Editorial

Have a heart — become an organ donor this Valentine’s Day

Posted

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there are more than 119,000 men, women and children on the national waiting list for organ donations.

Even more sobering, 22 of them die each day while waiting for transplants.

Statistics like these should elevate National Organ Donor Day from the ranks of arbitrary, often corporate-minded “holidays” to near the front of our national consciousness. The holiday, created in 1998 by HHS, Saturn and the United Auto Workers, falls on Valentine’s Day.

In addition to statistics provided by HHS, we at the Herald saw a powerful reminder of just how big a difference one person’s choice can make when Ken Abbott, a longtime coach and science teacher in the Bellmore-Merrick Central School District, wrote to us last month.

Abbott, who suffered from heart disease and was unsure how long he had to live, received a New Year’s “gift of life,” the donation of a new and healthy heart, and found himself watching the Times Square ball drop while recuperating in his hospital bed and Facetiming with his family.

“I was not the only individual who was blessed that evening because a caring individual checked off a box that they would be willing to become an organ donor,” Abbott wrote. “Several other people waiting for transplants had their wishes fulfilled by the sacrifice made by another family who allowed the tragedy of the loss of a loved one to grow into the ultimate gift of life and survival for several others.”

Only three of every 1,000 people who die do so in a way that allows for organ donation, and according to HHS, only 48 percent of U.S. adults are registered as donors, although 95 percent support the initiative.

Visit www.organdonor.gov to learn more and to register as a donor, and keep in mind that a single donor can save up to eight lives with his or her healthy heart, lungs, liver, pancreas, kidney and intestines.

This Valentine’s Day, while remembering to treat your significant other, make a commitment to offer an even bigger gift: the gift of life.