Organ Donors Help Make A Difference

Letters to the Editor
Published: March 6, 2008

To the Editor:
I would like to take this opportunity to help raise awareness of the importance of organ donations.  Many lives are saved by organ donors.  I know, because it saved my life.

I am the very fortunate recipient of a much-needed liver.  At 47 years old my liver was not working well at all.  I was very sick and needed a transplant.  On May 4, 2007, at the University of Virginia Medical Center, a wonderful team of doctors and nurses performed a liver transplant.  It saved my life.  Through the generosity of someone who was a donor, I was given a second chance at life.  For that I am very thankful.

Many people are on waiting lists not only in Virginia but all over the country.  Transplants are done daily.  Yet some people are not able to be helped because of the need for available organs.  Some people do not make it because an organ does not become available in time.  This is where, as a donor, you can help.  A donor can help many people on these lists.  A donor can help save a life and give someone a second chance at life, just as it did for me.  Recently, at our church, it was announced that a four week old baby was in need of a liver transplant.

A heart, lung, kidney, liver, pancreas can be transplanted and enable someone to live a healthy, productive life.  You can help a small child, a teenager, or an adult.  You can make a difference.  You can become an organ donor by having it put on your driver’s license.  Check with your doctor’s office or local hospital.  I am certain they will be happy to help you get a card.  Make it known to family and friends that you are a donor and help them become one.  You may think you do not have organs that can help.  Let the doctors make that decision.

Help the wonderful folks at the University of Virginia Transplant Center and all the other centers around the country.  Help them do what they do best.  That is save lives and help people maintain a healthy life.  Help them help those in need.  I am very appreciative to all the folks at the University of Virginia Medical Center for everything they did for me before and after my transplant and continue to do to help me in my recovery.  Their level of care and concern for my family and me exceeds excellence.  With your help I know they will continue to help others as will other transplant centers.

I would like to say thank you to all those of you who are donors.  I ask if you are not yet a donor to please seriously consider becoming one.  Help make a difference in someone else’s life.

Bart Compton