Thursday, July 01, 1999

Sons' legacy lives on in new organ donor law

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BY CHRISTINE WOLFF
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Christine and Mike Frank were recognized by Gov. Bob Taft for donating their two sons' organs and tissues. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

        COLUMBUS — The Frank brothers always promised they would be famous and would make their parents proud. A tribute on the Statehouse lawn Wednesdayconfirmed Christine and Michael Frank's belief that their boys kept their promise — seven months after they died from injuries in a car accident on Interstate 275 in Clermont County.

        In front of TV cameras and reporters — with Gov. Bob Taft and Sen. Doug White, R-Manchester, applauding the Franks' decision to donate their sons' organs — the parents knew the real stars were James, 18, and Christopher, 15.

        Long before the Dec. 1 accident, they told their parents they wanted to be organ donors.

        “I knew what they wanted,” Christine Frank, of Mount Carmel, said Wednesday. “You'll move mountains to do what your children want. Not one day do I regret that decision.

        “It's so wonderful to see the recipients so happy and healthy,” she said, her voice shaky. “I'm so glad their moms don't have to cry.

        “I'm crying enough tears for all moms.”

HOW TO BECOME AN ORGAN DONOR

Organs such as the heart, kidneys, pancreas, lungs, liver and intestines can be donated, as well as tissue such as eyes, skin, bone marrow, heart valves and tendons.   To become a donor:   • Tell your family and loved ones of your interest in donating. Your organs and tissues will not be taken without family consent.   • Sign and carry a donor card, or have an organ-donor sticker added to your driver's license, to indicate your intention to donate. If the donor is under 18, a legally responsible adult should witness the signing of the donor card.   Information: LifeCenter, (800) 981-5433.

        Wednesday's ceremony heralded the passage — after 2¹/₂ years of attempts — of a law that officials say will make available in Ohio more donations of organs, tissues and eyes. It mandates “routine notification,” requiring hospitals to tell the local organ procurement center of all impending deaths.

        Coincidently, another boost to organ-donation awareness arrived in Columbus on Wednesday: a 14-year-old Utah boy riding a red lawnmower.

        Ryan Tripp, the son of a lawn care professional, champi ons the cause while chasing a world record for mowing the grass at all 50 state capitols in 75 days. Ohio is lawn No. 23.

        He's already in the Guiness Book of World Records, for riding a lawnmower two years ago from Salt Lake City to Washington, D.C., in 42 days. The ride raised money for medical costs of a friend's child waiting for a liver transplant.

        Without the new Ohio law — and a similar federal law passed in August — procurement-center officials often missed the opportunity to approach many families about donating.

        “Someone has to ask the families (if they want information about donating), but families were not being asked,” said Mark Sommerville, assistant director of LifeCenter, Greater Cincinnati's organ procurement organization. “With this bill, we're called earlier, we get involved earlier. We help guide the family.”

        Nationally, about 64,000 people are waiting for donor organs, eyes or tissue. In Ohio, about 2,000 people are on the waiting list, including about 237 in the Tristate.

        The federal law already has helped increase organ donations locally; since January, donations have jumped 17 percent through LifeCenter over the same time last year, Mr. Sommerville said.

        Ohio's routine notification law came as an amendment from Mr. White to the budget bill, which Mr. Taft was to sign Wednesday. Reading a story in The Enquirer last December about the Franks' decision “was one of the things that kept me going on this,” Mr. White said.

        “I've taken several hits, people asking, "What does organ procurement have to do with the budget?'” Mr. White said. “This has been debated for almost three years, and the angels were signaling, "It's time to move.' The value of saving one life — that's my connection to the budget bill.”

        Mrs. Frank, 39, sees the new law as the perfect birthday gift for James, who would have turned 19 on July 4.

        “He was my little firecracker baby,” she said, her dark eyes filled with tears.

        She and her husband, Mike, 40, shared a Coke as they sat on a shaded bench at the Capitol after the ceremony. He held her hand as she told of the sadness that has engulfed their lives since losing their only children; the emptiness in the house now peopled only with the boys' pictures; and the comfort they found in meeting those who received their sons' organs.

        The hardest day, Mrs. Frank said,worse than the funeral and Christmas, was May 29, the day James would have graduated from Glen Este High School. An empty chair, draped with a cap and gown, sat next to his best friend. “They clapped for five minutes when his name was announced. I wanted my son so bad that day,” she said.

        Her boys “always joked that they would never leave home, would be 35 and still living with Mom,” she said.

        “We remember them every day. We laugh a lot, saying, "remember when Christopher did this?'

        “Then, other times, the heart hurts so much. ...”

       

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