Crossville, TN • March 21, 2013-Cumberland Medical center is pleased to announce they will raise the “Donate Life Flag” during the month of April. Partnering with Donate Life Tennessee and Tennessee Donor Services, Cumberland Medical Center will join hospitals and businesses across the nation in recognizing April as National Donate Life Month. The Donate Life Flags across America program honors the hundreds of thousands of donors, donor family members and recipients symbolizing the uncountable lives touched by organ, eye and tissue donation. Organizers also hope it will motivate people to consider the benefits of organ donation and join the Donate Life Tennessee Donor Registry.
“We are pleased to join together with our hospital partners to honor those who provided the unselfish gift of life to others through donation,” Bridgette Fredenberg, Community Services Director for Tennessee Donor Services.
“One person can save or enhance the lives of over 50 individuals. Through education on organ and tissue donation we have the opportunity save more lives through transplantation.”
In 2012, 426 Tennesseans gave the gift of life, resulting in 738 lives being saved. Tragically, the need far exceeds the number of those who give. While most Americans are in favor of donation, many believe they are too old or unhealthy to donate, and others simply don’t take the steps required to sign up. Almost everyone can be a donor. There is no age limit to organ donation and very few diseases preclude donation. Currently in the United States there are more than 117,000 people waiting for a life-saving organ transplant, over 2,500 of those live in Tennessee. Every 18 minutes a patient on the waiting list will die, and every 10 minutes a new name will be added.
As of March 2013, over 1,800,000 Tennesseans have signed up on the Donate Life Tennessee Organ & Tissue Donor Registry either online or through the Department of Safety. On average nearly 3,500 people are added each week. While the rate falls far short of nationwide goal to register 50% of each state’s licensed drivers, Tennessee’s registry is growing quickly. Tennesseans can register to be an organ donor by simply Checking YES when applying for or renewing their driver’s license. A small red heart is placed on the driver license. Residents can also sign up online by visiting www.donatelifetn.org
Donate Life Tennessee is a non‐profit, state‐authorized organ and tissue donor registry, administered by the state’s two organ procurement organizations (OPO), responsible for facilitating the donation process in Tennessee: Tennessee Donor Services and Mid‐South Transplant Foundation. The Donate Life Registry assures that all personal information is kept confidential and stored in a secure database, accessible only to authorized OPO personnel.