April is Donate Life Month!
April is National Donate Life Month and what better way to celebrate than to reflect on how far we’ve come and where we need to go.
According to a new survey by Donate Life America, 43 percent of people are undecided, reluctant or do not wish to have their organs and tissue donated after their deaths. This number still sounds high to me, but it is an improvement over findings from last year where 50 percent reported the same. This statistic shows the critical need to continue to increase the level of support for organ donation to save the lives of the more than 105,000 adults and children on the transplant waiting list in the U.S., an average 18 of whom die each day waiting.
Locally we have increased our registered donors by 2% over last year which is great news! However, the need has also increased at a rapid rate as well.
Locally have 645 people on the organ waiting list
- 500 people are waiting for a kidney transplant
- 124 people are waiting for a liver transplant
- 1 person is waiting for a pancreas transplant
- 8 people are waiting for a combined kidney/pancreas transplant
- 12 people are waiting for a heart transplant
After reading the most recent National Donor Designation Report Card, I am reminded that tremendous strides have been made in transplantation. Did you know that in the early days only siblings (specifically twins) could donate? Today, deceased and living donation among strangers is the norm. Our age criterion has been extended with donors as old as 92 on record! And donation after cardiac death (as opposed to brain death) is sometimes possible which expands the number of organs that can be donated.
The National Donor Designation Report Card states, “Still, with the miraculous success of transplantation, the need for donors continues to increase. In order to meet this need, it is essential that millions of people step forward to register as donors, and that the thousands of people who are asked to make the decision for their loved ones say ‘yes’ to donation.”
So with that, let’s continue to celebrate the great advancements we’ve made and push ourselves to go the next mile until we can meet the local needs of our 645 people and hit that national goal of registering 100 million designated donors!
