Be an organ and tissue donor — be a hero

Organ and tis­sue dona­tion gives every­one a chance to be a hero. The deci­sion of just one per­son to become a donor can save as many as eight lives with organ dona­tion and heal 50 oth­ers with tis­sue donation.

National Donate Life Month is held each April to raise aware­ness about the crit­i­cal need for organ and tis­sue dona­tion. More than 113,000 peo­ple are wait­ing for a life­sav­ing organ trans­plant in the United States and every day 18 of those peo­ple die because they did not receive a trans­plant in time.

This month, Grady Memo­r­ial Hos­pi­tal is fly­ing in front of our build­ing a spe­cial dona­tion flag and dis­play­ing in our lobby a donor quilt — made by donor and recip­i­ent fam­i­lies — in sup­port of National Donate Life Month.

It’s easy to become a donor. All you have to do is join the Ohio Donor Reg­istry main­tained by the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehi­cles. This can be done by declar­ing your inten­tion — just say “yes” — when you receive or renew your driver’s license, state iden­ti­fi­ca­tion card or learner’s per­mit. You can also reg­is­ter online at donatelifeohio.com or by mail­ing to the Ohio BMV a donor reg­is­tra­tion form.

Although more than 90 per­cent of the pub­lic sup­ports organ, eye and tis­sue dona­tion, only about 50 per­cent of Ohioans are reg­is­tered donors. Many still buy into myths regard­ing dona­tion. Here are some facts you should know:

• Any­one can be a donor, regard­less of age, race or med­ical history.

• All reli­gions in the United States endorse organ, eye and tis­sue dona­tion as a gen­er­ous act of caring.

There is no cost for med­ical expenses asso­ci­ated with donation.

• Open cas­ket funer­als are still pos­si­ble for donors.

• Dona­tion does not com­pro­mise care and is only con­sid­ered after all efforts have been made to save your life and death has been declared.

Grady com­plies with all federally-mandated require­ments of organ, tis­sue and eye dona­tion. When a death occurs, Medicare requires all hos­pi­tals to con­tact an inde­pen­dent organ pro­cure­ment orga­ni­za­tion (OPO). Our OPO part­ner is Life­line of Ohio, serv­ing cen­tral and south­east­ern Ohio and two coun­ties in West Virginia.

A Life­line of Ohio pro­cure­ment team reports to the hos­pi­tal, eval­u­ates the deceased for poten­tial to donate and com­pletes the pro­cure­ment process. Grady assists Life­line of Ohio with copies of med­ical records and arrange­ments for a sur­gi­cal suite, but is not involved in the dona­tion process that includes facil­i­tat­ing place­ment of the organs to wait­ing recip­i­ents and deliv­ery to the trans­plant center.

Our gifts of dona­tion at Grady typ­i­cally include tis­sue and eye dona­tion. Donated tis­sue such as skin, bone and heart valves can dra­mat­i­cally improve the qual­ity of life and even save lives. Eye tis­sue is needed for the trans­plan­ta­tion of corneas that restore sight. If a patient is only suit­able for eye tis­sue dona­tion, we notify the Cen­tral Ohio Lion’s Club for screen­ing and procurement.

Organ and tis­sue dona­tion occurs at a dif­fi­cult time, but it is one way to honor deceased loved ones and give mean­ing to their lives. For more infor­ma­tion, visit lifelineofohio.org or call 800–535-5667.

Kim Thomp­son, RN, BSN, is the nurse man­ager of Grady Memo­r­ial Hospital’s Emer­gency Depart­ment. She also man­ages the hospital’s organ and tis­sues dona­tions and is Grady’s liai­son to Life­line of Ohio.

Posted by Grady Memorial Hospital on Apr 12 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.