Organ Donation Milestones

Milestones are reached every day and organ donation is no exception. The year 2016 was a big year for organ donation with the all-time high of 33,600 organ transplants being performed. This continues a 4-year increasing trend for transplants. This is primarily due to the 6-year increasing streak for the number of organ donors. More and more people are choosing to donate their organs as they recognize the everlasting benefit that the gift of donation provides to the more than 120,000 people waiting for a transplant in the United States.

Milestones for Donation

Another huge milestone for organ donation is that the number of Americans registered to donate their organs increased beyond 134 million people, which is equal to more than half of the American adult population. These increases are primarily due to education about the benefits of organ donation and increased availability to sign up for it. Advocates are spreading the message and enabling people to sign up for organ donation in convenient locations such as the DMV, social media, specific events for organ donation, and even on a smartphone.

Here are some other noteworthy milestones:

• The first successful kidney transplant was performed in 1954.
• In 1986, the first successful double lung transplant was performed.
• As the number of donors increase, each year can see thousands of people live longer and better lives.
• Cyclosporine, an immunosuppressant drug used to help increase survival rate, was approved in November of 1983 for commercial use.

Benefits of Organ Donation

A single donor can save up to eight lives depending on which organs can be used for transplant. People are constantly added to the transplant list and, unfortunately, an estimated 22 people per day die while waiting for a life-saving transplant. It is free to donate your organs and it is most often not even considered until an individual has been declared dead.

A common myth is that if you’re a donor, the doctors won’t try as hard to save your life if you need treatment, but this goes against everything the doctors try to do. Every contribution changes someone’s life. This is a gift that is free to give and the value of life cannot be assigned a monetary value.

Breathe for Charles encourages you to consider the benefits of organ donation and how you can change others’ lives in the most selfless way. We make it easy to pledge and sign up to become an organ donor so you can help save lives.

Sign up today!