Improve someone else?s life when yours has ended: donate an organ

We all know about waiting, don?t we? We?ve waited in line to see a movie. We?ve waited for much too long at our favorite restaurant. Most of us have probably drummed our fingers on the steering wheel in rush-hour traffic when there were a hundred other things we needed to be doing. Waiting is the time spent in-between. It is the limbo of “not yet.”

According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, the non-profit group that is contracted by the federal government to maintain the nation?s organ transplant database, more than 91,000 people are currently waiting for lifesaving organ transplants. The limited supply of donated organs is not meeting this enormous demand.

When people decline to donate organs upon their death, other people die too. Across the country last year an average of 18 people died every day because the organ they needed never came. And sadly, every day 118 more patients are added to that waiting list.

The limbo of “not yet” is a day-to-day struggle for survival, a week-to-week effort to maintain some semblance of the everyday-ness that the rest of us take for granted. Waiting might mean hours, days, even years, attached to a dialysis machine. Or being out of breath every moment of every day. Or not being able to work. Or not eating ? ever.

For a child, waiting can mean never running and playing with friends. Waiting often means isolation, physical and emotional pain, financial chaos, and eventually, death.

One organ and tissue donor can impact the lives of as many as 50 people. One donor can keep a family together. One donor can give a child the chance to bake cookies with her grandmother, or a father the opportunity to walk his daughter down the aisle. One donor can restore sight to two people, making it possible for a man to see his grown children for the first time, and a woman to see the springtime flowers she planted 20 years ago.

Springtime ? the season of rebirth in nature and renewed spirits in us all. Fittingly, April is federally sanctioned as National Donate Life Month, to honor those who have saved and enhanced lives through donation, and to call attention to those who are waiting. Behind every organ transplant is a compelling story of one human being?s selfless gift that ends another human being?s agonizing wait.

What are you waiting for? Are you one of the 98 percent of Americans who believe organ and tissue donation is the natural, responsible and giving thing to do? Are you one of the 66 percent who hasn?t taken the steps to commit to donation?

I urge you during National Donate Life Month to say yes to donation. Simply sign your driver?s license or donor card, and talk to your family about your decision. If we all act, we can end the waiting for the thousands of people who have, for too long, been hearing “not yet.”

Janet Jarrard is the public education/communications coordinator for Tennessee Donor Services.