For the 11th consecutive year, the United States performed more organ transplants than any other country, with more than 39,000 transplants conducted in 2023. Yet while 95 percent of Americans support organ donation, only 58 percent are registered donors. April is National Donate Life Month, and it’s an opportunity to recognize the precedence organ donors have and the lives saved and healed through their contributions.
Tower Health and Reading Hospital work to continually educate our teams and community members about the impact of organ donation and I’m proud of the effort we put forth in this endeavor. We strive to support donations through internal training, coordination meetings, campaigns, community events, and communications.
At Reading Hospital our month is full of Donate Life activities to celebrate our commitment to building awareness and support for organ donation. We recently held a flag-raising ceremony where we raised the "2024 Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP) Donate Life Challenge" flag. We also had a National Blue & Green Day event, where staff dressed accordingly while providing potential donors with more information. Events like these are the key to educating and encouraging more people to register.
In the U.S., 17 people die every day while waiting for life-saving organ transplants, but one donor can save up to eight lives and enhance up to 100 others. By being an organ donor, and talking to your loved ones about organ donation, you have the power to provide a fundamental gift of life to those in need.
This selfless act saves and helps others, resulting in an immeasurable impact. Unfortunately, the demand surpasses the number of donors available, and the shortage has become an urgent public health issue. Organ donation is only possible in approximately two percent of cases when patients pass away.
Understanding the donation process can help increase the amount of organ donors. Reading Hospital works with Gift of Life by contacting them whenever a patient's death occurs. Our doctors are experts at determining when there may be a possibility of organ donation. They conduct a series of tests that help them ascertain if the patient meets brain death criteria, or they can begin the process when a family decides to withdraw from treatment. Brain death occurs due to a complete and irreversible loss of all brain function and the individual has been declared legally dead. Gift of Life will then evaluate the patient and work with their medical team to verify their donor status.
The donor’s family is supported throughout the process by our staff and the Gift of Life transplant coordinator. They receive full information about the power of their donation decision, answers to commonly asked questions, and any questions the family may have.
The reason for needing a transplant varies, and those waiting on the transplant list are both adults and children. In fact, in our region alone, more than 5,000 people wait for a transplant. The organ transplant list sorts individuals by their medical urgency, degree of match to the donor, time on the waiting list, and geographical location. Race, gender, age, income, or social status do not factor into the decision.
The Gift of Life program has always been important to me, as I am a donor myself. When the annual Donate Life Pennsylvania Hospital Challenge begins each April, I am always optimistic about the lives our community will save, and I feel proud. I am passionate about this program and am honored to be a part of a team that prioritizes organ donation. Now that I serve on the National Gift of Life Medical Advisory and Policy Board, I am eager to use this opportunity to help make meaningful change. It is a privilege to be a part of an organization that has coordinated more donors and organs for transplant than any other U.S. Organ Procurement Organization (OPO) since the inception of the national donation system in 1988.
This year, I invite you to use April as an opportunity to sign up to be a donor. The process takes 30 seconds, but there is no measure of how your decision can enhance, and even save, another’s life.