Not all life-saving donations result from deceased donation. The following forms of living donation are options to consider and are a matter of personal choice.
Donated blood is a critical need for successful organ transplants, as well as hundreds of other medical procedures. The American Red Cross needs a minimum of 1,000 blood donors every day to meet the medical needs of local patients. Visit their website for more information and to find a local blood drive.
Bone marrow transplantation has become the only real "cure" for many diseases including leukemia, anemia, lymphomas and other life-threatening blood diseases. You can register to be a potential bone marrow donor by joining the national Be the Match Registry, and learn more by visiting the National Marrow Donor Program website.
It is possible to remove one lobe of a liver or lung from a living donor for transplant into another person. The liver regenerates in size, though not 100% in function, in both donor and recipient in 2-3 months. The number of these donation procedures remains relatively small; currently, neither procedure is performed in Oregon.
Currently, over 80% of the 110,000+ people on the national organ transplant wait list need a kidney. This is especially true for Hispanic and African Americans, who are three times more likely than Caucasians to suffer from an end-stage renal disease, thus requiring a life-saving transplant.
Living kidney donation is increasingly common as new medical techniques and technology are developed and the need for transplant continues to outpace the availability of deceased donor organs. Today there are more than 6,000 living kidney donors per year. One in four is not biologically related to their recipient.
Anonymous donors are living donors who choose to donate purely out of selfless motives. Anonymous donation is non-directed, i.e. the organ recipient is not specified; recipients are those at the top of the local wait list. Neither donor nor recipient identification and information are shared with the other party.
To increase the number of kidneys available for transplant in the Pacific Northwest, and to reduce the suffering of those waiting, Pacific Northwest Transplant Bank and the local transplant centers - Oregon Health & Science University and Legacy Transplant Services - have partnered to create the Anonymous Living Donor Program.
Anonymous Living Donor Program
503-494-7856
http://pntb.org/what-we-do/living-donation
Legacy Good Samaritan Transplant
Direct: 503-413-6555
Toll-free: 877-622-8030
www.legacyhealth.org/transplant
OHSU Kidney Transplant
Toll-free: 800-452-1369, ext. 2246
Direct: 503-494-2246