April is Organ Donation Awareness Month

April is Organ Donation Awareness Month. I thought I'd share a few facts on organ donation, the people waiting for transplants and some of the numbers.

According to the United Network for Organ Sharing , there are 95,814 people awaiting a transplant as of today at 4:24 am. Every 12 minutes, another name is added to the waiting list. An average of 18 people die each day waiting for their life-saving gift. There are about 1,000 children (under the age of 10) waiting for a transplant today. Half of those children are waiting for a liver; a quarter for kidney. The rest comprise heart, lung, heart/lung, pancreas, kidney/pancreas, and intestine.

In 2005, there were 21,215 deceased organ donors and 6,895 living organ donors. With these generous gifts, 28,110 transplants were made possible.

Did you know that even though you may have "Organ Donor" checked on your driver's license, your family has the final say in whether you are a donor or not? If you want to be an organ donor, talk to your family and tell them about your wishes. In the face of tragedy, many families will say "No" to organ donation because they weren't aware of their loved one's wishes. If that decision were already made for them, by you, their decision might be made more easy.

Please talk to your family about organ donation. And be aware that organ donation isn't just for those who have abused their livers or kidneys with alcohol. There are babies, innocent children, who need transplants. There are people who have diabetes that need a kidney or a kidney and a pancreas. There are babies that are born whose intestines begin to die shortly after birth...with no rhyme or reason to why. There are so many reasons someone might need a transplant. Eight lives can be saved with ONE donor. ONE.