When your life is on the line, how do you start the conversation for help… especially with people you don’t know?
It’s been a Triad man’s dilemma for some time now but this week, he says, he got the boost he needed.
Bruce Beaman has been Type-1 diabetic since he was 18-months old.
Last year he had a heart attack, soon followed kidney failure.
His doctors say both health problems were caused by complications from his diabetes.
Since then, he’s been on an organ transplant list, waiting for a perfect match.
Triad Man Reaches Out To Facebook For Help
“The waiting game is the worst part,” Beaman said.
At one point, he says, even his doctor recommended using social media to solicit help.
Beaman says he couldn’t do it.
Since Facebook launched its organ donor initiative last week, Beaman says it’s now easier for him to craft a status update asking for a donor.
The new Facebook tool allows users to let “friends” know if they are registered organ donors.
Beaman says he was excited when he heard about the announcement because it may be his lifeline from a disease that’s taken so much from him.
“[Diabetes] is one of those weird diseases that you don’t look like there’s anything wrong with you but it’s kind of tearing you apart from the inside,” he said.
Because of the kidney failure, Beaman is on in-home dialysis.
He has been called up at least four times only to find out at the last minute that he wasn’t a perfect match.
Sunday, Beaman and Beth Hinsley of Carolina Donor Services, spoke candidly about the hope this new Facebook outlet is offering people waiting for organ transplants.
“If you’ve ever known someone on dialysis, it’s not really living. It’s just kind of getting by,” Hinsley said “You can go out and do presentations all the time, and still not reach but hundreds of people, but with this it’s millions of people so this is a wonderful thing for us.”
“It’s a good way to get it out to a lot of people, there are just so many ways to get stuff in front of people nowadays, as far as information,” Beaman added. “Not only do you contact your friends, you’re contacting your friends’ friends and so on and so forth…it would be great if I was able to find somebody through Facebook; especially a live-donor.”
Hinsley says the day Facebook launched the donor status; registrations in North Carolina increased more than 3,000 percent.
That’s about 560 more people registered than they normally see online each day.
It could be the hope Beaman and the 3,500 others who are waiting in the state for organ transplants need.
Hinsley tells us that Carolina Donor Services needs live donors. She says it’s perfectly safe to donate a kidney, a section of your liver or part of your lungs and still live a full, healthy life. ~digtriad.com~
