OKLAHOMA CITY –
In recognition of National Donate Life Month, Oklahoma health professionals are focusing on the critical impact of organ and tissue donation.
News 9 spoke to Dr. Paolo Martins and Clint Hostetler of the OU Health Transplant Institute to learn more about the current need for donors and the importance of communicating one’s wishes to family members.
How great is the need right now for organ donation?
Martins: So, the need is huge. There are, in the United States, 108,000 people on the wait list for an organ transplant, and a lot of people waiting for tissue or transplants. In Oklahoma itself, there are more than 800 people waiting for an organ.
Today?
Martins: Yes. And as a matter of fact, about 17 people die every day waiting for an organ, and there are many people waiting for tissues as well.
It’s important to communicate your wishes with your family, isn’t it?
Martins: Definitely. The first thing people who are interested in donation is to talk to their families. There are also other ways to register. You can say yes at the DMV office. You can also go to organdonor.gov and liveshareok.org and register as a donor, but it’s crucial to talk to your family.
How important is this decision, not only for yourself, but for those who could potentially receive that life-saving care?
Hostetler: Yeah, that’s a good question. At the end of our lives, if we’ve made that decision, it could possibly impact up to eight people’s lives through organ transplantation. Just kind of depending on the health, your own health. You can also make a huge impact on people waiting for life-enhancing tissue grafts, like ACL repairs, or all those. Those all happen because of the generosity of organ and tissue donors.
Martins: You can donate corneas, bone, tendons, valves, skin. So you can benefit more than 50 people with tissue donation.
Dr. Martins, you do these operations yourself. For somebody that may not know, what do I expect if I’m waiting to receive? What is that process like?
Martins: So that’s a great question. The process is very intensive to evaluate donors. There is a whole team working to assess the quality and the quality of the donor, and also the same with the recipients. So there is a whole team that looks at the eligibility of donors and recipients, and the process is also very long. You need to do a lot of tests to make sure that it’s safe and that it will benefit those recipients.
It could be accepted or received, right?
Martins: Exactly. It’s a multidisciplinary team and it’s the decisions to accept donors and recipients. Very complex and takes a village to make that decision.
It can be so emotional for both sides of the family. Where can folks give or sign up to be an organ donor?
Hostetler: I would reinforce what Paolo said. The most common way is when you get your driver’s license renewed at the DMV, and the second most common way is to go to LifeShare’s website, lifeshareok.org, and register to your decision. Then share that decision with your family, so important.
