Demand for organ donors on the rise as more Texans added to waiting list
HOUSTON, TX – The demand for transplantable organs continues to outweigh the supply as nearly 11,000 men, women and children across Texas wait for lifesaving transplants.
“During the month of April, which is National Donate Life Month, we honor those who made the generous decision to donate, providing others with the precious gift of life,” said Sam Holtzman, president and CEO of LifeGift, the local organ and tissue recovery agency. “As the transplant waiting list continues to grow, more Texans need to step up and show their support for donation by registering as organ and tissue donors. Organ and tissue donation saves lives … it’s just that simple.”
Named for a kidney recipient and Texas legislator, the Glenda P. Dawson Donate Life – Texas Registry is the official database of Texans who consent to be organ and tissue donors upon their deaths. It is free to register and one organ/tissue donor has the potential to save 80 lives.
In existence for almost five years, the registry gives Texans the opportunity to say “yes” to donation and help others one day in the future. There are three ways to register:
· Electronically via www.donatelifetexas.org or its companion site, www.donevida.org;
· In person at the Department of Public Safety (DPS) or on the DPS website;
· Online with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) when renewing vehicle registration.
The red donor sticker, which once appeared on Texas driver’s licenses, is now obsolete. The sticker indicated a person’s intent, while registering on the Donate Life Texas Registry provides one’s consent and is legally-binding.
There are more than 110,000 people in the United States waiting for a lifesaving transplant. On average,18 people die of organ failure due to the lack of available organs for transplant and approximately 138 people are added to the nation’s organ transplant waiting list daily.
For more information about LifeGift, visit www.lifegift.org. For more information about how to register as an organ and tissue donor, visit www.donatelifetexas.org.
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Thank you for your article and helping to build awareness around the need for organ and tissue donation. I’m writing on behalf of AlloSource, one of the nation’s largest non-profit providers of skin, bone and soft tissue allografts for use in surgical procedures. In order to act as a resource for donor families and recipients and educate the public about the possibilities of tissue donation and transplantation, which can have the same life saving and enhancing benefits of organ donation, we started a blog: http://www.allograftpossibilites.org. In our blog post today, we linked to your article to help spread the LifeGift message. For future articles, as well as additional background, we invite you to visit our blog and help raise awareness of the need for tissue donation.
Jennifer AlloSource
Your story about LifeGift and Organ Donation highlighted the tragic shortage of human organs for transplant operations.
There are now over 110,000 people on the National Transplant Waiting List, with over 50% of these people dying before they get a transplant. Most of these deaths are needless. Americans bury or cremate 20,000 transplantable organs every year.
There is a simple way to put a big dent in the organ shortage – give donated organs first to people who have agreed to donate their own organs when they die.
Giving organs first to organ donors will convince more people to register as organ donors. It will also make the organ allocation system fairer. Everyone who is willing to receive should be willing to give.
Anyone who wants to donate their organs to others who have agreed to donate theirs can join LifeSharers. LifeSharers is a non-profit network of organ donors who agree to offer their organs first to other organ donors when they die. Membership is free at http://www.lifesharers.org or by calling
1-888-ORGAN88. There is no age limit, parents can enroll their minor children, and no one is excluded due to any pre-existing medical condition. LifeSharers has over 14,500 members as of this writing, including 1175 members in Texas.
Please contact me – Dave Undis, Executive Director of LifeSharers – if your readers would like to learn more about our innovative approach to increasing the number of organ donors. I can arrange interviews with some of our local members if you’re interested. My email address is daveundis@lifesharers.org. My phone number is 615-351-8622.