Precious organ gift worth gold to patients

AT ANY time, more than 1300 people in Australia are waiting for an organ transplant.

And last year, 503 dead donors saved a record 1448 Australians.

While last year there was a 16% increase of dead organ donors on the 2015 number, it is no wonder that donor recipient Renee Falconer described the organs as “like gold”.

Renee received a lung transplant in December 2015. Her lung capacity, due to her cystic fibrosis, was 15% when she went in for her operation.

She was preparing herself and her loved ones for her death. Since the transplant, the 26-year-old has started to make long-term plans with her husband again.

I have thought about Renee’s story a lot in the past few days, and the lottery of life that gives some of us good health while others face battles from the get go.

And 503 donors from a population of nearly 24 million is a pretty poor effort on our part.

So, with those thoughts, I registered for organ donation on the Federal Government’s Donate Life website.

It is a five-minute process that makes your wishes about organ donation clear.

A blanket email to my loved ones will make the decision even simpler for them should I die. Family members are the ones who get the final say in a person’s organ donation.

According to the government’s website, up to 10 lives can be saved from a single organ donation.

I know people shy away from discussions of death and dying. But death is the only certainty in life, and good health is not a right. It’s a privilege.

Transplants give people a second chance to, in the words of my partner’s sister, “squeeze the juice out of life”.

What use are my organs to me if I am dead?