192
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES             H.R. NO.              
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2000                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
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                     HOUSE  RESOLUTION

  PROCLAIMING APRIL, 2000 AS ORGAN, TISSUE, AND EYE DONATION
    AWARENESS MONTH.



 1        WHEREAS, in 1999 a number of individuals and organizations
 2   banded together to increase public awareness on organ donation
 3   and called itself the Hawaii Organ Donation Coalition, which
 4   has as its mission "to save lives and to improve the quality of
 5   life by increasing organ, tissue, and eye donation"; and
 6   
 7        WHEREAS, the Hawaii Organ Donation Coalition, whose
 8   members include the American Heart Association, Filipino Nurses
 9   Organization of Hawaii, Minority Organ Tissue Transplant
10   Education Program, National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii, Organ
11   Donor Center of Hawaii, Surgical Associates and Transplant
12   Institute, St. Francis Medical Center, jointly with the Hawaii
13   Lions Eye Bank, Makana Foundation, and the Transplant
14   Association of Hawaii, are dedicated to promoting public
15   awareness and increasing the number of organ, tissue, and eye
16   donors in Hawaii; and
17   
18        WHEREAS, in Hawaii, at any given time, ten people are
19   awaiting cornea transplants, while approximately two hundred
20   twenty-five more await heart, liver, kidney, or pancreas
21   transplants, but one person each month of this group dies
22   waiting for a donated organ; and
23   
24        WHEREAS, organ transplantation is no longer experimental,
25   but is often the treatment of choice for end-stage organ
26   failure; and
27   
28        WHEREAS, while between 1987 and 1997 Hawaii had an average
29   of twelve organ donors per year, in 1999, Hawaii had 26 organ
30   donors an increase of more than one hundred per cent over the
31   last ten-year average, with seventy organ transplants
32   performed; and
33   
34        WHEREAS, education, legislative support, partnerships with
35   local hospitals, media attention and visibility has helped to
36   increase organ donations; and

 
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 1   
 2        WHEREAS, as an example of how well public education
 3   efforts work, between 1989 to 1994, Filipinos comprised only
 4   three per cent of Hawaii's organ donors, but in 1999, Filipinos
 5   comprised nineteen per cent of Hawaii's organ donors largely
 6   due to the efforts of Hawaii's Minority Organ Tissue Transplant
 7   Education Program (MOTTEP), working with local Filipino
 8   organizations and businesses; and
 9   
10        WHEREAS, Hawaii still needs more participation from all
11   ethnic groups because a good tissue or organ match is most
12   likely to come from a donor of the same ethnic group as the
13   patient; now, therefore,
14   
15        BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the
16   Twentieth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session
17   of 2000, hereby proclaims April, 2000, to be "Organ, Tissue,
18   and Eye Donation Awareness Month"; and
19   
20        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this
21   Resolution be transmitted to the Governor of the State of
22   Hawaii, the Hawaii Organ Donation Coalition, whose members
23   include the American Heart Association, Filipino Nurses
24   Organization of Hawaii, Minority Organ Tissue Transplant
25   Education Program, National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii, Organ
26   Donor Center of Hawaii, Surgical Associates and Transplant
27   Institute, St. Francis Medical Center, Hawaii Lions Eye Bank,
28   Makana Foundation, and the Transplant Association of Hawaii.
29   
30 
31 
32 
33                         OFFERED BY:  ____________________________