Take Time, Give Life

In August 2001, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services employee Ruth Parker had surgery in Missouri to remove 60 percent of her liver. She donated the organ to an 11-year-old girl she had never met, and saved the girl's life.

Parker's gift was pretty unusual, and producers at the CBS Early Show brought her on to meet Lindsay, the recipient, for the first time on live national TV. Parker's decision to become a live organ donor for someone she had never met was inspired by her job. She is an organ procurement organization coordinator for CMS, and travels around the Midwest to organ donation sites.

"I was just feeling very … helpless, I guess would be the word," Parker said. "I wanted to be able to do everything that I could. Even though I'm a nurse, I never thought about the fact that the liver regenerated itself. So I thought, let me just do this."

After the surgery, Parker took six weeks to recover. Her employer had a generous leave policy for organ donation.

In 1999, Congress passed a law providing 30 days of paid leave each year to organ donors in federal jobs. Employees also get seven days of paid leave to donate bone marrow. The leave is in addition to accumulated sick or annual leave.

In a 2004 message, former Office of Personnel Management Director Kay Coles James encouraged agencies to grant employees more than 30 days if they need it. That could be in the form of extra sick leave, annual leave or donated leave from other employees.

"Our goal is to make the federal government a model employer in every way," James said. "Giving the gift of life and helping others sustain life are the most cherished gifts any person can give or receive."

When Parker decided to give half of her liver away (she wanted to donate one of her kidneys, too, but their function wasn't good enough), she called hospitals until she found one that would perform the surgery.

Becoming a random bone marrow donor is easier. The national marrow donor program will send a tissue typing test to your home for $52. Once you send the results back in, your name will go on the list in the rare case that your marrow matches that of someone in need.

A spokesman for OPM said the agency has not kept track of how many federal employees have taken advantage of the leave policy since 1999. The numbers may not have spiked since the law passed; Parker said she had enough sick leave stored away that she would have done the surgery without such a law. More importantly, she said, the leave policy was part of a broader trend of support from management: "It was a nice touch."

Your Thoughts

In an upcoming column, Pay & Benefits Watch will look at how agencies are handling the continuing resolution that Congress passed for this year. We'd like to hear from readers about corners agencies are asking you to cut in areas such as travel and training, and the threat of furloughs or layoffs. Please include your name, position and agency and let us know whether or not that information can be used for publication. Send your comments to krutzick@govexec.com