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¡Viva Carlos!
Topics: Carlos Ortiz, bakersfield, Organ Donor, Mas Magazine, Latino, health, Family
Posted by admin Thu Apr 17, 2008 15:39:31 PDT
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¡Viva Carlos!
In the dark tragedy from losing their loved one in a drunken driving accident, the family of Carlos Ortiz Jr. finds a ray of light by donating his organs

By Lauren Helper / MÁS staff

In the photograph, a petite woman holds a stethoscope up to the heart of a tall, salt-and-pepper-haired man. Her head is bent and her eyes are closed. A small, serene smile plays on her lips.

It broke Irma Boyar’s heart to lose her son, Carlos Ortiz Jr., in a car accident. But it helped a little to listen to his heart beat again in the body of the grateful transplant recipient.

“It’s nice to know that a part of him lives on in somebody,” said Boyar, 58. “I think if Carlos had been there, he would have said, ‘Awesome.’”

Since 2003, April has been National Donate Life Month. Every day in April, people across the U.S. make a special effort to celebrate the tremendous generosity of those who have saved lives by becoming organ, tissue, marrow and blood donors, and to encourage more Americans to follow their example.


Carlos Ortiz Jr.

According to OrganDonor.gov, more than 95,000 people are in need of an organ for transplant. Each day, about 77 people get the organ transplant that gives them a second chance, but 17 to 19 others die because they did not receive an organ transplant. More than half the people on the waiting list for a donated organ are racial or ethnic minorities. Chances of getting a transplant increase if donor and recipient share the same racial/ethnic background.

“The shortage of organs is not due simply to a lack of giving, but rather to the rarity with which the opportunity to donate organs presents itself,” said the nonprofit organ and tissue recovery agency OneLegacy spokesman Bryan Stewart. “Since only one in 100 deaths results in a patient being eligible to donate organs (the rest die of cardiac death, which makes organs non-viable for transplant), each opportunity to donate is special.”

Stewart added that in the face of the critical need for organ donation, minorities are three times less likely than caucasians to sign up as donors with the Donate Life California Registry.


"Things were looking really good for him," according to Ortiz's mother. In this family snapshot, where Ortiz is wearing his favorite punk rock jacket, his carefree personality is evident.

“We must carry the message into these communities that the gift of life benefits them directly. We must help each other. Our needs are simply too great,” he said.

Boyar and her daughters, Michelle Berumen, 40, and Ortiz’s twin, Carla Andrews, 33, admit they never gave organ donation much thought until May 7, 2006, when Ortiz, 31, was involved in an auto accident at 2 a.m. at 23rd and C streets in downtown Bakersfield. The driver was intoxicated, and Ortiz, a passenger in the car and not wearing a seat belt, was ejected from the vehicle.

Boyar didn’t find out about the accident until her sister came looking for her at 9 the next morning at church.

“By the time my son was taken up to intensive care (at Kern Medical Center) and I went up to see him, the hallway was crowded with his many, many friends. It was that way all day long,” said Boyar.

Berumen and Andrews, who were away at a bachelorette party, made it to the hospital at 4 p.m. By 4:45, doctors told them Ortiz was brain dead.

When a OneLegacy transplant donor network representative approached them about the possibility of donating his organs, Boyar and her daughters didn’t hesitate.

“Carlos was such a giving person. He had so many friends. We knew it’s what he would have wanted,” said Boyar.

Ortiz, an intake worker who had just begun working for Kaiser Permanente, had recently lost a lot of weight and gotten into shape by changing his eating habits.

“He was looking great. Things were looking really good for him,” recalled Boyar. “After he passed away, I heard people call him a man. He grew up when I wasn’t watching. To me, he was always my rebellious teenager.”

Doctors were able to harvest Ortiz’s kidneys, liver and heart. He was taken off life support at noon on May 9, 2006.

His funeral service at Valley Bible was filled to capacity with people, said Boyar, as was the viewing at Greenlawn. Numerous people, including United Farm Workers Co-founder Dolores Huerta (Ortiz attended several rallies for the UFW), spoke and shared memories of the punk rocker who loved to eat, joke and never did anything fast. Huerta proclaimed, “¡Viva Carlos!” a phrase his family then used on his headstone. Ortiz was buried at Union Cemetery.


From left, Carla Andrews, Irma Boyar (holding a portrait of her son, Carlos Ortiz Jr.) and Michelle Berumen know firsthand the good that can come from organ donation. The family made the decision to donate Ortiz's heart, kidneys and liver after he died after being involved in an auto accident in 2006.

“He was a free spirit with a carefree attitude. He could always crack me up with his sense of humor,” said Andrews. Born on Christmas Day 1974, the family would gather at their grandmother’s house every Christmas Eve at midnight to sing happy birthday to twins Carla and Carlos before opening presents.

“I didn’t know I was having twins until I went into labor, because the way they were positioned the doctor could only hear one heartbeat,” recalled Boyar.

“We were incredibly close. He was my other half,” said Andrews, who added that her brother was especially fond of her oldest daughter, Alexandria, 12, and Berumen’s son, Logan, 13. 

A few months after Ortiz’s death, Boyar received a letter from OneLegacy updating her on the status of the recipients.

Ortiz’s left kidney had gone to a 15-year-old boy in Southern California who loved school, soccer, music and church. Thanks to the transplant, he no longer needed dialysis. Ortiz’s right kidney went to a 17-year-old girl who’d been on the waiting list for years. His liver went to a 50-year-old woman. His heart went to a 62-year-old man who was married with two children and held an advanced degree in physics.

Curious to know if the transplants had been a success and to get “peace of mind,” Andrews began writing to the recipients. Through OneLegacy, donor families and recipients may correspond anonymously with each other, according to specified guidelines.

After waiting nearly a year, Andrews received a letter from the heart recipient. OneLegacy coordinated a meeting on Dec. 29, 2007, at their facility in Los Angeles.

“There was a lot of traffic that day, and the recipient and his wife were late. I was convinced they weren’t going to show up,” said Boyar.


Boyar kept the letter she received from OneLegacy updating her on the status of the recipients who received her son's organs. April is National Donate Life Month.

But they did, and Boyar and her daughters learned that the man was doing great with Ortiz’s heart. He’d been on the waiting list for years and had recently collapsed at work. After the transplant, he’d recovered well and was able to return to work in a couple of months.

The families hugged, laughed and cried together.

“I was so glad to meet him. I felt in awe knowing that he/we helped. It proved to me that organ donation is life for others,” said Boyar.

Andrews, too, was moved by the experience.

“I was so grateful to hear the heartbeat and to know my brother was living on in someone,” she said.

The families continue to keep in touch through e-mail.


Andrews with the man who received Ortiz's heart, who's also wearing Ortiz's favorite jacket that the family brought to their first meeting.

Boyar and her daughters plan to continue their involvement with OneLegacy, and talk about the benefits of organ donation to anyone who’ll listen. They now have the heart symbol for organ donors on their identification cards, and donate blood whenever they can.

“I don’t think people are really aware of the benefits of organ donations because it’s not something you think about until you’re forced to, when it’s right in front of you,” said Andrews. “But we’ve experienced firsthand the good that can come from it.”

 

How to be a donor   

• Register with your State Donor Registry, if available.
• Say YES to donation on your driver’s license.
• Tell your family, friends, physician and faith leader that you want to be a donor.
• Fill out and sign a donor card, have it witnessed, carry it with you.

Tell someone: The need is great and growing.
• More than 95,000 people are in need of an organ for transplant.
• Each day, about 77 people get the organ transplant that gives them a second chance, but 17 to 19 others die because they did not receive an organ transplant.
• More than half the people on the waiting list for a donated organ are racial or ethnic minorities. Chances of getting a transplant increase if donor and recipient share the same racial/ethnic background.

Get involved: Become a donation advocate.
• Encourage your company, association, union or other organizations to which you may belong to join the Workplace Partnership for Life.
• Promote and support work site donation campaigns.
• Tell your local high school about Decision Donation, a school program that educates students about donation.
• Participate in local National Donate Life Month events sponsored by your local organ procurement organization.

Organ donation: Minorities and donation
Minorities overall have a particularly high need for organ transplants because some diseases of the kidney, heart, lung, pancreas, and liver are found more frequently in racial and ethnic minority populations than in the general population. For example, African Americans, Asians and Pacific Islanders, and Hispanics are three times more likely than whites to suffer from end-stage renal (kidney) disease, often as the result of high blood pressure and other conditions that can damage the kidneys. Native Americans are four times more likely than whites to suffer from diabetes. Some of these conditions that can result in organ failure are best treated through transplantation and others can only be treated by this life-saving procedure.  In addition, similar blood type is essential in matching donors to recipients.  Because certain blood types are more common in ethnic minority populations, increasing the number of minority donors can increase the frequency of minority transplants.

For more information on minorities and organ donation, visit the Web site of the National Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program at www.mottep.org  (not a U.S. Government Web site).

Source: www.organdonor.gov     

Misconceptions About Organ Donation

1.  If I am in an accident, and the hospital knows that I want to be a donor, they will withhold treatment and not attempt to save my life.On the contrary, in the wake of traumatic brain injury potential donors must be given the most aggressive life-saving treatment in order to be able to be a candidate to donate upon death. Furthermore, the medical team (including the paramedics) treating the patient is completely separate from the transplant team, which is not contacted until the patient has died and the family has consented to donation.

2.  They’ll take out my organs before I’m dead. Brain death — that is, when the brain ceases functioning due to lack of blood and oxygen — is a medically, legally and morally accepted determination of death. In California, two licensed physicians must make the diagnosis of brain death before the potential donor’s family is presented with the option to donate.

3.  Only famous or wealthy people get organ transplants. UNOS and the country’s transplant centers have created a waiting list which lists each transplant candidate by weight, height and blood group. Priority depends on many factors, including urgency of need, length of time waiting, blood type and organ size compatibility. Factors such as race, gender, age, income or celebrity status are never considered when determining who receives an organ.

4.  My religion does not support organ donation. All organized religions support organ donation, with many considering it as a charitable gift and a matter of individual choice.

5.  The donor’s body will be mutilated. The body is treated with great respect throughout the process. Donated organs are removed surgically, in a routine operation similar to abdominal surgery. The patient’s body is closed in a manner that allows for an open-casket funeral.

6.  My family will pay for the procedure. From the time that the family gives consent or is notified that the patient is a registered donor, all donation-related costs are the responsibility of the organ recovery agency.

7.  I am too old and sick to be a donor. Acceptable organ donors can range in age from newborns to senior citizens, and there are very few medical conditions that categorically rule out donation.

Source: www.onelegacy.org

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Comment From: caligyrl04

This article has touched me so much, i just registered with the Donate life. Comment From: dmartinez

Thank you for the article! He was my friend- he is missed dearly by all. This was an unselfish act that his family did and they too deserve all the praise. Carlos will forever be remembered and always be in our hearts. He was a wonderful person. I will always remember what a blessing it was having him as a friend.