Last night I was talking to a friend who was celebrating another year of life because two years ago, she received a new set of lungs. She called it her “Breathe Day”. I congratulated her of course, and I let her know that I’m an organ donor and that it’s because of people like her I became one…so that someone else may have a second chance at life. She told me every organ donor can save up to 50 people. 50! Isn’t that amazing? How even in death, we can save others?
Precisely this Monday, Michael and I were watching a rerun of Extreme Home Makeover and they were remodeling a home for a single mother who lost her teenage son in a car accident. He was an organ donor. So before they revealed the house, they took her and her two daughter’s to her late son’s high school, and surprised her. Standing 3 feet away, was the 22 year old girl who received her son’s heart. You can imagine how emotional that was. Here was this lady, meeting this family who were saved by her son. What a bittersweet feeling.
Of course, I couldn’t help but think about me and my family. God has already decided when to take me home…and if that were to happen prematurely, I would want Michael and my daughters to meet the family who’s life I saved. I want them to be thankful for the gift of life. To thank God for this life I was able to save. And to remember, that though I’m gone, my heart, the heart God gave me, will be pounding in someone else.
So I encourage you to become an organ donor and save lives! To learn how, click Organ Donor
3 Comments
July 10, 2009 at 12:39 pm
I’m an organ donor too! :)
-nattie r.
July 10, 2009 at 2:46 pm
woo! Good job little buddy! ;)
July 11, 2009 at 10:34 am
Over half of the 102,000 Americans on the national transplant waiting list will die before they get a transplant. Most of these deaths are needless. Americans bury or cremate about 20,000 transplantable organs every year. Over 6,000 of our neighbors suffer and die needlessly every year as a result.
There is a simple way to put a big dent in the organ shortage — give organs first to people who have agreed to donate their own organs when they die.
Giving organs first to organ donors will convince more people to register as organ donors. It will also make the organ allocation system fairer. People who aren’t willing to share the gift of life should go to the back of the waiting list as long as there is a shortage of organs.
Anyone who wants to donate their organs to others who have agreed to donate theirs can join LifeSharers. LifeSharers is a non-profit network of organ donors who agree to offer their organs first to other organ donors when they die. Membership is free at http://www.lifesharers.org or by calling 1-888-ORGAN88. There is no age limit, parents can enroll their minor children, and no one is excluded due to any pre-existing medical condition.