LANSING, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Every year on April 5th, Living Donor Day is celebrated during National Donate Life Month to honor living organ and tissue donors who have saved the lives of others. Donate Life America (DLA) reports that there are more than 100,000 people waiting for lifesaving organ transplants and that every nine seconds, another person is added to the national transplant waiting list.

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The non-profit organization DLA is committed to increasing the number of lives saved and healed through organ, eye and tissue donation. Their statistics say that 6,000 people in the United States died in 2021 while on the transplant waiting list and that more than 85% of patients are waiting for a kidney.

At the Gift of Life Michigan website, they report that there are more than 2,500 patients waiting for an organ transplant in the state. Approximately 95% of organ donor registrations in Michigan are made through the Secretary of State’s Organ Donor Registry and more than 4.5 million Michiganders are already registered as organ donors. More than 9,000 Michigan patients received a life-saving organ transplant in the past 10 years through Gift of Life, the state’s federally designated organ and tissue recovery program.

 Thankfully, the death of an individual is not the only way a life-saving donation can be facilitated. In 2022, 6,465 lives were saved in the United States through the generosity of living donors.

Most living donors are kidney donors – or partial liver donors. Kidney and liver transplant candidates who are able to receive a living donor transplant can receive the best quality organ much sooner, often in less than a year. Living donors can also donate birth tissue. Birth tissue is gestational tissue that can be donated after the delivery of a living newborn. Donated birth tissue is often used in reconstructive procedures to promote healing, and to treat burns and painful wounds. Birth tissue does not impact the health of the mom or the baby. Donated birth tissue can include placenta, amniotic fluid, and umbilical cord tissue.

Gift of Life also says that a living lung donor can donate a lobe of their lung to someone in need of a transplant. Although the lung doesn’t regenerate like the liver, both the donated and remaining portions of the lung can stay fully functional.

In 2013, at the age of 18, Nathan Hynek was able to extend his aunt’s life by five years because he decided to be a living donor for her kidney transplant. Hynek spoke to News/Talk 95.3 in February about the donation. He said, “I felt it was my duty…I was the only one in the family who was a match.”

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Even though his aunt, Jackie Kray, died five years after the operation, Hynek has no regrets. He said he rarely thinks about the pain after donating. He goes on to say, “What I do think about is all the time I got to spend with her after the donation. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

He continued, “If you’re capable to donate, why not? It’s only a few weeks of being down and recovering…You only have one life to live. But so do they.”

Although Hynek and Kray were related, living donors don’t have to be related to their recipients and on average, one in four living donors are not biologically related to the recipient.

Hynek’s donation is what is called a direct donation which is where the living donor names the specific person to receive the transplant. In non-directed donation, the living donor does not name the specific person to receive transplant. The match is determined based on medical compatibility with a patient on the national transplant waiting list. The living donor and recipient may meet at some time, if they both agree, and depending on transplant hospital policy and guidance.

DLA says that a living donation saves two lives – the recipient and the next one on the deceased organ waiting list. Patients who receive a living donor transplant are removed from the national transplant waiting list, making the gift of a deceased donor kidney or liver available to someone else. A living donor is an option for patients who otherwise may face a lengthy wait for an organ from a deceased donor. To spare an individual a long and uncertain wait, relatives, loved ones, friends, and even individuals who wish to remain anonymous may serve as living donors.

Living donors should be in good overall physical and mental health and older than 18 years of age. It is important to be fully informed of the known risks involved with donating and complete a full medical and psychosocial evaluation. Living donation is a major surgery, and all potential complications of major surgery apply. The decision to donate should be completely voluntary and free of pressure or guilt, and donors can delay or stop the process at any time.

For more information on how to start the process of becoming a living donor, contact a living donor transplant program in your area. You can find contact information for living donor transplant programs and other helpful patient information at UNOS TransplantLiving.org.

In 2022, The DLA also launched their National Donate Life Living Donor Registry in 2022, a national-reaching living donor registry with the goal of reducing access barriers for prospective living donors.