HARLINGEN — Donate life.
One deceased body can save eight lives if its previous occupant donates his organs. And organs can include eyes, tissues, and bones, as well as liver, kidneys, heart and lungs.
April is National Donate Life Month, and Valley Baptist Medical Center is holding events to create more awareness and sign people up.
“This week we’ve got, from 9 a.m. to 12 in the East and South Tower, we bought gifts, we bought all kinds of promotional items,” said Dawn Rodriguez, clinical educator of perioperative services at Valley Baptist – Harlingen.
“Friday (April 16) is National Blue and Green Day,” she said. “Those are the colors of donate life.”
Valley Baptist Health System has been nationally recognized for its efforts to restore life and sight to local residents by promoting organ donation.
The Platinum Recognition from the Health Resources & Services Administration, as part of the National Organ Donation Campaign and Workplace Partnership for Life, is a culmination of hours of dedication and teamwork at both Valley Baptist-Brownsville and Valley Baptist-Harlingen, said Matt Lynch, communications manager.
Valley Baptist-Harlingen has received Platinum Recognition each year since 2016, while Valley Baptist-Brownsville has been a Platinum Recognition recipient since 2015.
Dr. Vijian Dhevan, chair of the Donation Committee at Valley Baptist-Harlingen, said the hospital has an entire team at work to promote organ donation efforts.
“Every donor can save eight lives and enhance the lives of 75 others through eye and tissue donation,” Dhevan said. “Being a registered donor brings hope to those who continue to wait for a life-saving transplant.”
By far the organ in most demand in the Valley is the kidney, Rodriguez said.
“We have a large population with diabetes down here,” she said. “Unfortunately, one of the things that comes from that is kidney failure. Really truly in the Valley it’s kind of heavy, the kidneys. And the beauty of that is when one person is a donor you can get two kidneys out of that. So you can save two people’s lives.”
At least 80 percent of all patients in the U.S. waiting for an organ transplant need a kidney, said Edwina Garza, senior communications coordinator for Texas Organ Sharing Alliance.
“Everyone in the Valley knows someone or has a family member who has diabetes or high blood pressure,” Garza said. “Those are the two illnesses that are going to put someone on the waiting list for a kidney.”
However, what if your kidneys aren’t in very good shape? Maybe they can’t be donated, but that doesn’t mean other organs can’t be used, Rodriguez said.
“If you go to Donate Life Texas it gives you a really good synopsis of the different types of donations you can make,” she said. “You can even be very specific as to ‘I only want to donate organs and I don’t want to donate tissue or eyes,’ or, ‘I only want to donate eyes, I only want to donate my tissues or I only want to donate my heart.’”
There are many ways people can sign up to donate their organs, Garza said.
“The most common way in Texas for people to sign up is when they get their driver’s license,” she said. “Department of Public Safety is our greatest partner. They help to register about 100,000 people every single month.”
People can also register when they obtain their car titles. Or just sign up online at www.tosa1.org or www.donatelifetexas.org.
And what if you have an illness that makes it impossible to utilize your organs for a prospective recipient? Just donate your whole body so medical students can learn to become state-of-the-art physicians.
