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Friday, November 6, 2009 10:34 PM CST
OUR VIEW: You don't have to wear a cape to be a hero
By the JG/T-C Editorial Board
editorial@jg-tc.com
Watch your fellow drivers and citizens go about their daily lives most days, and you probably won’t see any of them wearing a big red cape.
That doesn’t mean they — and you — can’t be heroes some day, or heroes-in-waiting every day.
On Tuesday night, Eastern Illinois University hosted guest speaker Joslyn Osten, senior public education coordinator for the Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network. In addition, EIU planned organ and tissue donor registration drives Wednesday last week and coming up on Tuesday and Thursday of this week.
It’s all part of Donate Life Illinois’ 2009 Campus Challenge. EIU senior and Panhellenic President Carissa Coon is leading the local university’s efforts; her younger brother, Bill, received a heart and kidney transplant. Also taking part in the campaign is the family of recent EIU graduate Cameron Chana, who was killed in a bus accident in May.
Chana was an organ donor who saved several lives through his foresight.
Signing up is an easy thing to do. Most people can simply make their wishes known when they get or renew their driver’s license, and they should make their family members aware of their choice.
No one likes to think about their own demise, particularly if it may be in a car accident or other sudden circumstance. But should something like that happen to any of us — particularly young, healthy people — anyone can save other people’s lives by signing up as an organ donor.
It almost seems too simple to be heroic. We often think of heroism in grandiose terms: the parent who rescues a child from a burning building; the passerby who does CPR to save someone suddenly stricken; firefighters, police officers and other emergency personnel putting their lives on the line daily in dramatic ways to help others.
But organ donors are heroes, too. Plus, they potentially are not only helping strangers but also their own families and friends. Few things can ease the pain of suddenly, inexplicably losing a loved one, particularly when that precious life is a young one. Over time, however, surely the knowledge that one person saved the lives of several others and spared that many families the pain of the untimely death of a loved one can be some comfort.
We encourage everyone to become an organ and tissue donor. On your driver’s license, that little red map of the state of Illinois — with the word DONOR on it — may not quite be your red cape, but it gives any average person the chance to make something good come out of something bad that we all hope never happens.
Organ donors may not make the comic book pages in bright colors or the big screen in bright lights, but they forever live on not only in their own family and friends’ hearts, but in the grateful souls of recipients and their families. It is difficult to imagine a more amazing gift to other human beings.
— JG/T-C Editorial Board
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LIFESHARERS wrote on Nov 7, 2009 10:49 AM:
Over half of the 100,000 Americans on the national transplant waiting list will die before they get a transplant. Most of these deaths are needless. Americans bury or cremate 20,000 transplantable organs every year.
There is a simple way to put a big dent in the organ shortage give donated organs first to people who have agreed to donate their own organs when they die.
Giving organs first to organ donors will convince more people to register as organ donors. It will also make the organ allocation system fairer. People who aren't willing to share the gift of life should go to the back of the waiting list as long as there is a shortage of organs.
Anyone who wants to donate their organs to others who have agreed to donate theirs can join LifeSharers. LifeSharers is a non-profit network of organ donors who agree to offer their organs first to other organ donors when they die. Membership is free at www.lifesharers.org or by calling 1-888-ORGAN88. There is no age limit, parents can enroll their minor children, and no one is excluded due to any pre-existing medical condition. LifeSharers has over 13,000 members at this writing, including 806 members in Illinois.
Please contact me - Dave Undis, Executive Director of LifeSharers - if your readers would like to learn more about our innovative approach to increasing the number of organ donors. I can arrange interviews with some of our local members if you're interested. My email address is daveundis@lifesharers.org. My phone number is 615-351-8622. "