‘The need is overwhelming’: Doctors plead for more donors during National Donate Life Month
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – April is National Donate Life Month and doctors are working to raise awareness of the growing need for donors.
More than 100,000 Americans are currently in need of an organ transplant and doctors say the waiting list is growing by the hour. A new name is added to the list every eight minutes. Eighty-six percent of those in line need a kidney, while 10 percent are waiting on a liver.
Sadly, not every patient will survive the wait. Six thousand people in the U.S. die every year waiting for a transplant.
“The need is overwhelming,” said Dr. Kiran Dhanireddy, the Vice-President of Tampa General Hospital’s Transplant Institute. “There’s about 6,000 patients in Florida awaiting transplantation and the only way we get to save their lives is through the generous gift of organ donation.”
The need for those donations is felt around the clock at TGH. Last year, Tampa General performed the fourth-highest number of organ transplants in the nation, with 756 transplants. The hospital is on track to do even more this year, thanks in part to cutting-edge capabilities.
“We’re using innovative new technologies of organ profusion, where we actually pump blood through organs, we preserve organs in a way that allows us to use more marginal organs from medically complex donors and then get to transplant to more patients in our community,” Dr. Dhanireddy said.
Doctors are encouraging everyone to consider becoming a registered organ donor. One single tissue donor can help more than 75 people.
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