With more than 107 thousand people in the US and more than 22 thousand people in California currently waiting for a lifesaving organ transplant, and many more waiting for a healing tissue transplant, it is important to register as an organ, eye and tissue donor to help save and heal lives with your organs and tissues, when you no longer need them.
One donor can save up to eight lives through organ donation, and heal more than 75 lives with their corneas and tissues. The opportunity to become an organ donor is actually rare, since only three out of 1,000 people who die at any moment, dies in a way that is viable for organ donation.
Other facts about being an organ donor include:
• Nationwide, 17 people die each day while waiting for a life-saving organ donation.
• In 2020, for the tenth year in a row, organ donation from deceased donors in the United States set an all-time record. A total of 12,587 people provided one or more organs to save and enhance the lives of others.
• Nearly 40,000 life-saving transplants were performed in the U.S. in 2020, more than 6 percent higher than 2019 and a milestone that has never been reached before. Still, there is much work to be done.
• Every major religion in the United States supports organ, eye and tissue donation as one of the highest expressions of compassion and generosity.
• Families of those who become donors often take comfort in knowing that their loved one’s donated organ can give someone else a second chance at life.
For more information or wanting to register, visit www.onelegacy.org/register.
