This week Governor Steven L. Beshear will recognize National Donate Life Month with the Circuit Court Clerks of Kentucky. One hundred ten thousand people in the U.S. and almost 700 Kentuckians, are currently waiting for life-saving organ transplants. Kentucky’s Circuit Court Clerks have been active in promoting organ donation since 1992. Together they have raised more than $7 million to educate and raise public awareness about this crucial need.
The Kentucky Organ Donor Registry was formed in 2007. The Registry is a confidential database that records Kentuckian’s wishes to save lives through organ donation. The Circuit Clerks add over 98 percent of the names to the Registry. In just four short years, Kentucky has reached a milestone of over one million Kentuckians on the Kentucky Organ Donor Registry. “Without the commitment of the Circuit Clerks, there may not be 5,000 names on the Registry. Because of their work, Kentucky is celebrating more than one million names this April,” says Shelley Heavrin, Executive Director of the Kentucky Circuit Court Clerks’ Trust For Life.
“Organ donations is truly the gift of life. I look forward to representing our county on the steps of the Capitol with my fellow Circuit Clerks, and our Governor, to celebrate Donate Life Month and Kentucky’s incredible accomplishment,” explains Clinton County Circuit Court Clerk Jake Staton.
Staton said he didn’t have any specific local data on the number of persons in Clinton County who have actually signed on as donors, but added his office gives everyone who renews their driver’s license the option of signing up.
Several years ago, local minister Bro. Noble Copeland, an advocate of the donor program, was the recipient of a heart transplant and lived several years after having the donated heart transplanted.
He also supplied some national donation and transplant statistics as well as facts and figures about organ and tissue donation. That information can be found at the end of this article.
Kentuckians throughout the Commonwealth will bring home the meaning of giving back, and join others across the nation this April in celebrating the “Gift of Life” through organ and tissue donation. Many events will focus on honoring those who unselfishly donated so that others could live, celebrate those who were given a second chance at life, and provide hope to the more than 110,000 Americans waiting for a lifesaving transplant.
Since 2003, April has been recognized as National Donate Life Month (NDLM) and grew out of the federally proclaimed National Organ, Eye and Tissue Donation Awareness Month.
National Donate Life Month events are scheduled in hospitals and communities across Kentucky and throughout the country in an effort to create awareness about the need for organ, tissue and eye donation. Each day, 18 people die due to the lack of a donated organ. Events are designed to encourage people to join their state’s donor registry, so that their wish to help others can be carried out. Donor registries play an increasingly important role in helping to save lives, since registries allow a person’s wishes to be documented and stored in a secure computer database. Registries allow the family of the deceased to know for sure that this is what their loved one wanted.
Facts and Figures about organ and tissue donation:
* Over 110,000 Americans are registered on the United Network for Organ Sharing waiting list for donated organs, including over 700 people on the waiting list in Kentucky.
* A new name is added to the waiting list every 11 minutes.
* Every year, an estimated 6,000 people die while waiting for an organ transplant. Eighteen people die each day due to the lack of a donated organ.
* Transplantable organs include the kidney, heart, liver, lung, pancreas and small bowel.
* Transplantable tissues include bone, cartilage, skin, corneas, heart valves, saphenous veins, tendons and ligaments.
* Acceptable donors range from newborn to senior citizens.
* All major religions approve of organ and tissue donation.
* One individual donor can provide organs, bone and tissue for nearly 50 people in need.
* An estimated 450,000 Americans are treated with transplanted bone, tendon and ligament tissue each year.
* About 50,000 cornea transplants are performed annually, with 5,000 people waiting for donated corneas.
* In 2010, approximately 29,000 successful organ transplants were performed. It is estimated that twice as many could have been performed if more people donated organs.
* By law, donation is the right of every American age 18 and older. Hospitals are obligated by law, to identify potential donors and to inform families of their right to donate.
* Individuals may indicate their wish to be a donor by joining the Kentucky Organ Donor Registry. Kentucky residents may go to www.donatelifeky.org to register. Since Kentucky has First Person Consent laws in place, an individual’s wishes to donate will be honored. For more information on how to register in your state go to www.donatelife.net.
* All efforts are made to save a person’s life regardless of whether he or she has signed up on the Registry. Doctors involved in initial care of a patient cannot be involved in donation or transplantation.
* There is no extra expense for the family donating organs or tissues. KODA pays all costs related to organ and tissue donation.
* The donor’s body is not disfigured by organ or tissue removal. An open casket funeral is possible. No one should be able to recognize that the individual was a donor.
Donation and Transplantation Statistics:
* Approximately 77 organ transplants take place every day in the United States.
* On average, a single tissue donor can save or enhance the lives of up to 50 people.
* Nearly 28,000 patients began new lives in 2010 thanks to organ transplants.
* Over 40,000 patients had their sight restored last year through cornea transplants.
* A living donor can provide a kidney or a portion of their liver, lung, pancreas or intestine.
* Almost two-thirds of all living donors are relatives of their recipient, most commonly siblings.
* The number of unrelated living donors has more than tripled since 1998.
* To learn more about living donation visit www.transplantliving.org/livingdonation.
* One in nine deceased donors is age 65 or over.
* Sadly, an average of 18 patients die every day while waiting, simply because the organ they needed did not become available in time.
* On average, 134 people are added to the nation’s organ transplant waiting list each day–one every 11 minutes.
* More than 110,000 people are currently waiting for an organ transplant in the U.S. More than 600 of them are 5 years old or younger.
* Almost 35% of patients awaiting kidney transplants are African American.
* Annually, there are more than 25,000 tissue donors and 70,000 cornea donors.
* More than one million tissue transplants are done each year and the surgical need for tissue has been steadily rising.
* To register to be an organ, eye and tissue donor visit www.donatelifeky.org or www.donatelife.net.
There are recipients, donor families, and people on the transplant waiting list in every town in Kentucky. If you, or someone you know, has been touched by donation, please contact your Circuit Court Clerk or the Kentucky Circuit Court Clerks’ Trust For Life office (1-866-945-5433) to get involved.