We all should seize chance to donate life
COVID-19 continues to dominate the news, but it’s important to remember other life-and-death health issues remain just as urgent as they’ve always been.
High on the list is organ and tissue donation. As the medical community marks National Donate Life Month, it’s a good time to remind people that agreeing to be a donor is an easy way to make a huge difference in others’ lives.
Why is it so important to keep hammering home a message that few would dispute? The advocacy group Donate Life Pennsylvania has reported that while 95% of people say they support organ donation, only about half of eligible Pennsylvanians sign up to become donors. Without action in a situation like this, expressions of support are meaningless.
This has been a problem for a long time, and it’s difficult to explain or solve. Perhaps people are reluctant to face their own mortality.
But one thing is certain: Anyone who thinks that it’s too much trouble to sign up to become an organ donor is sorely mistaken. It’s simply a matter of putting a designation on one’s driver’s license. Here are some of the pertinent facts:
• Anyone can register as an organ and tissue donor regardless of age or health. There is no cost.
• One organ donor can save up to eight lives.
• Every 10 minutes someone in Pennsylvania is told they need a lifesaving transplant.
• More than 8,000 patients are on the transplant waiting list.
• Each day, 20 people in the U.S. die while waiting for an organ transplant and every 10 minutes, another person’s name is added to the national transplant waiting list of more than 118,000 men, women and children.
Becoming a donor is easy. Pennsylvanians can have the “Organ Donor” designation printed on driver’s licenses or state identification cards at no extra charge. Just request it when acquiring or renewing a license or make the change online. Visit donatelifepa.org to find the link. Signing up only takes a minute or two.
We also encourage readers to look into opportunities for becoming living donors. Nearly 6,000 such donations take place each year, and they save lives.
There are many great stories of people whose lives have been impacted by organ donation, including in our area.
In December the Tower Health Transplant Institute conducted Reading Hospital’s first liver transplant. It gave Reading resident Alex Beltran, 36, a new lease on life.
Beltran suffered from a disease that caused a sharp decline in liver functions and put his life at risk. A case of COVID-19 made his case even more urgent. He was in need of an immediate transplant. A matching donor emerged just in the nick of time.
Recipients aren’t the only ones whose lives are enriched by organ donation. Twenty years ago Diane Milbourne of Schwenksville and her family permitted her husband, Ed, to be an organ donor after he died in a car accident. His organs and tissues saved three lives.
“Ed being a donor brings our family comfort,” she told Donate Life Pennsylvania. “He didn’t just die, but he lives on in others and his beautiful spirit continues. Because of the donation, I feel like I can celebrate the life that he’s given to others.”
Just recently she had the opportunity to correspond and meet with Dave Swick of Easton, who is alive thanks to Ed’s kidney donation.
Swick recently turned 50 and is grateful every day for his restored health.
“I have coached wrestling for 30 years,” he said. “My wife and I have traveled the country over the past 20 years, and I haven’t had to worry about dialysis or not having energy. I have a new lease on life since my transplant, and I’ve celebrated my transplant day like a birthday. I want to thank all donor families who say ‘yes’ to donation. People don’t realize the quality of life that recipients can have.”
Stories like these present an opportunity to grasp just how important this issue is. It’s time to seize the moment and help to save lives.