‘Nevada first’ law for organ transplants may not be working

Friday, Aug. 20, 1999 | 8:54 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A new law to help ailing Nevadans get organ transplants may not work.

And a small group, led by Assemblywoman Dawn Gibbons, R-Reno, is asking Gov. Kenny Guinn to help.

The law says Nevadans will be given priority when a person in this state donates an organ, such as a heart, kidney or liver.

In Las Vegas, donated kidneys go to a local organization which distributes the organs for use in the state, including Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, which has been performing kidney transplants for 10 years. University Medical Center also has done kidney and pancreas transplants for the past decade, although the program is now temporarily suspended while the hospital recruits a new transplant director.

But many of the organs go to patients in California.

Gibbons said the donor network is "thumbing its nose" at the Nevada law. Nevadans should have first crack at these organs, she said. Residents in this state supply one-third of all the organs going into the network in Northern California, but California residents are benefiting.

For example, Heidi Smith has been on a waiting list for three years for a liver transplant. Normally the waiting list is nine months. Smith says she's been to California four times since January in hopes of getting a transplanted liver but with no luck. And she doesn't know if the new law will help her.

Phylis Weber, executive director of the California Transplant Donor Network, says there's a national policy that overrides Nevada law. When the organs become available to the network, they are allocated to the patients in the most critical condition.

"We're not ignoring Nevada, but we have to follow national guidelines," she said. "The allocation system is based on how sick you are. It doesn't matter where they reside."

A donor in Nevada may designate the person to receive the organ transplant, and that wish is followed. But if a Nevadan agrees to donate an organ and does not specify a recipient, it goes to the pool in California to be allocated to the person who is most critical.

Weber said her network never knew the "Nevada First" policy was being passed by the 1999 Legislature.

Patients in Nevada go to California or Arizona usually to get on the list for the transplants.

Debbie Pinjub of Reno was one of the lucky ones. She was given two weeks to live and received a liver transplant in a California hospital eight weeks ago.

"The problem is we've got people dying," Gibbons said. The organs are removed in this state so Nevada law should control where the organs go, she said.

The governor has agreed to write a letter to the donor network in hopes of changing the policy. And she said she may ask Congress to take a look at the issue.

Northern Nevada is linked to the donor network out of San Francisco. Las Vegas is tied to the network headquartered in Los Angeles.

Nevadans on their driver's licenses may indicate permission to donate their organs. The new law says this is a firm commitment by the donor and cannot be revoked by his or her survivors, unless they have proof they wanted to change their minds.