Lost Hearts

Arizona's organ donations are in trouble for a reason.

A A A Comments By Amy Silverman Thursday, Mar 27 2003

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In any case, DNA's numbers – while higher than they were in the last couple of years – aren't so high.

Brown points to the fact that Arizona's organ donors increased from 70 in 2001 to 82 in 2002. But a review of the past several years shows that number is not so significant. In 1996, at a time when Arizona's population was smaller than it is today, DNA had 87 donors. There were 80 in 1998.

Jackie Mercandetti

Arnie Serota

Kevin Scanlon

DNA's new CEO Tim Brown says he's got "one hell of a team" working for him.

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Similarly, Brown observes that the number of hearts donated in Arizona nearly doubled, from 16 in 2001 to 30 in 2002. But Arizona's heart donation numbers were higher between 1993 and 1998, with a record 47 hearts donated in 1994.

Many of the organ recovery coordinators Serota worked with are still at DNA, although Chris Wingard is not. He left earlier this year.

"He resigned," Brown says. "We talked about it. He had family concerns and that's why he resigned."

As for Arnie Serota, he's moved to Hawaii, where he's a general and vascular surgeon at Wilcox Memorial Hospital.

Serota is still disgusted with DNA. He wonders why it took an entire year to implement the donor registry he pushed through the Arizona Legislature in 2002. The non-beating heart donor program he had ready to go when he left – a method practiced around the country that Serota says could double the number of kidneys and livers DNA procures – has been abandoned. Many of his public education programs have been ignored, too, he says.

This week, Serota filed a complaint with the Arizona State Board of Nursing about Chris Wingard and several other coordinators he worked with at DNA.

He will miss many things about Arizona, Serota says, but not the medical community. His parting advice is pointed.

"If you're a heart patient here [in Arizona], unless you're really, really sick on an artificial heart or something, the chances of you getting a heart here are slim. Get on a list someplace else."