My Life at 9200 rpm's: You can save up to 8 lives as an organ donor

The U. S. Department of Health & Human Services reports a good answer to the question Why Donate? The proposed answer:

"Because you may save up to 8 lives through organ                    donation and enhance many others through tissue donation.  Last year alone, organ donors made more than 28,000 transplants possible."  You can read more on the agency's website:  organdonor.gov.

Cornea and other tissue transplants helped another estimated 1-million people recover from bone damage, trauma, spinal injuries, hearing impairment and vision problems. However, thousands die yearly waiting for a donor organ that never comes in time.

I am on the heart transplant waiting list through the University of Minnesota Medical Center, having been listed on Hallowe'en 2011.
A HeartMate II LVAD gives me the chance to wait without the concern of many whose lives depend on a suitable donor organ.  


My LVAD is literally a life saver. But I am one of the grateful few with end stage congestive heart failure who can afford to wait.
Most others with end stage organ issues confront an unwelcome but inevitable consequence, death.

Based on the waiting lists and available statistics, about 79 people a day receive organ transplants in the U.S. but 18 people die every day waiting for a donor organ.  Currently there are some 116,000 people on waiting lists for various organ transplants. Some people are listed on lists at more than one transplant center, which is confusing.

Statistics are so sterile. Talking about the data, you forget that each of the numbers represents a human being.

After reviewing the website organdonor.gov, I learned some things I didn't know:  most people can donate, age is not a deterrent, most medical conditions do not disqualify a donor, and there is a need for minority donors.  

That need is caused by the greater likelihood that minority groups suffer three times as many end-stage kidney failures, which can be attributed to high blood pressure and other conditions that cause kidney damage.

Visit the website and make an informed decision to donate life.  You can register your preference for the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Wisconsin at www.donatelifemidwest.org