Organ Donor Awareness!
Wednesday, July 18th, 2007
The website BlogCatalog is encouraging people to create blog posts about organ donation today. Since I’m not busy running due to the injury, I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon and ask people to consider becoming organ donors. Organ donation is absolutely crucial to the health and survival of many people who have serious medical problems.
Just one organ donor–one individual person–can save the lives of up to 50 people. That’s something you’re not likely to do in your lifetime unless perhaps you’re a doctor! There are several organs that can be transplanted, as well as many types of tissue (from corneas to cartilage… even veins can be transplanted, which I didn’t know!). Stem cells, blood, and platelets are also important items that can be used to save lives.
Some people find organ donation a painful subject, because they assume it involves thinking about their own death. However, living donation is possible–and needed–as well! Healthy, living people can donate a kidney, part of your liver, or even part of your lung, pancreas, or intestine! Blood stem cells from bone marrow, bone marrow itself, platelets, and of course blood can all be donated to help drastically improve the lives of others. Many severely ill people don’t have the time to wait for the organs they need. The average wait time for most transplants is incredibly long: heart transplant patients have it easy, waiting an average of only (ha) 230 days to get a heart. Kidney patients are a little less “lucky,” with the average wait for a kidney being 1121 days (that’s 3 years).
It’s easy to see that organ donation is not just a nice thing to do–it’s a necessary thing to do. Think about how you want to help others both now and after your (hopefully far-away!) death, and decide if you think you can help by donating organs or tissue. You can get more information and sign up to be an organ donor here, here, or here. Please give it some thought–someone out there needs you.
