HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — According to the American Society of Transplantation, April is National Donate Life Month which aims to spread awareness about organ, eye and tissue donation while also honor those who have saved lives through the gift of donation.
Ann Rayburn is the Director of Education for the Birmingham nonprofit Legacy of Hope which works with families whose loved ones have lived their life and now have an opportunity to donate. This is something Rayburn has firsthand experience with. "I actually had an opportunity to donate a kidney to a friend of mine. Some people are able to donate a lobe of their liver, but by far, because most of us are born with two kidneys and oftentimes only need one, then we can share that other kidney with somebody else. Nationally, we have about 104,000 people waiting for an organ transplant. And in Alabama, that number is about 1200. So that's a significant number of people that are in need of a lifesaving organ."
Heart transplant recipient Bob Boyer is one of those beneficiates who received his life saving organ 12 years ago. "I had a what they call a windowmaker heart attack in August of 2011. The heart attack damage the left side of my heart so much that the right side was beating way too fast for it. So they said, yes, you need a heart transplant."
From there, Boyer was placed on a waiting list. "When they finally put me on the list, they found a heart. Four hours later, it is still some sort of strange record at UAB to this day, and it was a perfect match."
Typically, it can sometimes take weeks or even months to receive an organ donor. "My donor's mom was able to put two and two together. And one day the phone rang here at the tv station and it was my donor's mom."
Although April is a month dedicated to spreading awareness about donating life, Boyer stresses that it's never too late. "When the calendar turns over to May 1, it doesn't mean you can't still be an organ donor. it's a year round thing and it's a constant need."