Editor’s note: This is part of a continuing series on organ donation.

MOBILE — When Dr. Velma Scantlebury isn’t performing kidney transplants, she’s spreading the word about the University of South Alabama Regional Transplant Center and the need for organ donors.

That’s especially important in Alabama, since many of those waiting for an organ need a kidney.

“The last statistics I saw indicated that there are about 98,000 people awaiting organ transplantation nationally,” Scantlebury said.

“And the last time I checked, nearly 68,000 of those were waiting for kidney transplants.”

That same trend exists within the state, since approximately 2,800 of the 3,200 patients awaiting a transplant need a kidney, Scantlebury said.

“I would say that overall, about 80 percent of the people needing an organ are waiting for a kidney. The rates are much less for liver, pancreas, heart or lungs,” she said.

It’s not unusual to wait three to five years — depending on blood type — to get a kidney, Scantlebury said.

“If you’re a (blood) type O or A, that means you are competing against a lot of people,” she said.

“Unfortunately, we have to tell patients that while they are on dialysis that the potential for getting more problems or dying while on the (waiting) list is going to be greater than how you would do if you got a transplant,” she said.

For example, being on kidney dialysis can be hard on a patient’s heart, Scantlebury said.

That’s also important since the majority of today’s dialysis patients are 50 years of age or older, she said.

“As you get older, you’ve got more problems with diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, so the mortality of dialysis goes up tremendously,” Scantlebury said, adding that renal disease can worsen these types of existing medical problems.

“For patients, the best chance of survival lies in getting a transplant.”

Scantlebury, who came to USA from the University of Pittsburgh five years ago, has performed hundreds of kidney transplants during her career.

She said that the Regional Transplant Center performed 19 kidney transplants last year.

Prior to that, the center averaged 25 to 30 transplants annually, Scantlebury said.

The nearly 10-year-old center evaluates 300 to 400 patients per year, she said.

In addition to evaluations, the center provides patients with surgical recovery and follow-up care, Scantlebury said.

Patients come from southern Alabama as well as the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and the Florida panhandle, she said.

Public education and outreach efforts to encourage organ donation are important to Scantlebury, because of the dramatic health improvements provided by transplants.

“Really, one of the biggest hurdles we face is getting the word out about our center and also talking to people about becoming donors, letting them know how badly that’s needed to save others’ lives,” she said.

Once again, demand is outpacing supply, she said.

“Of those that we evaluate and it is appropriate, we list them. But unfortunately, we end up listing more patients than we actually end up transplanting,” Scantlebury said.

In an effort to increase living organ donations, Scantlebury said she focuses on educating local citizens about the role they can play in this process.

“There has still been the old stigma from the past whereby people thought that you had be a relative to donate,” she said.

“In reality, as long as you’re a compatible blood type, anyone can donate; You don’t have to be a blood relative,” Scantlebury said.

“In fact, it is preferable to get a transplant from a living donor rather than a deceased one,” she said.

She has already visited several area churches speaking on the need for organ donors, and plans to continue this outreach work.

“I’ve been trying to reach out so that churches will feel comfortable in signing up members to be organ donors,” Scantlebury said.

“I’m also hoping the local pastors will come to support the idea of organ donation long after I’ve come and gone as a speaker at their church.”