50+ Lifestyles

February 14 is National Donor Day

Information courtesy of organdonor.gov

Established in 1998, National Donor Day focuses on all types of donation—organs, tissues, marrow, platelets and blood—and promotes participation in blood/marrow drives or donor registration events. It is also a day to recognize our loved ones who have given the gift of donation, have received a donation, are currently waiting or did not receive an organ in time.

Organ Donation Statistics

How many people are waiting for a transplant? Who receives organs and what organs are most needed?

• 116,000+ men, women and children are on the national
  transplant waiting list as of August 2017.
• 33,611 transplants were performed in 2016.
• 20 people die each day waiting for a transplant.

We All Need to Register. Here’s Why:

• 95% of U.S. adults support organ donation but only 54% are actually signed up as donors.
• every 10 minutes another person is added to the waiting list.
• only 3 in 1,000 people die in a way that allows for organ donation.

The organ shortage continues

Each year, the number of people on the waiting list continues to be much larger than both the number of donors and transplants, which grow slowly.

One Donor Can Save Eight Lives.

One person can donate up to 8 lifesaving organs: heart, two lungs, liver, pancreas, 2 kidneys and intestines

Waiting List Statistics

There are candidates for transplant on the U.S. national waiting list.

• Nearly 2 out of every 3 people on the waiting list are over the age
  of 50.
• Almost 2,000 children under 18 are on the waiting list.
• Almost 70,000 people (58%) on the list are ethnic minorities.

Sign Up to be an Organ Donor

Signing up on your state registry means that someday you could save lives as a donor—by leaving behind the gift of life. When you register, most states let you choose what organs and tissues you want to donate, and you can update your status at any time.

What Can Be Donated

The list of organs and tissues that can be successfully transplanted continues to grow. So does your ability to save and enhance lives as a donor. What can be donated?

Organs

• Most often, organ donors are deceased, but some organs can be donated by living donors.
• Deceased organ donors can donate: kidneys (2), liver, lungs (2), heart, pancreas, and intestines. In 2014, hands and faces were added to the organ transplant list.
• Living organ donors can donate: one kidney, a lung, or a portion of the liver, pancreas, or intestine.

Corneas

When you register as a cornea donor, you can also leave behind the gift of sight. Here are some facts about cornea and eye donation:

• The cornea is the clear part of the eye over the iris and pupil. People may have damaged corneas from eye disease, injury, or birth defects
• More than 95% of all corneal transplants are successful in restoring the recipient’s vision
• Corneal donors don’t have to “match” recipients like organ donors do. Donors are universal. Your blood type and eye color don’t have to match. Age, eye color and how good your eyesight is, do not matter
• Most people can donate their corneas. Exceptions include people with infections or a few highly communicable
  diseases such as HIV or hepatitis
• The white part of the eye is called the sclera, and that can be donated as well. The sclera can be used in operations to rebuild the eye.

Learn more about Eye and Cornea Donation

Source: Eye Bank Association of America exit disclaimer

Tissues

Donated tissues save or dramatically improve the quality of life for the people who receive them. As an organ and tissue donor, you can enhance the lives of up to 50 people.

Corneas, the middle ear, skin, heart valves, bone, veins, cartilage, tendons, and ligaments can be stored in tissue banks and used to restore sight, cover burns, repair hearts, replace veins, and mend damaged connective tissue and cartilage in recipients.

Heart valves can be transplanted to save the lives of children born with heart defects, and adults with damaged heart valves.

Skin can be used as a natural dressing for people with serious burns. It can even save lives by stopping infections.

Bone is important for people receiving artificial joint replacements, or replacing bone that has been removed due to illness or injury, for example in hand and face transplants.

Tendons, the elastic-like cords that attach bones and muscles to each other, can be donated to help rebuild damaged joints.

Most people can be tissue donors when they die. The local tissue bank (a tissue recovery organization) will be notified by the hospital, medical examiner or funeral home.

Tissue donation must be initiated within 24 hours of death. However, tissue can be processed and stored for an extended period of time.

Each year, about 30,000 donors provide lifesaving and life-enhancing tissue.

Hands and Face

Hands and faces have recently been added to the list of organs that can be successfully transplanted.

These complicated surgeries are technically called vascularized composite allografts (VCAs) because they are surgeries composed of grafting many kinds of tissue: bone, muscle, nerves, skin, and blood vessels.

In 2005, the first hand transplants were performed, and in 2007, the first face transplant was performed. Developments in immunosuppressive drugs help to keep these and all transplants from being rejected.

Fewer than 125 hand and face transplants have been performed worldwide. But for the people who now have hands to use or a face to show the world, VCA transplants are transforming lives.

Source: Johns Hopkins Medicine

Blood Stem Cells, Cord Blood, and Bone Marrow

Healthy adults between the ages of 18 – 60 can donate blood stem cells. In order for a blood stem cell transplant to be successful, the patient and the blood stem cell donor must have a closely matched tissue type or human leukocyte antigen (HLA).

Since tissue types are inherited, patients are more likely to find a matched donor within their own family or racial/ethnic group. There are three sources of blood stem cells that healthy volunteers can donate:

Bone marrow: This soft tissue is found in the interior cavities of bones. It is a major site of blood cell production and is removed to obtain stem cells.

Cord blood stem cells: The umbilical cord that connected a newborn to the mother during pregnancy contains blood that has been shown to contain high levels of blood stem cells. Cord blood can be collected and stored in large freezers for a long period of time and, therefore, offers another source of stem cells available for transplanting into patients.

Peripheral blood stem cells: The same types of stem cells found in marrow can be pushed out into a donor’s bloodstream after the donor receives daily injections of a medication called filgrastim. This medication increases the number of stem cells circulating in the blood and provides a source of donor stem cells that can be collected in a way that is similar to blood donation.

If you are interested in donating blood stem cells, contact a donation organization.

Get Involved Participate, Connect, Sign Up

You can make a difference for the thousands of people waiting for lifesaving and life enhancing transplants. Join in the effort. Help raise public awareness of organ, eye, and
tissue donation—and encourage others to sign up to save lives.