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Thursday, February 22, 2001
Truan proposes paid time off for organ, blood, marrow donation
By Tamara Hill
Caller-Times
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| Truan |
To help get more people to donate organs, State Sen. Carlos Truan, D-Corpus Christi, is proposing two bills to make the process simpler.
The first bill, approved by the State Affairs Committee this week, would require that state employees get up to 30 days of paid leave for live organ donation and additional time off for blood and bone marrow donation. The second bill, scheduled to go before the committee next week, would require defensive driving and driver education courses to include information on organ donation.
If the bills pass, donor education would start Sept. 1. State employees would also be given up to five paid days of leave for bone marrow donation and hourly pay for blood donation. Live organ donation includes kidney, blood, bone marrow and partial lung and liver.
"Even though this is a small start he hopes it will raise awareness about the importance of donation," said Darla Morgan, Truan's legislative aide. "By giving people time off without taking sick leave, we're hoping more people will donate."
Truan was not available for comment, but his staff said he proposed the bill after hearing about the low donation rate among minorities.
According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, there were 8,378 total organ donations nationwide last year. Of those, 850 donors were black, 801 were Hispanic, 142 were Asian and 102 were other minorities.
However, as of Jan. 31, there are 20,236 black patients registered for organ donation, 9,604 Hispanics and 3,578 Asian, 1566 other.
Pam Silvestri, spokeswoman for the Dallas-based Southwest Transplant Alliance, said that a lack of paid leave prevents thousands of people from donating vital organs. She said that the organ donation process can take as little as a week or up to 30 days. Most people have to take several hours off to donate blood or bone marrow.
"A lot of times people want to donate but financially they can't afford to take off to do that," Silvestri said. "The majority of people live from paycheck to paycheck. A month without getting paid would devastate most people."
Currently federal employees are given some paid leave for organ donation. But Truan hopes the paid leave bill will affect all employers.
"We hope this sends a strong signal to the private industry," Morgan said.
Medical Writer Tamara Hill can be reached at 886-3759 or by e-mail at hillt@caller.com
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© 2001,
a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.
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