Have you ever had the heartbreaking life experience of watching a loved one languish while waiting to receive a donated organ that may never arrive? According to the organization ‘Donate Life Today,’ someone is added to the national organ transplant waiting list every 13 minutes and, on average, 18 people die in our country each day from the lack of organs available for transplant. Organ donation is a great way to make something good come out of a tragedy. A recent example of this is when the parents of the youngest victim of January’s Tucson, Arizona shooting donated her organs which saved others’ lives.
In our state, it is easy to indicate you are an organ donor when obtaining or renewing your driver’s license. By doing this simple gesture, you become a member of a donation registry. You may not be familiar, however, that it is possible through ‘Donate Life Today’ to specify whether you would want your donation to be used for transplant, medical research, or both, which can be an important distinction for some religions. In addition, you can specify which organs or tissue you would be willing to donate.
Becoming part of the registry or making changes to your donation wishes can easily be done by visiting the website www.donatelifetoday.com or calling the toll-free number (1-877-275-5269). It is also possible to add minor children to the registry through the website or toll free number. The website is an excellent source of information regarding organ and tissue donation.
Although I don’t wish on any family the tragedy of the untimely demise of a loved one due to cardiac death or brain death, I hope that you will agree that it be wonderful to have the opportunity to have something good come out of such a horrific situation, the gift of life to others.
I encourage you to look further into organ and tissue donation. Please let me know if you would like additional information and I will gladly send you one of Donate Life Today’s informational brochures.