Organ Donation Angel

Just wanted to post about a story I just read on Yahoo! about a girl from Atlanta who received a kidney from a stranger. The donor saw the little girl's face on a flyer and after talking it over with her husband decided to donate a kidney to her. The donor operation took place at Emory University Hospital (where I had my transplant) and the recipient operation happened across the street at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.

You can read the story by clicking below!

Stranger Donates Kidney to Atlanta Girl

Post #100

This is my 100th post!! It definitely doesn't seem like I have posted that many times. I want to celebrate this by talking about the topic of this blog. That topic is of course, me, but it is also to raise awareness about organ donation.

As we all know, there is a critical shortage of available organs for transplantation. I usually keep an eye on the UNOS website to check the number of people who are waiting for a transplant. All of last week, the number of people on the waiting list was just over 98,000. I checked it just as I was beginning to write this post and saw that it was 97,976.

The number has gone down considerably in the past three or four days. I am confident in saying that a number of people received a life-saving transplant over that time. That much of a drop in the number of people on the list makes me curious as to how many did not receive a transplant. Those patients very possibly died while waiting for a transplant. I am happy that the number of people on the waiting list has gone down. I would love for it to be as low as possible. I want that number to go down because people are living a life they may have only dreamed of after being told that they will need a transplant to continue living at all.

It is said that an average of 18 people a day die while waiting for a life-saving transplant and every 12 minutes another person is added to the waiting list.

Those are disturbing statistics, but there is one that I find most disturbing of all. It is reported that 90 percent of people in the United States support organ donation, but only 30 percent of Americans understand and have taken the steps to become an organ donor. I am not sure why more Americans aren't doing something they believe in.

Different states have different rules as to how you can become an organ donor. Go here to find out how to become an organ donor in your state.

Transplantation works! I am living proof that after having a liver transplant, a person can return to a normal and healthy lifestyle. I am not the only proof though, there are others who have been touched by the miracle too. Some of those are links on the left side of this page, go to their page and read about how transplantation has changed their lives, as well as the lives of their families!

Please become an organ donor! I pray that God will keep those who read this blog safe from harm. If something should happen to you or one of your loved ones, please make sure that everyone knows your wish to become an organ donor. Talk about this issue with your family because they are the ones who will make the decision about your organs.