Pantagraph.com | News | Organ-donor list grows to 3.2 million

Pantagraph.com | News | Organ-donor list grows to 3.2 million


Organ-donor list grows to 3.2 million
By Kartikay Mehrotra
Kartikay.Mehrotra@lee.net



SPRINGFIELD — More than 3 million people have signed up for Illinois’ 2-year-old organ and tissue donor registry.

Since the new list was created in 2006, prohibiting survivors from changing the deceased’s donor wishes, more than half of the 6 million registrants cut out from the donor program are back.

“Promoting the importance of organ and tissue donation remains a top priority of my office,” Secretary of State Jesse White said. “It is estimated the new registry saves 100 more lives annually. One single donor can save or enhance the quality of life for 25 people.”

After the new registry was implemented Jan. 1, 2006, family members of the deceased were no longer allowed to interfere with the donor process, according to Illinois statute.

Previously, the final decision remained with the person’s family.

Because of the change in the law, donors who registered before Jan.1, 2006, need to re-register with the secretary of state’s office to guarantee that their wishes to donate are fulfilled.

Before Jan. 1, 2006, about 20 percent of donor families would say no to donating their deceased relative’s organs.

For the next four years, any donor will be crosschecked on both lists. If a donor appears on the previous list but not the new, first-person consent list, their

families will be consulted before any harvesting takes place, said David Bosch, spokesman for Gift of Hope, which executes organ donation.

During its second year at work, 59 of the 268 organ donors were registered with the first-person consent registry, Bosch said.

Tissue donations were similarly proportioned: 206 of the 10,330 tissue donors came from the registry in 2007.

“This program proves that people are very caring and giving,” Bosch said. “Getting over 3 million people to register in two years is an accomplishment.”

Although 3.2 million people have signed up for the new registry, nearly 4,500 people are still waiting for organs in Illinois.

To sign up for the first-person organ/tissue registry, call the Organ and Tissue Donor Program Office at (800) 210-2106 or visit www.lifegoeson.com.