National Blue/Green Day is April 13th
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The Mission of the Kentucky Circuit Clerks’ Trust For Life is to inform, educate, and encourage Kentuckians to register as organ and tissue donors to save lives.
Fast Facts About Organ Donation
• You are six – twelve times more likely to need an organ transplant than you are likely to be able to donate your organs.
• Every day, 22 people die waiting for an organ transplant.
• In Kentucky, nearly 1000 people and in the United States, 120,000 people are waiting for an organ transplant. They are all ages!
• Most of the people who join the registry (99%) do so at the circuit clerk’s office when they get their license or ID.
• The oldest organ donor in Kentucky was 84. She saved three people!
• The oldest organ donor in the United States was 93 and saved one person!
• The oldest tissue donor in the US was 107 and gave 2 people sight!
• ANYONE & EVERYONE can join the registry regardless of age or medical condition.
Please do not rule yourself out for age or any medical issue or condition. At the time of death, donation professionals determine whether an organ donation is a possibility. Drug users, cancer patients, people with hepatitis. ANYONE. As long as you have a valid driver’s license or a state ID #, you can join the registry and be HOPE.
• One organ donor can save 8 lives and enhance the quality of life for up to 50 or more individuals with tissues and bone donation. Organs that can be donated for transplantation include the heart, lungs, kidneys, liver, pancreas and intestine. Tissues that can be donated include corneas, bone, tendon, skin, cartilage, ligaments, veins, and heart valves. Living donor kidneys are highly successful transplants.
• All major world religions encourage or support organ donation.
• There is no cost to the donor’s family for organ, eye and tissue donation. All costs related to donation are paid by the donation agency. Expenses related to saving the individual’s life and funeral expenses remain the responsibility of the donor’s family.
• An open casket funeral is possible for organ, eye and tissue donors. Throughout the entire donation process, the body is treated with care, respect and dignity.
• Hospital and emergency personnel are only concerned with saving your life. They do not have access to the confidential donor registry database to even check for donor registration, nor do they make the determination as to whether someone is able to donate.
The medical team at your hospital will assess for donation suitability only after all life saving measures and treatments have been given,
• Ethnic minorities are in desperate need of more organ, eye and tissue donors because they represent over 56% of the national organ transplant waiting list, but make up only 30% of registered donors. Although organs are not matched according to race/ethnicity and people of different races frequently match one another, all individuals waiting for an organ transplant will have a better chance of receiving one if there are large numbers of donors from their racial ethnic background. This is because compatible blood types and tissue markers – critical qualities for donor/recipient matching – are more likely to be found among members of the same ethnicity. A greater diversity of donors may potentially increase access to transplantation for everyone.
• Registering as a donor saves your family from making such a difficult decision while they are grieving the loss of a loved one. Please have a conversation about your wishes.
Obtain more in formation and Join the Registry today at either of these sites: www.trustforlife.org (TFL) www.donatelife.org www.kodaorgan.org 1(866)945-5433 Like & follow us on facebook & Twitter & Instagram
If you have been touched by donation/ transplantation, please share your story for hope and encouragement to so many others at our www.trustforlife.org “share your story” link.
