The Life You Save Might Be Someone Else's

In video and arcade games, no matter what you do, you get multiple lives. Usually at least three, and if you’re really good, you can extend that multiple times.

While real life isn’t a parallel universe, some of us do have opportunities to get life extensions when it comes to organs. April is National Donate Life Month, and there are multiple ways for individuals to help others in need of healthy organs.

Organ donation is the process of surgically removing an organ or tissue from one person (the organ donor) and placing it into another person. Transplantation is necessary because the recipient’s organ has failed or has been damaged by disease or injury.

Organ transplantation is one of the great advances in modern medicine. Unfortunately, the need for organ donors is much greater than the number of people who actually donate. Anyone remotely familiar with the issue of organ transplantation is keenly aware there is a severe and longstanding shortage of human organs made available for transplant in the United States and around the world. There are more than 123,000 individuals waiting for lifesaving organ transplants in the U.S. alone; of these, 101,000 await kidney transplants. On average, more than 3,000 new patients are added to the kidney waiting list each month, and 21 people die every day while waiting for a life-saving kidney transplant. Sadly, only 17,000 people receive a kidney transplant annually.

The focus of National Donate Life Month is visibility and awareness. The more people think about organ donation, the more they sign up to help. The life you save might be that of a close family member or friend.

But you might be saying to yourself, “I’d never be considered a viable candidate to donate an organ!” Au contraire; people of all ages should consider themselves potential donors. When a person dies, he or she is evaluated for donor suitability based on their medical history and age. The Organ Procurement Agency determines medical suitability for donation.

There’s also “living donations,” such as the donation of one healthy kidney or a segment of a healthy liver from a living human being to another. Living donations are arranged though individual transplant centers according to criteria they have in place. An Independent Donor Advocate will represent the interests and well-being of the potential living donor.

To learn more about organ donation, visit the United Network for Organ Sharing web site (www.unos.org), the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ organ donation site (www.organdonor.gov) and Donate Life America (www.donatelife.net).

Registration is simple. If you’re renewing your driver’s license any time soon, all you have to do is check a box volunteering to become an organ donor. If not, you can go online to www.donatelife.net/register-now and sign up. Don’t let another month go by. Sign up today!