Do you know what your parents want to have done with their bodies after they die?
This is the question the Oregon Donor Program wants young people to ask themselves, Executive Director Mary Jane Hunt said.
There are currently 87,000 people across the country who are on the Organ Transplant Waiting List, and every day, 17 of them die because they never received the organs they needed, ODP spokeswoman Janet Gonrowski said.
“In recognition of National Donate Life Month (April), we are trying to heighten our efforts to increase awareness about the need for organ and tissue donations,” Hunt said. The Portland-based nonprofit organization provides information about organ donation and gives materials to organizations around the state interested in getting people to be card-carrying
organ donors.
The Coalition on Donation recently released the results of a survey of 4,500 Americans that found that while 90 percent of those surveyed supported organ donation, only 34 percent knew the proper steps to become donors.
“One of the things we would like to do is expand our outreach to college students,” Hunt said.
ODP also wants to dispel any myths about doctors not saving donors because they want their
organs and donor cadavers
being used for medical research, Hunt said.
“I save lives,” Hunt said. “I got hooked when I met one of the first individuals who received a
heart transplant up at Oregon State University and met several others who were waiting. It brought home to me that it could happen to any of us.”
Hunt told Brandy Stroeder’s story. Stroeder, 19, needed a lung and liver transplant to save her life by reversing the effects of cystic fibrosis. After the Oregon Health Plan wouldn’t cover the cost of the transplant, Stroeder received a lot of publicity, and her community in Portland raised enough money to pay for the operation. However, Stroeder died in 2002 while still waiting for the organs.
In Lane County, 14,980 of the 34,131 young adults aged 18-24 with Department of Motor Vehicles identification are registered organ donors. All a person has to do when getting a new driver’s license or I.D. is answer “yes” when asked to be an organ donor, Office Coordinator for Driver Programs Renee Davis said. Countywide, 149,000 total donors are registered through the DMV.
Hunt said the driver’s license doesn’t guarantee the donation of organs. This is why, Hunt said, it is extremely important that donors make sure their family members know their wishes.
Anyone can be an organ donor, as long as he or she doesn’t have an infectious disease, Hunt said. Bone marrow, portions of the lung or liver and blood can all be donated by live donors.
Every other month the Lane Memorial Blood Bank sets up the Bloodmobile outside the EMU to collect blood donations with the help of the Student Alumni Relations Board, LMBB Community Affairs Coordinator Kristi Henderson said. The next blood drive will take place May 17 and 18.

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