Gift Of Life Norwegian Family Donates Man’s Organs After He Dies On Vacation In Seattle

Death knows no geographical boundaries, and neither does the rare compassion of Norwegians Hilde and Ivar Kvant.

The Kvants rushed to the United States last week when her 32-year-old brother suffered a brain aneurysm while vacationing in Seattle. By the time the couple arrived, Bjorn Ove Grandum, an Oslo taxi driver with two children, was brain dead and on life support.

Then, in a foreign country thousands of miles from home, the grieving family chose to donate Grandum’s organs so that several Americans could have another chance at life.

“It’s not unheard of to have foreign nationals become donors in the United States, but it’s rare,” said Joel Newman, a spokesman for the United Network for Organ Sharing in Richmond, Va.

For one thing, tourists don’t usually die in foreign countries. The age and health of the deceased and the manner of death also can eliminate donation as an option. In other cases, the family may have cultural or religious objections.

The Kvants, tired and sad, agreed to an airport interview with The Associated Press before to returning to their hometown of Bergen, Norway.

“We’re doing this to get others to think about donation,” Ivar Kvant said.

The most famous case of international organ donation occurred in 1994 when a 7-year-old California boy, Nicholas Green, was shot by bandits during a family vacation in southern Italy.

Italians were shocked by his family’s decision to donate his organs, an act that saved seven people in Italy and inspired a surge of organ donations in a country where the practice is unusual.

In early April, 8-year-old Miyuki Monobe died at UCLA Medical Center before a donor heart could be found to replace her defective one. She had come to the United States because heart transplants are virtually nonexistent in Japan.

Brain death is not legally accepted in Japan. Death is considered to occur after the patient’s heart stops beating, but at that point, the organ deteriorates quickly and becomes unsuitable for transplant.

The United Network for Organ Sharing doesn’t keep specific records on the number of “international” donations, Newman said.

But even the number of domestic donations is small. Of the more than 2 million U.S. deaths each year, organ donation is feasible in just 15,000 to 20,000 cases. And only about 5,400 of the dead actually become organ donors.

By donating Grandum’s heart, heart valves, kidneys, lungs, pancreas and liver, the Kvants were able to help a half-dozen Puget Sound people and their families, said Tamila Timm, procurement coordinator at LifeCenter Northwest, the organ-donation center for Washington, Alaska, northern Idaho and Montana.

LifeCenter does not identify recipients, though it provides some general information to the donor’s family privately.

“We don’t need to know who he’s helping,” Kvant said.

“It’s important to know his death isn’t for nothing - that people are helped with this donation.”

Grandum, always busy, had worked day and night to save up for his trip to the United States, his sister said.

“He was very fond of traveling. He really enjoyed life,” Hilde Kvant said.

Grandum had been to Los Angeles on a previous visit, and this time planned to drive from the Seattle-area north to British Columbia to visit relatives. He never got out of town.

He had had a lot of headaches, but a doctor told him it was probably job stress, Hilde Kvant said. He continued to feel poorly here and collapsed in his hotel room on April 13. Another guest heard his cries for help, and an ambulance was called.

Grandum telephoned his sister from Harborview Medical Center to tell her what was happening. It would be their last conversation. When she and her husband got to Seattle on April 15, machinery was keeping Grandum alive.

There is no organ-donation program in Norway, Timm said. The Kvants were familiar with the concept because they had endured an agonizing wait for a liver for Ivar’s gravely ill 2-year-old niece in England. The toddler suffered a heart attack and subsequent brain damage while waiting for a donor organ.

As a result, the family had talked about organ donation before, and Hilde Kvant knew they were making the right decision for her brother.

Still, she said, “It’s hard to think about this when you just have lost someone.”

Health problems prevented Torrandum, Hilde and Bjorn’s father,from coming to the United States from his home in Tynset, Norway, but he supported the decision, Hilde Kvant said.