A matter of life and death
By YADIRA SANCHEZ OLSON
You know, every day I do things like look outside my window when I wake up and thank God for another day.
But I can honestly say that I had never really thought about ever needing an organ transplant in order to live if I got into an accident or sick.
It’s not something that most people think about. It’s not pleasant.
It is something that happens all the time though. People get sick or have an accident and they die. Then what?
Take aside for a moment the scary idea that sooner or later you will die.
Now you’re left with a choice of whether you want your organs, which can do nothing else for you at that point, to go to one or more people and potentially save their life, or not.
Just the mere thought of dying is enough to make you change gears in your head and move on to other more pleasant thoughts. But if you would like to help others when you are gone, then now is the time to make that decision and discuss it with your loved ones.
That choice, if you are an adult, can only be yours. And I think it should be made clear to the people in your life so that when that time comes, they are not faced with having to discuss whether that was something you wanted or not.
Not everyone gets the chance to register in the organ donor registry in their state because not everyone has a driver’s license. And some people change their minds after getting informed and then want to be a donor, but don’t change their response from no to yes in the registry.
Take time to get educated on what being a donor means and make the choice today.
That decision could mean that a child can grow up healthy or that a mother can see her babies grow old.
That decision from someone else can also mean that you will be saved.
