The number
of people waiting to receive a lifesaving organ transplant in the United
States has surpassed the unprecedented 75,000 mark.
There
are now 75,069 men, women and children on the national organ transplantation
waiting list according to the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS), which
maintains
the national Organ Procurement
and Transplantation Network (OPTN) under contract with the Health Resources
and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services.
An average
of 15 people die every day waiting for an organ that could have saved their
lives. “In a way we’ve become a victim of our own success,” explained UNOS
President
Patricia Adams, M.D. “With
the success and acceptance of organ transplantation, it has become routine
therapy for many diseases. We have the know-how to save tens of thousands
of lives. What we don’t have is enough donated organs to make it possible.”
“The magnitude
of the organ shortage is sobering,” added Adams. “Of those 75,000 people,
probably less than a third will get the transplant they need this year.”
And each year that gap widens.
A decade
ago, the difference between the number of transplants and the number of
people listed was less than 5,000. “It’s amazing that the disparity has
grown to more than 50,000 in such a short period of time,” said Walter
Graham, UNOS Executive Director, “especially since every individual has
the power to so easily do something about it. That power lies in making
the decision to give life.”
Each person
who decides to become an organ donor has the potential of saving and enhancing
up to 50 lives and taking up to eight people off the waiting list. All
it takes is
making the decision
to become an organ donor and communicating that wish to family members.
More information
on organ donation as well as downloadable organ donation cards and family
notification forms is available at www.shareyourlife.org
or by calling
1-888-355-SHARE.
UNOS,
which maintains the national OPTN under contract with the Health Resources
and Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services, brings together, medical professionals, transplant recipients
and donor families to develop organ transplantation policy. UNOS provides
the OPTN with a functional, effective management system incorporating the
UNOS Board of Directors, committees and regional membership structure to
operate OPTN elements and activities.
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Copyright
2001 by United Press International.
All
rights reserved.
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