Philadelphia woman pioneers national organ donor policy changes

Jet, June 23, 1997

Lolita Miller is a fighter. When she became in need of a kidney transplant in 1995, some five years after donating one of hers to her brother, she refused to be overlooked.

"It wasn't fair," Ms. Miller recently told Jet. "I had donated an organ, but when I needed one, I would have a long wait. I had to wait like everyone else."

The 42-year-old Philadelphia mother's wait was finally over on May 15, 1997, when, after waiting only 545 days -- instead of the typical 900 or more days -- she received a kidney plant at Allegheny University Hospitals, Hahnemann in Philadelphia, PA.

Thanks to Ms. Miller's relentless efforts, she convinced the limited Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the organization that manages the donor organ program, that people who donate organs should receive special consideration if they subsequently need a transplant themselves. Though others had faced the same situation, Miner was the first person in that predicament to present her case to the UNOS.

The UNOS board approved a policy change in "acknowledgment of the selfless sacrifice" in June of 1996. Three months later, the policy came into affect which allows people who donate at least a portion of an organ to get higher priority on the waiting list through a point system.

Miller was the first person in the country to benefit from the new policy change.

"It makes me feel really good," said the mother of two, "that I accomplished something that's going to help other people."

Ms. Miller, a secretary at the Masterman School, decided to donate one of her kidneys to her brother Samuel, 41, in October of 1991. Doctors told her that a transplant could mean the difference between life and death for her younger brother.

"Our mother had just died of a brain aneurysm in 1987, and my brother was shot and killed. I didn't want another death in the family," Ms. Miller stated.

Eight months after she donated the kidney, Ms. Miller says she became gravely ill when she developed an immune system disorder that eventually destroyed her remaining kidney in 1995. That's when her search for an organ donor began.

She says she was frustrated when she learned that she would have to wait like everyone else for a kidney, even though she had once given one herself.

With assistance from Diane Herr, an English teacher at Masterman, who cared TV stations, wrote to newspapers and had students write letters, Ms. Miller's voice was heard loud and dear. The policy was approved.

Prior to getting her life-saving kidney transplant, Ms. Miller was offered at least three kidneys, all unsuitable, before she received a match.

Said Ms. Miller, who is recovering well, bursting with joy, "God is good. He was on time and did it on the right time. That was my birthday present... I feel like my old self when I wasn't sick. God showed off. I'm a living testament to that."