The Gift of New Life

Seal Beach resident Robert Scanlan wants people to know how profound a gift organ and tissue donation can be. 

“If you had a million dollars that you wanted to leave to someone, you wouldn't have the impact you would by leaving a donation of your organs,” said Scanlan, 68. “You can leave a legacy behind that will change the lives of hundreds and thousands and untold numbers of people, and it costs you nothing.” 

He should know. His own life was turned upside down in March 1998 when he suddenly became ill and his liver began to fail. His wife noticed that he was putting on a bit of weight in his midsection, an odd thing for such an avid jogger as Scanlan.

In the span of just a few weeks, he was transformed from a successful business owner, about to move into a larger office, into a transplant patient. 

Luckily, two weeks later, he received a new liver. 

In 2007, his liver again began to fail, and he received the gift of a new liver and a new kidney to replace the one ravaged by the anti-rejection medication he had been taking. 

Scanlan is one of the many lucky people who have received organs through a donor. The city of Seal Beach recently issued a proclamation April 11, recognizing this month as Donate Life California Month. 

Donate Life and its Southern California branch, One Legacy, are working to increase the numbers of people who are registered to donate. Drivers often register to donate when they renew their licenses at the DMV. (Those wishing to donate can also register on the Donate Life website.) Out of 26 million licensed drivers in California, 8 million are registered to donate, said Elena de la Cruz, spokeswoman for One Legacy. 

However, despite that number, which is about 31 percent of drivers statewide, only a very small percentage will ever get the opportunity to donate, de la Cruz said. That’s because in order to donate, someone has to go through brain death, usually due to a head injury, stroke or an aneurysm.  

There are a great deal of misconceptions around organ donation, de la Cruz said. One of the biggest misconceptions is that if you come into the emergency room and the staff know that you are a registered donor, they will not attempt to save your life, de la Cruz said. “It’s only when all [lifesaving] attempts fail that donation is taken into consideration,” she said.

Another misconception is that someone can be too old to donate. The oldest donor that One Legacy has seen was a 93-year-old man who donated a kidney, de la Cruz said. Even those who have suffered from diabetes or cancer, as long as they have been cancer-free for five years, can donate. 

And the need is great, de la Cruz said. California has the largest waiting list of any state in the country, with about 20,000 people awaiting transplants. The majority of those, about 16,000, are waiting for kidneys.  

Before going through his transplant experiences, Scanlan was an investment manager. He struggled financially and emotionally as he began to reconstruct his life after his first transplant experience. He suffered serious memory loss.

“It took years for me to not only regain the ability to do arithmetic, but to emotionally get through the concept that I'm OK,” he said. “Name, address and phone number on an application were like trick questions.” 

After several unsuccessful attempts at working, he eventually became a salesman. 

But after his second transplant operation, he reinvented himself as a life coach, something that a friend suggested after he went through his first transplant operation. In his practice, he focuses on helping small businesses through transitional periods and helps counsel those undergoing career changes. 

He also volunteers to help people awaiting transplants. Until recently, he was the facilitator for the weekly support group for transplant recipients at UCLA hospital in Los Angeles and now does a great deal of public speaking to raise awareness of the need. To that end, he is participating in a charity run/walk to be held April 30 at Cal State Fullerton.  

He is now writing a book to capture his experiences, tentatively titled Tigers Under My Bed: Life Lessons Tamed in the ICU Awaiting Three Organ Transplants. He wants the book to also encapsulate the importance of humor in crisis, his perspective shift after his transplant operations and attitude. 

Echoing the way that Scanlan has used the gift of life, the impact of organ and tissue donation goes beyond just the recipient's life, de la Cruz said. “Not only is [a donor] touching one life, they're touching a family, a neighborhood, a community,” she said. “Really, the impact of donation is so profound in so many people’s lives.”