KWTX - iWitness

KWTX - iWitness


Organ Donations Up in 2007 Save Email Print

Austin
Reporter: Michelle Segovia
Email Address: MSegovia@txorgansharing.org
A 119 Central and South Texans gave the Gift of Life in 2007 when their family members so generously agreed to donate their loved ones’ organs.

Sixty-six percent of people living in Central and South Texas consented to donation, resulting in life-saving transplants for nearly 400 people.

Texas Organ Sharing Alliance (TOSA) is the Organ Procurement Organization for the 56 counties in Central and South Texas which includes San Antonio, Laredo, Austin, Waco, San Angelo and the Rio Grande Valley.

TOSA educates the public about the importance of organ donation and consents families for donation when their loved one has the potential to be an organ donor.

“The increase in donors is the result of a number of factors,” explained Patrick Giordano, Chief Executive Officer of TOSA. “Many hospitals have done a tremendous job of notifying us of potential donors. This allows us to send one of our staff members to the hospital in a timely manner to be able to talk with the family, answer their questions, and offer them the opportunity to donate.

However, the real heroes are the families who decided to donate while going through a very difficult time in their lives,” Giordano said. “We believe that more families are consenting to donation because the public is becoming more aware of the benefits of donation and, as a result, are more supportive of it,” he said.

Of those families consenting to donation, more than 38 percent were family initiated discussions. In other words, the family asked about organ donation for their loved one before anyone from TOSA approached them.

Even with increasing consent rates, the number of people on the waiting list continues to grow. Nationally, more than 98,900 people are awaiting a life-saving transplant. 7,400 of them live right here in Texas. If you’d like to be an organ donor, talk to your family today and indicate your wishes at www.donatelifetexas.org