Posted on: Sunday, April 10, 2005

Center stresses need for organ donors

Advertiser Staff

April is national "donate life month" and there is a significant need for organ donors in Hawai'i.

According to the Organ Donor Center of Hawaii, there were 427 people locally who were awaiting a life-saving organ in late March. Of those, 397 were waiting for a kidney and 26 for a liver. Others needed a pancreas, a kidney-pancreas transplant or a heart.

"The truth is that organ donation is the ultimate gift that you can give someone," said Darryl Ing, executive director of the Organ Donor Center of Hawaii. "When you consider that one donor can help up to 50 people, that's a pretty powerful gift."

On April 30, the center will bring donor families together to honor and remember loved ones. Families will release monarch butterflies to represent renewed life given to organ transplant recipients.

Although many Hawai'i families have embraced organ donation, the supply has not kept up with demand, Ing said. About a dozen people currently waiting for organs will die this year without a transplant.

Anyone wishing to become an organ donor should inform family members of their decision, Ing said. Although signing a donor card or including "organ donor" on a driver's license is helpful, family members will need to give consent at the time of death for a donation to occur, Ing said.

The Organ Donor Center of Hawaii, founded in 1987, is the only federally designated organ procurement organization in Hawai'i.

For information, call (877) 855-0603.