Organ Donation - Are you IN or OUT?
Organ donation – Have you thought about it? If you have, that’s great! If not, well here are some interesting facts for you to ‘mull over’:
- One organ and tissue donor can save up to 10 lives
- Around 1,500 Australians are on the Organ Transplant waiting list at any one time
- Australians die everyday ‘waiting’ for a suitable organ to become available
- Every family who is offered the opportunity of donation is able to receive dedicated support from DonateLife Donor Family Support Coordinators, whether or not donation proceeds
These are just ‘some’ of the statistics gathered from http://www.donatelife.gov.au/discover/facts-and-statistics on organ donation in Australia.
If you have decided that YES you do want to be an organ and tissue donor that is amazing! You are even going to go to the extra effort to register your intention on the ‘Australian Organ Donor Register’ (http://www.donatelife.gov.au/decide).
However, have you sat down and had this conversation with your family and even close friends? Are they very well aware of your wishes should anything happen to you? I know it’s a little bit of a somber topic to talk about, but if you answered ‘no’ to this question, then all your effort is almost a waste of time. ‘Why?’ At the end of the day, in the event that you can donate your organs and tissues successfully your family has the final say, it is their decision. If they are unaware of your wishes, then they will have an extremely tough time deciding on what to do. Making a decision like that whilst dealing with trauma and grief is a lot of stress to put on a family. That is why is more important than ever to make your wishes known to your family and loved ones as soon as possible.
Now I have had the pleasure of teaching a unit on organ donation to my Senior Health class. There were 30 of us in the room in total. So statistically, if each and every single one of us were an organ donor, in that room alone, we had the capability to give up to 300 people a second chance at life! It was an empowering concept and I could see the eyes of my students light up with this sense of supremacy. I like to think of this as a ripple effect. If those 30 people convinced people they knew to ponder organ donation and have that discussion with their family, the number of people who can be given the gift of life will grow exponentially! Alone, we cannot achieve much, but together we can accomplish greatness!
