UF and Shands recognize National Donate Life Month during April
Employees and public encouraged to “Rock the Registry” and sign up as donors
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 29, 2011)–The nation’s organ and tissue donation and transplantation community recognizes National Donate Life Month as a time to focus on the critical need for lifesaving organ donors.
LifeQuest Organ Recovery Services, the federally-designated organ donor program serving northern Florida; Shands at the University of Florida; and the UF Health Science Center teams are encouraging Floridians to learn the facts about organ and tissue donation and to join Florida’s donor registry at http://donateLifeFlorida.org.
“More than 3,900 patients are on the waiting list at transplant centers in Florida,” said Danielle Cornell, LifeQuest executive director, “and each one is waiting for the gift of life. By documenting our decisions to become donors on Florida’s registry, we are making a commitment to help save lives.”
In 2010, more than 28,000 patients nationally received life-saving organ transplants, 1,900 of whom were transplanted at Florida centers. There are 110,000 patients on the national organ transplant waiting list, a list that grows by 18 patients a day.
“The most important thing we can do to increase donation is to document our decisions by joining the donor registry,” Cornell said. “In less than one minute, you can make a decision that could save someone’s life.”
To help increase registry enrollment, LifeQuest, Shands and the University of Florida Health Science Center teams in Gainesville and Jacksonville have launched an employee campaign called “Rock the Registry” to encourage employees, volunteers and staff and faculty to join the registry. Shands at UF and Shands Jacksonville will challenge each other to see which campus can enroll more individuals on the Florida donor registry. Anyone wishing to support the campaign can indicate their preferred workplace by clicking on the name in the “Hear About Us” drop-down menu on the registration site.
Additional promotions include raising the Donate Life Flag and having donor registration set up in the hospital’s atrium throughout the month.
For more information about organ and tissue donation or to register your wishes to become a life-saving donor, visit http://donatelifeflorida.org.
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