National Donate Life Month was established in 2003.
Every day in April, people across the U.S. make a special effort to celebrate
the tremendous generosity of those who have saved lives by becoming organ,
tissue, marrow, and blood donors and to encourage more Americans to follow their
fine example.
Nearly 100,000 men, women and children are waiting for
organs for transplantation in the United States (kidneys, livers, hearts, lungs,
pancreas and intestines). Click
here to learn more.
One organ donor can save up to eight lives. One tissue donor can save or improve
the quality of life for up to 50 people. But nationwide, only 59 percent of the
families asked about organ donation consent.
Each day, an average of 17 people who are waiting for organs in the United
States, die because no organs could be found for them. This means that each
year, more than 6,000 people die in the United States waiting for organ
transplants. Register to be an Organ
Donor in your state. Download RSN's
Organ Donation Fact Sheet
Don't
take your organs to heaven - heaven knows we need them here on earth.
To Remember Me
By Robert N. Test
The day will come when my body will lie upon a white sheet neatly tucked under
four corners of a mattress located in a hospital; busily occupied with the
living and the dying.
At a certain moment a doctor will determine that my brain has ceased to function
and that, for all intents and purposes, my life has stopped.
When that happens, do not attempt to instill artificial life into my body by the
use of a machine.
And don't call this my deathbed. Let it be called the bed of life, and let my
body be taken from it to help others lead fuller lives.
Give my sight to the man who has never seen a sunrise, a baby's face or love in
the eyes of a woman.
Give my heart to a person whose own heart has caused nothing but endless days of
pain.
Give my blood to the teenager who was pulled from the wreckage of his car, so
that he might live to see his grandchildren play.
Give my kidneys to the one who depends on a machine to exist from week to week.
Take my bones, every muscle, every fiber and nerve in my body and find a way to
make a crippled child walk.
Explore every corner of my brain.
Take my cells, if necessary, and let them grow so that, someday a speechless boy
will shout at the crack of a bat and a deaf girl will hear the sound of rain
against her window.
Burn what is left of me and scatter the ashes to the winds to help the flowers
grow.
If you must bury something, let it be my faults, my weakness and all prejudice
against my fellow man.
Give my sins to the devil.
Give my soul to God.
If, by chance, you wish to remember me, do it with a kind deed or word to
someone who needs you.
