Public Policy and Contempo-rary Issues at the University of Denver and former governor of Do - How ' Bout You? begin with a wheelchair race at 11: 30, followed by a water relay at noon. The bed races will take place at 12: 30, with the games culminating in a tug- of- war at 1 p. m. A dart- throw will be hap-pening during that time, while DJ Matt Limburg will emcee the event and crank out some sound. The games committee also is sponsoring a poster contest, with the theme " Our U Team Cares for U." Deadline is May 7. For details on any of the competi-tions, call Paula Nafus, tele-phone operators office, xl- 2121. Future Colorado; and U. S. Senator Orrin Hatch, R- Utah, ranking member on the Labor and Human Resources Committee, will discuss future directions in American health care. Seminar participants also will be updated on new health- care emphases specific to University of Utah Medical Center. For more information, call Anne Brillinger, Community Relations, xl- 7387; or Rosalie Lammle, Continuing Medical Education, xl- 8664. Americans discard enough office paper each year to build a 12- foot- high wall of paper from New York to Los Angeles. If Americans recycled their Sunday newspapers, it would save 500,000 trees a week. Got the picture? UUMC is launching a major paper recycling project next week, and it just happens to coincide with Earth Day. The recycling will first focus on white bond and white com-puter paper. Once that's in place, other recyclable products will be considered. The project is being organized by a grass- roots committee of concerned individuals from throughout the Medical Center, coordinated by Abe Bakhsh-eshy, director of Environmental Services. Four departments have been selected to pilot the program: Ra-diology, Ophthalmology, 3 North and Eccles Library. The experi-ence gathered in these depart-ments over the next three months will help fine- tune the process as it is implemented Medical Center- wide. The recycling plan calls for separat-ing " waste" paper into two separate containers at your desk or work area. If you have questions, be sure to stop by a special booth in the cafeteria, Monday, April 22,11 a. m.- 2 p. m. and see how you can become involved. Several dozen tree saplings, donated by Lone Peak State Forestry Nursery, will be given away in a drawing to people who complete a recy-cling questionnaire. By the way, starting this week, Pulse is doing the environ-mentally correct thing by being printed on recycled paper! You will likely notice very little, if any change in reproduction quality, and the recycled paper is actually slightly cheaper. A career development seminar for campus secretaries is set for Tuesday, April 23. For more information, contact LaRetta Burnett, xl- 6201. Registration is $ 20. HAPPY SECRETARIES DAY!