After writing an article about a kidney transplant and how being a donor is so important, it sure got me thinking.
Since I enjoy researching things, I just had to know the statistics behind it all.
According to the United Network, a non-profit organization, 106,000 people need an organ transplant and are on the waiting list.
In this 106,000, 92,000 people, which is 87 per cent, are waiting for a kidney transplant.
Also, according to my research, this number is climbing, and it is due to people living longer, as well as obesity, diabetes and hypertension, which leads to higher rates of chronic kidney disease.
Of course, there are also people who are born with a genetic condition.
In Canada alone nearly 4,500 people are waiting for an organ donor and sadly many of these people who are on the waiting list will pass away before they are given the gift of life from another person.
For a while many people were signing their donor cards after the tragic Humboldt Broncos bus crash, when one young player gave life to several people by donating his organs before his tragic, untimely death.
But now, some years later, apparently being a donor is declining and this is putting many people on the already long wait list, which continues to grow.
Why is there a decline? Is it that people are not as healthy these days? Are they afraid to donate?
A person needs to be in good health to go on a donor list, which makes sense. We can not be giving an already unhealthy person another issue.
Signing our donor card is pretty simple. It even shows on the back of our health card. After all, once we are gone, we do not have a need for our healthy organs.
Is it the thought behind it, that someone takes our organs? I know that our family has signed their cards and it still is kind of scary.
Maybe it would be harder for the people left behind knowing a loved one has donated an organ to help another.
We could think of it in this manner. It would be a great way to have our loved ones live on, in another human, by giving them life.
That is the way I chose to think about it. Would it not be great to know you saved a life?
Just think about all the lives we could save with that selfless act.
In Canada each year, there are 1,768 fatalities due to car accidents.
A single organ donor can save up to eight people. Eye and tissue donors can improve the lives of up to 75 patients.
If all these people had signed their organ donor card, they could have saved 14,144 people. There no longer would be a shortage and the waiting list would go down significantly.
You are six times more likely to need an organ transplant than to become an organ donor. Now, think about that.
There is a short window after someone passes for their organs to be donated and time is of the essence.
A person can be a live donor as well. A person can live a healthy life with one kidney and there are many that need one.
Being a blood donor is also important, especially if your blood type is rare.
It is all in saving another person’s life, and I for one would think that the people who have donated in any way to save another person’s life are heroes.
Would we not try and save a person from a burning house, or a car crash? Then why would we not do it through being an organ donor?
My card is signed. Is yours?
