Organ Donation:

Giving the Gift of Life

Registering as an organ, eye, and tissue donor means making the decision to save lives.

There are over 104,000 people in the United States waiting for a life-saving transplant. About 5,100 of those waiting live in Florida. On average, 17 people pass away every day due to the lack of organs available for transplant.

Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center works with the local organ recovery organization, LifeLink Foundation, to facilitate the donation process. In 2022, we had 26 organ donors, resulting in 70 lives saved!

During Donate Life Month, we had the opportunity to sit down with Carrie Copenhaver Ogilvie – AVP: Critical Care & Trauma Services, Sharlet Cochran – Manager: Patient Care, and Robert Myers – LifeLink Hospital Development Liaison, to discuss the importance of registering to be an organ donor.

Q: What does it mean to be an organ donor?

A: If you’re an organ donor, you are a hero. You’ve saved somebody’s life and you’ve left a lasting legacy. By saving and transforming other people’s lives, you live on in the hearts and memories of the people you saved.

Q: How many lives can one donor save?

A: One organ donor can save up to 8 lives through the recovery and transplant of their heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, pancreas, and small intestine. We also do tissue donations. Each tissue donor can impact up to 75 lives.

Q: What types of people are waiting for an organ donation?

A: Everyone from every background or community can be waiting for an organ donation. Some people end up on the waitlist because of chronic conditions, and some because of things that happened very suddenly. It impacts all people from all communities and ages and that’s why it’s so important to have donors from all backgrounds for better matching and better survival outcomes for the recipients.

Q: What makes organ donation so important?

A: When you look around at the people in your community, there are many people who have health issues that you may not even be aware of. When I think of organ donation, I think about quality-of-life improvements. It might be the gentleman who now gets to hold his grandson. It might be the father who gets to walk their daughter down the aisle when two years ago during her engagement, he didn’t think he’d be able to because his time was slipping away.

Q: How is registering online to be a donor different from registering at the DMV?

A: Registering online and at the Department of Motor Vehicles feed into the same registry. When LifeLink gets a referral from the hospital, we check the registry to see if someone is a registered organ donor. The vast majority of people do register at the DMV, where it gets put on their license. For people who want to add themselves to the registry, there’s no need to wait until the next time you go to the DMV.

Q: How can I register to become an organ donor?

A: To register as an organ, eye, and tissue donor, visit RegisterMe.org!

Organ Donation:

Giving the Gift of Life

Registering as an organ, eye, and tissue donor means making the decision to save lives.

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