Saving lives through tragedy

Hilda Halstead wrestled with her thoughts in the emergency room of Charleston Area Medical Center.

Just hours after learning that her 36-year-old daughter, Nadya, had been found unresponsive due to a drug overdose, Halstead faced a decision: whether to donate Nadya’s organs.

“It did help somewhat to know that she was going to live on through others,” Halstead said.

The Halsteads are one of a growing number of families whose loved ones are able to live on through others following their drug overdose.

In 2018, drug overdose was the fourth leading cause of death among organ donors in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Services. In West Virginia and Pennsylvania, the trend was first noticeable in 2016 when overdose deaths accounted for 24 percent of donors, according to Kurt Shutterly, the Chief Operating Officer for the Center for Organ Donation and Recovery (CORE) for the region.

Although the number of overdose donors is rising, there is still some controversy surrounding the issue.

*Source: Organ Procurement & Transplantation Network, US Department of Health and Human Services

*Region= WV, DE, D.C., MD, NJ, PA, VA

*Source= Organ Procurement & Transplantation Network, US Department of Health and Human Services

Dr. Christine Wu, a nephrologist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, says she has seen the impacts of the opioid epidemic at her hospital.

“We saw the trend a couple years back starting to increase. We haven’t actually noticed a huge decrease yet,” Wu said. “It accounts for about 20 percent of our donor offers.”

Organ donation was not unfamiliar to Halstead and her daughter since they both worked at Charleston Area Medical Center.

Halstead says Nadya always did very well in school and went on to become a registered nurse.

“She was so, so smart and this amazing, brilliant person,” Halstead said. “She was always top of the class, but did not always make very good life decisions and people decisions. (She) was easily swayed by peer pressure.”

Halstead thought her daughter had been making strides in recovery after leaving a secretly abusive marriage.

“Everything seemed all rosy and wonderful on the outside and that wasn’t anything close to what was actually happening,” Halstead said.

It was during her marriage that Nadya’s addiction first formed, according to her mother. However, following her divorce, she had been raising their son and living soberly. In addition, Halstead was raising Nadya’s older son, whom she had at age 16.

Despite what seemed like improvement in her daughter’s life, Halstead received a call while she was at work on Super Bowl weekend 2016. She immediately recognized the number as it was from the emergency room, and she knew that the news on the other end of the line would not be good.

Although Halstead had been an organ donor for years, Nadya was not registered as one, meaning the decision was left up to family.

“I did not even think it was a possibility,” Halstead said. “It never crossed my mind that under the circumstances she would even be eligible.”

She then asked the medical staff in the room whether or not they would accept an organ from her daughter, knowing her medical history, and they all replied that they would. According to Shutterly, the increased number of overdose donors has led to an increase in donors who test positive for Hepatitis C, or HCV.

“We have not seen any significant change with the number of donors HIV positive, but we did see an increase in HCV donors due to their lifestyle,” Shutterly said. “Initially, it made placing these organs more difficult; however, advanced treatment for recipients who receive organs that test Hepatitis C-positive has made it easier to place these organs with recipients.”

Wu said much less organs go to waste because Hepatitis C can now be treated and potentially cured. Additionally, studies are being conducted across the country on organs affected by Hepatitis C. UPMC is currently holding one such study in which recipients who accept kidneys that test positive for Hepatitis C are given treatment and followed closely and intensely post-operation. While the average wait time for a kidney at UPMC is 4 ½ to 5 years, patients who agree to the study can usually decrease their wait time to a couple of months, according to Wu.

According to Wu, transplants from this category of donors generally yield success.

“They’re usually young, healthy donors — aside from the substance abuse — so the outcomes are usually really good for our recipients,” Wu said.

There is a strict protocol that must be followed when organs become available from overdoses. First, they are labeled as Public Health Service 13 — a category that encompasses 13 different risk factors from donors, including jail time, drug use, etc. According to Wu, if a donor meets any of the 13 criteria, the hospital offers them to potential recipients as a separate category and educates the patients about possible risks associated with accepting the organs.

Next, all organs are tested using a DNA test, known as a nucleic acid test, which picks up any type of infection.

For one nurse in New Jersey, her wait time ended on February 14, 2016 when she received Nadya’s heart.

While Halstead knew that it was Valentine’s Day, she learned that it was also National Organ Donor Day. She said to the medical staff, “Please tell whoever gets her organs — please let them know that they’re part of the family.”

Halstead hopes to meet the female nurse someday; but, until then, she volunteers with CORE and meets other organ recipients who, according to her, are all thankful for a second chance at life.

“I’m really touched to see that most of the people who volunteer with CORE are organ recipients and they feel so blessed and so grateful that they donate so much time,” Halstead said.