By DELANIA TRIGG, Register Staff Writer / Gainesville Daily Register

An average of 18 people die each day due to the lack of available organs for donation according to Donate Life Texas, the state health services department’s organ donation registry.

Organ donations were one of several health issues discussed during Saturday’s North Central Texas Health Fair.

The event was designed to give residents a glimpse of the workings of the hospital and included opportunities for preliminary health screenings, a chance to see the inside of a Care Flite helicopter and a look into an operating room.

Carl Dunlap was on hand Saturday at North Texas Medical Center’s health fair where he spoke to hospital visitors about the importance of signing up to become organ donors at www.DonateLifeTexas.org.

The former Gainesville Police Chief wears a pin in the shape of a green ribbon, and when asked about it, he is glad to talk about the liver transplant that saved his life in 2003.

Dunlap’s brush with death came in the late summer of 2003 when he began to realize he wasn’t well.

He couldn’t pinpoint the cause.

“I had always been the kind of person who would get a cold, go to the doctor for some medicine and get well,” he said.

He said he continued working although he was exhausted and had no appetite.

He didn’t know it at the time, but Dunlap had a condition called hemochromatosis. The disease allows too much iron to accumulate in the blood resulting in liver damage.

His liver — an organ that acts as the body’s primary detoxification system — was slowly being destroyed by excessive amounts of the mineral.

“I would get up and go to work and work as long as I could. Then it was home and straight to bed. Every day I got a little sicker,” he recalled. “When I found out what was going on, it was basically end-stage. My liver was virtually destroyed.”

He finally sought medical attention and was admitted to Baylor Medical Center in Dallas.

Doctors told him he would require a liver transplant.

He underwent several days of testing.

Doctors calculate the urgency of a donor’s need by using a formula that takes into account various factors including blood and tissue type, severity of organ damage and the patient’s likelihood for recovery.

Doctors assigned him a score that was frightening.

“It was bad, off the charts,” he said.

He went to the top of the transplant list.

But he grew weaker as he waited and said he felt himself slowly slipping away.

“I remember friends and family coming in and out. I was laying in the hospital waiting for death or a transplant. I remember having frustration and not knowing light from dark. I had no concept of time,” he said.

Although Dunlap was unaware of it, a young Abilene man’s tragic death would prove his salvation.

He was a 21-year old competitive motorcross rider named Billy who died from neck injuries he received in a bike wreck.

Billy’s family choose to donate his organs.

“My donor passed away at 11 p.m. and my family was notified at 2 a.m. that a liver was available,” Dunlap said.

Doctors harvested Billy’s liver and divided it into two parts.

One went to an 11-month-old girl. The other, larger portion, went to Dunlap.

“We were the two with the greatest need,” he explained.

He underwent a 12-hour surgery that left him with what he describes as a Mercedes logo-like scar on his chest.

It’s a fairly big scar, but it doesn’t bother him much, he said.

“I call it the world’s most expensive Mercedes,” he said, alluding to the cost of the procedure.

Dunlap thinks about Billy sometimes, but is consoled by one thing — he died doing what he loved, riding a motorcycle.

Today, he said he takes better care of himself than ever and is an avid jogger who feels fit and healthy.

His mission now is to let others know the importance of signing up with the registry.

Speaking from an information table at the NTMC Health Fair, Dunlap said his mission is about communication.

“We want to tell people that the most important part of organ donation is to discuss it with their families,” he said. “If they put it in their will, it’ll be too late.”

The Texas Department of State Health Services maintains a registry of Texans who have signed up to be organ donors.

Registering is easy. Go to www.DonateLifeTexas.org, answer a few questions and indicate your intention to become a donor.

Approximately 10 days after signing up with Donate Life Texas, a card will arrive in the mail. Sign the card in front of two witnesses and mail it back. Your name will be entered into the database.

The organization also works to dispel myths about donation.

For instance, some people believe they must pay to register.

That’s not true.

Signing up with the state donor registry is free, and there is no cost to the donor’s family for donation. The donor family pays only expenses related to their loved ones care before death and funeral expenses.

The state registry is paid for by a $1 voluntary contribution Texans can make when applying for or renewing their driver license or state ID card or when registering a vehicle.

Others believe they are have healthy enough to become donors.

Donors do not have to be in perfect health at the time of their death. Physicians will determine whether or not a donor’s organs are appropriate for donation.

It is also possible in some cases to be a living donor. Thousands of people receive kidney, partial liver, intestine or pancreas donations from live donors each year.

The organization also points out that becoming an organ donor does not mutilate the donor’s body nor does it prevent an open-casket funeral.

One donor could save or enhance the lives of more than 50 people, according to Donate Life America.

Donated organs include the heart, intestines, kidneys, liver, lungs and pancreas and other tissues such as bone, tendons, corneas, heart valves, skin and tendons.

Finally, the organization said most religions support organ donation as “an unselfish act of charity.”

Dunlap also shared the story of an Odessa police officer who died Sept. 8 in the line of duty. The slain officer had signed up to be an organ donor.

He was 32-year-old Cpl. Abel Marquez.

Marquez had been called to a domestic disturbance incident. The father of two died while trying to assist two fellow officers. Two other officers died during the shootout.

Before his death, Marquez had made his desire to be an organ donor known.

His liver was given to a 31-year old Houston man, and both of his kidneys were deemed fit for transplant. One was given to a recepient in Houston.

(Doctors were not able to transplant his heart because of certain immunizations Marquez was required to have as a police officer.)

“We’re grateful that part of him is going to continue to live on. And he’s going to continue to help the earthly community,” his brother Odessa Police Cpl. Phillip Marquez told Odessa American reporter Geoff Folsom.