Lawmaker's goal after son's near-death experience: increase organ donations

When he vomited blood, he went to see a doctor. This led to a referral to hospital. A few hours later, a doctor entered his room with a chaplain and a grim prognosis.

“All your organs are shutting down. We don’t think you’ll make it through the night,” they told him.

Will Albers survived, but was diagnosed with kidney failure.

This can lead to lifelong dialysis, a frequent and lengthy treatment. He needed a kidney donor.

In one year, he found one: his father.

“God gave us two kidneys. We only need one,” said father John Albers.

The son was lucky that his father was a medical match.

The wait for a donor can take years, with demand far outstripping supply. Fewer than half of Georgians have registered as donors, said Kyla Harris of the Georgia chapter of the LifeLink Foundation, which promotes and facilitates organ donation.

In Georgia, 2,874 people were waiting for an organ transplant as of Wednesday, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, including 2,543 for a kidney. Nationally, 104,000 people were waiting for an organ, including more than 89,000 for a kidney.

John Albers, a Republican state senator from Roswell, dedicated the rest of his life to encouraging more organ donations.

During the first legislative session after the transplant, the senator passed legislation prohibiting life insurers from penalizing people who donate bone marrow or all or part of a liver, pancreas, a kidney, intestine or lung. It also more than doubled the tax deduction for organ donation, to compensate for unreimbursed travel and accommodation costs as well as any lost wages. – at $25,000.

John Albers, who started a foundation called Second Alarm, wants people who didn't sign up for organ donation when they got their driver's license to go through the process again so they can check the donor box. He will raise money to help cover the costs.

Next on his agenda is more financial aid from the government to donors.

Additionally, starting in August, Georgian teenagers will be required to learn about organ donation as part of their health classes. Albers lobbied the Georgia Board of Education to require it, and the resulting standards for eighth grade through high school mandate instruction on the statewide donor registry as well as on the “facts and myths related to organ and tissue donation”.

Will Albers, now 28, knows some “false fears,” as he called them, regarding organ donation.

“What if I could be put on life support and saved? …Are they just waiting for me to die so they can harvest the organ?

No, he said. This would contradict the oath many doctors take not to harm their patients.

“And then the second thing is – and honestly, this makes total sense to me: Well, when they harvest my organs, am I going to look weird… you know, at my funeral? “

His line: “If you’re dead, who cares?

The young Albers finds the term organ “donation” itself strange. He prefers another word: gift.

“Because it truly is the gift of life.”

How to become an organ donor

Georgians can get on the state's postmortem donor list in a variety of ways. They can check the organ donor box when they get a driver's, hunting or fishing license. Or they can register online at Donate Life Georgia.