Organ Procurement And Transplantation Network - 2065 Words

How do you like to wait for something you really want? What if it was something you just couldn’t live without? What if your doctor told you that your time was limited to less than six months, unless a compatible donor came along? This is what many people go through every day. They are put in the â€Å"National Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network or OPTN† which is the transplant waiting list (Tara.B). Organs that become available through the OPTN are matched with the recipients. Here is where most of the people will wait months, years, or even the remainder of their life for a compatible donor to become available. When there is a potential donor there is a small window to make the miracle happen. Many people will receive a call†¦show more content†¦Your age doesn’t make you ineligible to donate and you don’t have to be in perfect health like many people think. This means almost everyone is able to be an organ donor. In the end your ability to donate is determined at the time of your passing. That doesn’t mean that you cannot register as a donor right now. There are more than enough people on the transplant list to fill a stadium more than twice. So, someone you know could be on the transplant list, waiting for a new organ. On average there are â€Å"†¦ 79 people that will receive a new organ daily and on average 22 people die each day in hopes of receiving a new organ† (Gonzalez). Every number in these statistics represents a someone important to you, someone important to someone else or maybe even yourself. Each number is life. â€Å"†¦ the number of patients waiting for organ donation far exceeds the number of potential and available donors† (Berntzen). The first organ transplant was a kidney in 1954 and was between identical twins. As of May 2009, the percent of recipients still living after 5 years of receiving their new organs is astonishing: â€Å"95% for kidn ey, 85% for heart and liver, 75% for lungs† (BCW). â€Å"The high success rates of transplantation make the shortage of organs and tissues all the more tragic† (BloodCenter). The most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed there were 2.5 million deaths in the