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American Morning

Interview With Richard Roth

Aired November 14, 2003 - 09:45   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: In other news the New York Organ Donor Network celebrating its 25th anniversary. The occasion was marked last night by a special event with CNN's Richard Roth as the host. Richard, of course, is our senior U.N. correspondent and is a transplant recipient, as well. And he joins us this morning along with Dr. Sanjay Gupta to talk really about the critical shortage of organs that are available for donations.
Before we get to the numbers, Sanjay, Richard tell us a little bit about your story. I did not know that you were a kidney recipient.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR U.N. CORRESPONDENT: And a lot of people can't tell which is very good. It shows the value in it. People are worried about that aspect.

I have polycystic kidney disease, PKD. It's a big disease. My mother had it, my grandmother had it. My kidneys failed. My mother got a transplant, never got out of the hospital alive. I eventually knew I would need a new kidney. I received it when a man died in Ohio. And I got my kidney at the Cleveland Clinic in 1998, March 14. My people call it my rebirth.

Excellent Cleveland Clinic with the urology department there. And I received the gift of life. And now I'm hoping that more people will consider that because there is a shortage, as you mentioned, of organ donors. There are 82,000 people waiting.

O'BRIEN: Eighty-two thousand people. And my understanding is that the sicker you get, the faster you move up to the top of the list, which, of course, you get sicker so it's harder for the transplant to be effective.

Tell me a little bit about those numbers, Sanjay, and how critical it is to change them.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, that's a good point you made. At some points sometimes people get too sick and people say, You know what? It's not going to be a benefit anymore to give an organ transplant. We'd rather put it in someone who's a little bit more likely to benefit from it.

The numbers, just to sort of mention, we actually looked up the most exact numbers right now, 83,237 -- you could take a look there -- 16,980 transplants performed this year. You can compare those two numbers. It's pretty obvious there, 83,000 waiting, 16,000. Part of the problem is that there are not enough donors. Part of the problem is that people who say they will donate -- or about 85 percent of people say they will donate, 15 percent only do -- lead to these sort of facts -- 106 people added to the waiting list each day, 68 receive transplants every day, 17 people die every day waiting.

Richard's one of the lucky ones as it turns out.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk about the process because I know there's sort of this thing you can check on your driver's license. Sure, yes, hypothetically fine.

Then I was surprised to read that that doesn't actually mean that, god forbid, you were involved in a fatal accident and they wanted to harvest your organs, you might not necessarily have that happen.

ROTH: You have to make your views known. And anybody watching right now, if you're watching at home, you think this may not be needed by me, it might not be needed by anyone else, this could happen to anyone. And you better make your views clear by telling your family, because at that moment, if you're incapacitated, your loved ones are going to be in a terrible spot. What does he/she, what do they want to do?

And only half, I believe, of Americans give their consent. It's a very delicate moment. You have to tell people, put it in a living will, make it very clear. There are donor cards. Put your name on the registry. That helps.

O'BRIEN: It always reminds me of when we have discussions with financial people about wills. It's sort of like it's an unpleasant topic but you have to discuss it and make sure that everybody's kind of all on the same page about wishes, because at least you're done. And again, god forbid something were to happen, your wishes would be carried out.

GUPTA: That's right. And driver's license, I mean most people know about that. But that basically indicates your intent. And it says a person who is now deceased wanted to give their organs at one point. But as Richard mentioned, notifying your family, there are some documents there, specifically a living will.

There is a Uniform Organ Donation Card, as well, which is on the AMA Web site. People can download that. And Richard just showed me his card in his wallet now. He has one that says this is a legal document on the bottom of that.

ROTH: Remember what it does and what happens. I sat at the dinner last night, the New York Organ Donor dinner. The Mullanes (ph) of Suffolk County, New York, their son died. Forty-seven people benefited from different organs. From eyes, tissue.

And for them it was also a celebration, in a way, it was a commemoration of their son. But they know the good, in effect, their son goes on living. O'BRIEN: Yes, I think when people think of it that way it's really true. You sort of allow somebody who's died to live on in other people.

GUPTA: The gift of life, as Richard mentioned.

O'BRIEN: And I'm still here to cover the United Nations. Somebody needs to do that.

(LAUGHTER)

O'BRIEN: And to host the dinner last night. And to join us on the couch. It's nice to have you both. You guys, as always, thanks. The dinner looked like it was a lot of fun in addition for a good cause.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired November 14, 2003 - 09:45   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: In other news the New York Organ Donor Network celebrating its 25th anniversary. The occasion was marked last night by a special event with CNN's Richard Roth as the host. Richard, of course, is our senior U.N. correspondent and is a transplant recipient, as well. And he joins us this morning along with Dr. Sanjay Gupta to talk really about the critical shortage of organs that are available for donations.
Before we get to the numbers, Sanjay, Richard tell us a little bit about your story. I did not know that you were a kidney recipient.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR U.N. CORRESPONDENT: And a lot of people can't tell which is very good. It shows the value in it. People are worried about that aspect.

I have polycystic kidney disease, PKD. It's a big disease. My mother had it, my grandmother had it. My kidneys failed. My mother got a transplant, never got out of the hospital alive. I eventually knew I would need a new kidney. I received it when a man died in Ohio. And I got my kidney at the Cleveland Clinic in 1998, March 14. My people call it my rebirth.

Excellent Cleveland Clinic with the urology department there. And I received the gift of life. And now I'm hoping that more people will consider that because there is a shortage, as you mentioned, of organ donors. There are 82,000 people waiting.

O'BRIEN: Eighty-two thousand people. And my understanding is that the sicker you get, the faster you move up to the top of the list, which, of course, you get sicker so it's harder for the transplant to be effective.

Tell me a little bit about those numbers, Sanjay, and how critical it is to change them.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, that's a good point you made. At some points sometimes people get too sick and people say, You know what? It's not going to be a benefit anymore to give an organ transplant. We'd rather put it in someone who's a little bit more likely to benefit from it.

The numbers, just to sort of mention, we actually looked up the most exact numbers right now, 83,237 -- you could take a look there -- 16,980 transplants performed this year. You can compare those two numbers. It's pretty obvious there, 83,000 waiting, 16,000. Part of the problem is that there are not enough donors. Part of the problem is that people who say they will donate -- or about 85 percent of people say they will donate, 15 percent only do -- lead to these sort of facts -- 106 people added to the waiting list each day, 68 receive transplants every day, 17 people die every day waiting.

Richard's one of the lucky ones as it turns out.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk about the process because I know there's sort of this thing you can check on your driver's license. Sure, yes, hypothetically fine.

Then I was surprised to read that that doesn't actually mean that, god forbid, you were involved in a fatal accident and they wanted to harvest your organs, you might not necessarily have that happen.

ROTH: You have to make your views known. And anybody watching right now, if you're watching at home, you think this may not be needed by me, it might not be needed by anyone else, this could happen to anyone. And you better make your views clear by telling your family, because at that moment, if you're incapacitated, your loved ones are going to be in a terrible spot. What does he/she, what do they want to do?

And only half, I believe, of Americans give their consent. It's a very delicate moment. You have to tell people, put it in a living will, make it very clear. There are donor cards. Put your name on the registry. That helps.

O'BRIEN: It always reminds me of when we have discussions with financial people about wills. It's sort of like it's an unpleasant topic but you have to discuss it and make sure that everybody's kind of all on the same page about wishes, because at least you're done. And again, god forbid something were to happen, your wishes would be carried out.

GUPTA: That's right. And driver's license, I mean most people know about that. But that basically indicates your intent. And it says a person who is now deceased wanted to give their organs at one point. But as Richard mentioned, notifying your family, there are some documents there, specifically a living will.

There is a Uniform Organ Donation Card, as well, which is on the AMA Web site. People can download that. And Richard just showed me his card in his wallet now. He has one that says this is a legal document on the bottom of that.

ROTH: Remember what it does and what happens. I sat at the dinner last night, the New York Organ Donor dinner. The Mullanes (ph) of Suffolk County, New York, their son died. Forty-seven people benefited from different organs. From eyes, tissue.

And for them it was also a celebration, in a way, it was a commemoration of their son. But they know the good, in effect, their son goes on living. O'BRIEN: Yes, I think when people think of it that way it's really true. You sort of allow somebody who's died to live on in other people.

GUPTA: The gift of life, as Richard mentioned.

O'BRIEN: And I'm still here to cover the United Nations. Somebody needs to do that.

(LAUGHTER)

O'BRIEN: And to host the dinner last night. And to join us on the couch. It's nice to have you both. You guys, as always, thanks. The dinner looked like it was a lot of fun in addition for a good cause.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com