— Every nine minutes, a person is added to the National Transplant Waiting List, and every day, 17 people die because the organ they need is not donated in time. In Hays County, efforts are being made to encourage more residents to register as organ donors to help save lives.
04/19/2023 09:10 PM
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Author: Graphic by Barton Publications
HAYS COUNTY — Every nine minutes, a person is added to the National Transplant Waiting List, and every day, 17 people die because the organ they need is not donated in time. In Hays County, efforts are being made to encourage more residents to register as organ donors to help save lives.
During the April 11 meeting, the Hays County Commissioners Court unanimously declared April 2023 as National Donate Life Month (NDLM). NDLM is observed nationally each April as a time to bring attention to organ donation.
As of April 13, 2023, there are more than 100,000 people on the National Transplant Waiting List with more than 10,000 of them being Texans.
According to organ registry Donate Life Texas, one person who registers their intent to donate their organs, corneas and tissue could save up to eight lives through organ donation and save or heal 75 or more through tissue and eye donation. Almost every part of the body can be donated to save and heal, including the heart, lungs, liver, kidney, pancreas and small intestine for organ donation, and bone, skin, veins, ligaments and tendons, nerves and heart valves for tissue grafts.
Lemuel Bradshaw, who represented United Tissue Resources and Donate Life Texas during the meeting, is a two-time heart transplant recipient. According to Bradshaw, 14.3 million Texans have registered as organ, eye and tissue donors in the state. Within Hays County, 80% of residents are registered.
“That’s an astounding figure because that’s more as an average than even our big ‘in-the-know’ county right up the road,” Bradshaw said. “Travis County is only about 75% registered. No one can say that smaller counties don’t give donations.”
Bradshaw said that two hospitals in Hays County facilitate organ donation and that since 2021, the county has seen 17 organ donors and 57 lifesaving organs be transplanted in that time. He also added that whenever an organ can’t be transplanted — for example, due to damage sustained during the incident that caused someone to become a donor — it’s still used for research to further the cause of donation. From those 17 organ donors, 16 organs went to research.
Additionally, 27 people from the county became tissue donors and 827 tissue grafts have been made available.
“We help people get their lives restored, not only saving their lives but making their life worth living,” Bradshaw said.
For Bradshaw, his advocacy for donation comes from his personal experiences. In the time since his second heart transplant a few years ago, he is now expecting his tenth grandchild — his previous nine grandchildren weren’t yet born before the transplant.
“Had someone not made the decision to register and made that consideration, I would never have gotten to see them,” Bradshaw said. “The reason I'm so passionate about this is because I am the direct beneficiary of people making the decision to register or at least considering registering … I’m still here and still standing because of two families of heroes.”
For more information or to register to become an organ donor, visit www.donatelifetexas.org.
