WAR VETERANS DONATE ORGANS TO IRAQI CHILDREN MAIMED IN WAR

Released on = April 28, 2005, 12:11 pm

Press Release Author = VETERAN ORGAN DONORS INTERNATIONAL

Industry = Healthcare

Press Release Summary = WAR VETERANS UNITE TO HELP SAVE LIVES OF OVER 3,000 IRAQI CHILDREN INJURED BY WAR.

Press Release Body = Veteran Organ Donors International
117 Lakeshore Road East – Suite 339, Toronto, Ontario L5G-4T6 Canada Tel/Fax: (905) 891-1981 E-Mail: VODI@mail.com

April 28, 2005

P R E S S R E L E A S E

IRAQI CHILDREN FIND NEW HOPE AND LIFE IN CANADA
A Toronto-based group of volunteer war veterans have united to come to the aid of civilian Iraqi children injured and maimed by the two Iraq Wars in the last 15 years. Veteran Organ Donors International is offering to donate kidneys, livers, bone marrow, and stem cells from umbilical cords to “any child war victim injured or maimed by war or military conflict”. The organization reports that U.S. and coalition forces, which twice invaded Iraq in the last 15 years, injured over 5,000 Iraqi children in the process.

But VODI founder and Chairman Bruce A. Gorcyca, says “they are the lucky ones – 867 other kids died in these two wars”. Gorcyca, a veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard himself will be donating one of his kidneys, a section of his liver, and bone marrow to save the lives of three children, all under the age of 18. As he explained “The kids of Iraq lost much more than just a war. Many of them lost their parents, their homes, their belongings, and even their limbs. We don’t want them to lose hope for their future as well”.

Thanks to three interviews on BBC radio programs, the group has already received organ donor pledges from twelve donors in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. but only
three of them offered to be living donors like Gorcyca, instead most chose to be post-mortem donors. But each post-mortem donor has the capacity to save 3-8 lives
Gorcyca points out. Organ transplants have become somewhat routine with over 1,800 organs being donated in Canada alone in 2004. Technology has helped to minimize risk, and both bone marrow and livers fully regenerate themselves within 45-90 days. Bone marrow transplants take about an hour and leave the donor with 2-3 days of discomfort and a 2 to 4 inch scar on their hip that fades out in about a year. The recipient gets to live.

Some in the medical community are stunned by the group’s bold recruitment drive but as one VODI volunteer asks “Most of us would not stand by and watch a child burn in a house fire or drown in a lake, so why is this any different”? Is the life of an Iraqi child any less important or valuable than the life of an American or British child? Like Pope John Paul II said “The greatest sin is indifference”.

Bone marrow has truly become a treasured commodity in Iraq since the cancer (and birth defect) rates have almost doubled in the last decade due to the extensive use
of depleted uranium artillery, anti-tank shells, and bombs used in Iraq which will remain radioactive for another 3,000 years. This radioactive material which still
litters the major cities of Iraq is blamed for causing abnormally high leukemia rates. Only bone marrow transplants can give a child leukemia patient a fighting
chance to recover.

Gorcyca readily concedes that the Iraqi children were not deliberately targeted by military forces but quickly retorts that “the pain, agony, and misery inflicted upon these children, makes no distinction as to cause nor motive. Imagine coming home from work one day only to find your home in a smoldering ruin of rubble and your five-year old son, daughter, or grandchild missing a limb, or screaming with burns covering 50% of their bodies. There is no greater agony for any parent”. Gorcyca who is 50 years old and himself a father, said it was his role as a father that compelled him to form the volunteer organization in 2004.

Many in the U.S. see the group’s actions as a public protest but Gorcyca replies “The time for protest has passed , the damage has already been done. This is about compassion, humanity, and reconciliation. We want Iraqis to know that not every American is an arrogant bully who only gets their way at the end of a gun barrel. I
guess this is my personal way of apologizing to the people of Iraq, since I doubt my government ever will”. Some of his fellow-Americans went so far as to suggest the group was “UnAmerican” for not donating their organs to U.S. soldiers injured in the conflicts, but Gorcyca defends the VODI position by pointing out that “Soldiers
still have their families alive to donate organs and take care of them, but these kids, in most cases have no one. Further, soldiers are paid to fight in wars and injuries are part of that dreadful job, whereas no child on this Earth should be exposed to the horrors of any war. They are truly the most innocent of all victims ”. So far Gorcyca reports that most veterans who responded to his call for help have been Vietnam veterans who visited their controversial web site at www.VeteranOrganDonors.org.

VODI volunteers are now actively recruiting other veterans around the world by phone, fax, and e-mail. Gorcyca hopes that his own donation will motivate others to step forward and do the same and he hopes to open VODI chapters in New York, Florida, California and the U.K. within the next three months. The grass root organization receives no funding from any government and is funding their efforts from their own pockets. They did however ask a major airline to donate round-trip airfares for the children who will have to fly into Toronto for the transplants since they have neither the facilities nor expertise in Iraq. Two local Hotels have already offered to donate thirty days of free accommodations for the children and a guardian.

Reaction in Iraq has been a mixture of disbelief, gratitude, and in one case, anger when the uncle of an Iraqi boy refused to accept a bone marrow transplant from an “infidel”. But Gorcyca says he empathizes with the rage and contempt most Iraqis now feel towards the west. “We’re not trying to save the world – just the lives of a few children”.

Authorized for immediate release by:

Liz Whitley, Director of PR Tel: 647-295-4647

For more information about organ transplants and related statistics please see these web links; www.marrow.org, www.transplant living.org,
www.hc-sc.gc.ca/english/organandtissue/, www.transweb.org/qa/qa_don.htm,
www.kidney.ca/english/organdonation/organdonation.htm,
andhttp://secure.cihi.ca/cihiweb/dispPage.jsp?cw_page

Web Site = http://www.VeteranOrganDonors.org

Contact Details = Liz Whitley, PR Director
Veteran Organ Donors International
117 Lakeshore Road East - Suite 339
Toronto, Ontartio L5G-4T6 CANADA
Tel: 647-295-4647 Fax: 905-891-1981
E-Mail: VODI@mail.com