Transplant Headlines

These selected headlines show that the organ donation message is being given a big boost by college students.

Increasing Organ Donations Among NYC Minorities Goal of Study
The University at Buffalo has posted the following press release:
"BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A study aimed at increasing the number of African-American, Hispanic and Asian registered organ donors in New York City and focusing on college students is underway and headed by a researcher at the University at Buffalo.

New York City has one of the largest concentrations of racial minorities in the U.S., and consistently lags behind national consent and recovery rates for organ transplantation.

Of the 97,000 people waiting for organ transplants in the U.S., 43 percent are African-American or Hispanic. Increasing kidney donations is particularly important in these populations, as African-Americans and Hispanics are at increased risk of kidney disease." For the full press release click here.

WKU Students and Faculty Recruit Organ Donors
Bowling Green Kentucky - TV station WBKO's web site posts an article about Tiffany James who lost her mother in a car accident when Tiffany was 16. The family decided to donate her mother's organs and since then Tiffany is now an advocate for organ donation awareness. The article also talks about other donor families who have met some of the recipients of their loved one's organs. Read this heartwarming story.

UK, U of L compete for organ donors
Here's more organ donation news from Kentucky in this posting on the University of Kentucky's "The Kentucky Kernel". "If UK and the University of Louisville did not have enough sports rivalries, a different competition has risen - one that could save hundreds of lives.

The two schools have joined with the Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates for its annual UK-U?of?L Gift of Life Challenge, which will run until the end of December. The school with the winning number of registered organ donors will receive a trophy at the UK-U?of?L basketball game Jan. 5.

In its seventh year, the Gift of Life Challenge was created to raise awareness on organ and tissue donation. Keeping college students in mind, KODA created a new donor registration procedure for students."

"We decided there needed to be a faster way to register, and also a registry that was in an actual system for verification," said Charlotte Long, public coordinator for KODA.

"In previous years, an organ donor was signified as having a drivers license with an orange sticker," she said. "There was no documentation of the agreement, and in many cases, an organ donor was disregarded because the license was not present."

Long and her colleagues devised an online registry Donate Life Ky where people can access donation forms. Students who want to become an organ and tissue donor can fill out an online form at that Web site. To become an organ and tissue donor and contribute to the competition, students can fill out an online form and select "University of Kentucky - Gift of Life Challenge" under the reasons to become a donor. Read the full article.