A regional organ and tissue donation group meets people where they are and shows they are there to stay during national donate month.
Gift of Hope, an organ and tissue donation organization, serves Northwest Indiana and the northern three-quarters of Illinois. During April’s National Donate Life Month [NDLM], donation advocacy and education take a backseat.
“Every day, we’re educating people, but in April, we’re not just educating them,” said Shadaye Hunnicutt, Gift of Hope’s Peoria area senior community outreach specialist. “We’re also celebrating the lives that were lost and the hope that was given to those that they were able to donate to.”
On average, over 100,000 people in the United States need an organ transplant, according to Gift of Hope's website. One person’s organ donation can save up to eight lives, and their tissue donation can help 75 or more people.
Donatable organs include the heart, lungs, pancreas, liver, kidneys and small intestine. Transferable tissues are bones, skin, veins, heart valves, ligaments, tendons and corneas. More than 85% of people in need of life-saving organ donation need kidneys.
Celebrated since 2003, NDLM sees multiple events held throughout the country: Flag raising ceremonies, Transplant Week, Volunteer Appreciation Week, honoring healthcare teams, written messages of hope, and, in Peoria’s case for the past five years, lighting up the Murray Baker Bridge in purple from April 16-23 to remember those who donated.
Raising awareness
The first successful organ and tissue transplants date back to 1954 and 1869 respectively, but despite their long history, there are still plenty of fallacies and stigmas about the process.
“One of the most common misconceptions,” said Hunnicutt, “is that people are concerned that if they’re registered as a donor then the doctors won’t try as hard to save their lives if they do get into an accident or have a life-threatening illness, and that is 100 percent false.”
Hunnicutt remembered one donor father’s story about the doctors who operated on his son for four-and-a-half hours before declaring the son brain dead.
People also worry that their religion will not support organ donation. Gift of Hope has found that most major U.S. religions support donation as a final compassionate act.
Hunnicutt said compassion is a major motivational tool for registering minority communities, who are less likely to be donors.
“It’s education and compassion, and meeting people where they are to help build the trust in the healthcare system that is so needed so that those communities feel more at ease about making the decision to register and then also have those conversations within their families about donation,” she said.
While there are many events geared toward those minority communities, Hunnicutt personally believes the healthcare field needs to do more to reach them. She said it is not just about suggesting registration but also building trust. With trust comes more families discussing, donating and asking questions about it.
Hunnicutt does not have the magic answer to gain that trust, but what she does is work with Peoria-area churches to provide items like backpacks and coats during back-to-school or winter coat drives. It fills an immediate community need and allows Hunnicutt to talk about donation.
They are opportunities that allow them to “have a meaningful conversation that gets people thinking,” Hunnicutt said. “The more that they see us out in their own communities the more trust we’ll build through that.”
People must die in a hospital setting for their organs and tissue to be donated, but there is no minimum or maximum age. Anyone 18 years old and up can register. If younger, the ultimate decision is the parent’s or guardian’s, though at 16, someone can register their intent to be a donor.
“We always tell people if their intent is to be an organ donor, register as an organ donor and let the doctors figure out what’s able to be donated," Hunnicutt said. "You never know."
"I get the question," said Hunnicutt, "'I’m too old to donate' or 'I had this illness' or 'I have diabetes. Can I still be an organ donor?' And, yes. There are very few things that actually prevent people from being organ donors.”
Donor registration takes only a couple minutes and a person’s ID does not need to be updated for a hospital to know they are a donor.
For more information about organ and tissue donation, including how it helps others and how to become a donor, visit Gift of Hope’s website or call them at 630-758-2600.
