Added: 11/22/2007 |
Information At The Transplant GamesThe writer of the following article has never been at the Transplant Games. Still, she has watched many Olympic Games on TV. She has also taken a number of biology courses. In the following article she has combined her love for sports with her knowledge of organ transplants. While the writer of the following article seldom tackles science fiction, she has attempted to do so below.
Since 1990, the public has had access to the information distributed at the Transplant Games. That information has no doubt helped to encourage the donation of larger numbers of organs. The Games serve as an added reminder of the ongoing need for donated organs.
Spectators at the Transplant Games come from all four corners of the globe. No single section of today’s world can remain untouched by the need for organ donors. Patients the world over can be saved by a transplanted organ. The Transplant Games themselves take place at many different locations. In 2008, the Transplant Games will be in Finland.
The information at the Transplant Games can only provide a glimpse at the vast need for donated organs. News stories often offer other poignant details. One recent story from UCLA told about an organ exchange. One member of two different families donated an organ to an ailing member of another donating family.
The literature distributed at the Transplant Games can not explain in detail the advantages of donated organs. No man-made device is going to fight-off germs with the ease of a donated organ. Germs can thrive on an infected implanted device. When that happens, the device needs to be replaced.
A donated organ does not provide germs with an inviting place to live. The body is ready to fight-off any infectious organisms that try to make a home in a donated organ. Of course, the body sometimes shows immunity to the donated organ. Researchers are learning new ways to diminish the seriousness of that problem,
News coverage of the Transplant Games does not approach the level of news coverage of the Olympic Games. Perhaps someday, news coverage of the Olympic Games might seem to come from the Transplant Games. Perhaps someday a number of the competing athletes will have a transplanted organ.
Advances in the process of organ donation could one day make that possible. Of course, such advances require research. Money for research is collected at the Transplant Games.
Who knows how such money might one day change the face of the Olympics? Perhaps someday, an Olympic archer will eye the target with a donated eye. Perhaps someday, an Olympic equestrian will perform with a donated kidney. Perhaps someday an Olympic rowing team will receive its instructions from a man or woman with a donated liver.
Such accomplishments would no doubt receive excellent news coverage. Such accomplishments would serve to highlight the importance of organ donation. Such accomplishments would drive home an important point—a point that is too often overlooked by those who hear mention of the Transplant Games.
The willingness shown by any one person to donate organs serves to benefit all the citizens of the world.
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