Save Lives; Become an Organ Donor

Save Lives; Become an Organ Donor

                Imagine lying in the hospital for months or years in constant pain because your heart is slowly failing. Then imagine slowly losing hope because you realize that you will never receive that lifesaving organ. There are many people in our own State who do not have to imagine; they are living it right now.  We have a family friend who lived this life for over a year. Finally, a match came through and he was able to receive a heart, due to someone giving the gift of life. This story had a good ending but so many do not. Being an organ donor myself and volunteering with Donate Life Mississippi I have learned just how important it is to be an organ donor.        

        The need for organ donors has never been greater.  People around the world but also right here in Mississippi need organ transplants and they need our help. According to MORA of Mississippi, there are 121,000 people on the organ transplant list in the United States. The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) maintains the national transplant waiting list for organ recipients. With eleven different regions, and maximum organ preservation times being restricted, a Heart and Lung have four to six hours, Livers have eight to twelve hours, Pancreas has twelve to eighteen hours, and Kidneys have twenty-four to forty-six hours to be transplanted.

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Contrary to belief, eighty percent of all organs donated and used are in the same geographical area.   Would it not be great if everybody in the United State were an organ donor so that everybody would always have a chance at a better life? The need for transplants varies from kidneys, hearts, livers, pancreas, bone marrow and eyes.  This list grows by three thousand a month according to the National Data Bank for Transplants.  As a result, seventeen people every day lose their life waiting on an organ.  With at least ten percent of this list being made up of people from the ages of 18 years and younger.  More than six thousand living donations occur each year. You can choose to donate a specific organ or you can specify which organs you would like to donate. Every twelve minutes a new person is added so as you can imagine donation is imperative.  This situation is compounded by the fact that there are not enough people willing to be an organ donor. The survival rate of the people waiting on an organ is twenty percent but the rate goes up to eighty percent after an organ has been donated.  As technology increases the survival rate increases.  For a lung, it is seventy-five percent, for a kidney, it is ninety-five percent and the heart and liver are eight-five percent.  

Below are ways to insure that your organs are donated: complete a donor registration card in person or online it is just that easy; have your driver’s license marked with the organ donor logo; let your family know about your decision to be an organ donor. Some might ask the question, if signing a donor card could have an impact on the quality of medical care that I would receive at a hospital. The answer is no, when you are in a life-threatening situation, the medical team that is treating you is separate from the transplant team.  According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, every effort will be made to save your life before an organ

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donation is considered.   Just about anyone, at any age, can become an organ donor. Anyone younger than 18 needs to have consent of a parent.  For organ donation after death, a medical assessment will be done to determine what organs can be donated.   Certain conditions, such as having HIV, actively spreading cancer, or severe infection would exclude organ donation.  Having a serious condition like cancer, HIV, diabetes, kidney disease, or heart disease can prevent you from donating as a living donor.   If you decide to be a living donor, the transplant team will decide whether you are a good candidate.                                    

  Donating your organs can be one of the most important decisions you will ever make and one of the greatest gifts you could ever receive. What a noble gesture to be able to give someone a second chance when you are gone.  To have them see through your eyes or breathe through your lungs. You are the one that can give that person a second chance.  What if the person waiting on a transplant was someone you loved?  What if one of your family members passed away, they were an organ donor and you were able to meet the person who received their organ?  What satisfaction and comfort knowing your family member provided life for someone else.  “The Measure of a life, after all, is not its duration, but its donation.” (Boon, Corrie) I am asking you to please go on line and complete a donor registration card, carry it in your wallet and be proud.