National Donate Life Month

Put Your Name on Somebody’s Hero List

Across the country, 17 people die each day waiting for a transplant. And, every eight minutes, an individual is added to the transplant list ‒ there are currently more than 100,000 patients on that list.

When we treat a patient awaiting a transplant, there is only so much we can do as clinicians. Almost all of us, however, can be a part of the solution.

April is National Donate Life Month, an awareness month set aside to remind us that giving the gift of life is in our hands ‒ well, more realistically, in our kidneys, liver, heart and lungs.

An impressive 170 million people have registered to be donors at the end of life to help others ‒ but that’s not enough. The variations in genetics that make us all different require an even larger pool of donors to help reduce that transplant waiting list and make a dent in that 17 deaths-per-day statistic.

If you haven’t already signed up, consider giving the gift of life as an organ donor. When you register to be a donor, appropriate organs are surgically removed from your body shortly after your life has concluded and carefully transported to hospitals where recipients can utilize them to sustain their own lives. According to the Health Resources and Services Administration, your donation can save up to eight lives and enhance 75 more.

Signing up as an organ donor is a relatively easy process. There are three ways to register:

• Sign up online at yesidaho.org. You may need your driver’s license/ID number to fill out a form.
• Visit your local motor vehicle office.
• Sign up through the Health app on your iPhone. Your information is sent to a national computer system.

The good news is that more than 46,000 transplants were performed in 2023 and more than 1 million recipients are alive today because of a transplant. The better news is that your addition to the list of donors will help increase the number of transplants, the lives saved and the dreams realized.

If you have a question about becoming an organ donor, contact your primary care provider.