Blood, Organ, and Other Medical Donations

0:00 bed
0:09 every year many thousands of people receive the gift of life
0:12 a life-saving transplant a hard
0:15 kidney liver months pancreas
0:18 or intestines
0:20 and thousands more people receive corneas and other tissues
0:24 restore sight and health
0:27 transplantation is one of the great medical advances have our time
0:30 how does it work
0:32 I'm it all starts when someone's organ begins to fail
0:36 and that person will need a transplant to survive
0:40 a thorough evaluation is conducted at a transplant
0:44 and if the person's a good candidate for transplant
0:47 he or she will be put on the national transplant waiting list
0:50 once a person is on the list to wait for an organ begins
0:56 a national system that is people on the waiting list with donors
1:00 are the factors considered in matching donors and recipients include
1:04 blood type and body size and how sick the patient is
1:08 distance from the donor tissue-type and length of time on the waiting list
1:13 what doesn't get taken into account organs are never matched
1:17 based on race or gender income celebrity
1:21 and social status are also never considered
1:24 in matching donor organs to waiting  patience there's no telling how long the
1:29 wait will take
1:30 in fact some people don't receive an organ in time
1:34 because the waiting list is very long and there are not enough donors available
1:40 that's why an average of 18 people on the waiting list
1:43 die each day
1:45 imagine how many we could save if we all were donors
1:50 most organs for transplants come from deceased donors
1:53 here's how that happens a person comes to the hospital
1:56 the life-threatening brain injury such as from an accident
2:00 a strong for lack of oxygen the doctors work hard to see the patient's life
2:06 but sometimes nothing can be done there's a complete
2:10 irreversible loss of brain function the patient is clinically
2:14 and legally dead that's when being a donor
2:18 can turn a time of loss into a time of hope
2:21 because machines have kept blood containing oxygen flowing to the organs
2:25 they can be passed along one person
2:29 can give life to as many as eight people through organ donation
2:32 and enhance the lives of fifty people are more through I and tissue donations
2:37 but now minutes matter
2:41 matches must be found and transplants must happen quickly
2:45 the hospital contacts and organ procurement organization
2:49 O-P-O manages that organ recovery process
2:53 the O-P-O checks the state organ donor registry
2:57 if the person is already registered as a donor fill-in form the family
3:01 if not they will ask the family to authorize donations a medical examination takes
3:07 place
3:07 the check the medical and social history and if the person is
3:11 eligible to be an organ donor the computer begins the search on the
3:15 national waiting list
3:16 for well matched patients the best match patients for each organ are contacted by
3:21 their transplant teams
3:22 this is the call the every single person on the waiting list has been hoping for
3:26  the call that could mean a second chance at life
3:31 now the transplant happens the a surgical team recovers the organs
3:36 then corneas and other tissues the organs
3:40 are sent to the transplant hospitals for the patients where transplant teams are
3:43 waiting
3:44 at the life-saving transplants take place 
3:48 it will take a healthy living in medications to keep the organ working
3:51 well in its new home
3:53 but some wonderful person has given the most precious gift of all
3:57 the gift of life  you too can make the decision today
4:02 to sign up on your state registry as an organ or eye
4:05 tissue donor any age is the right age young or old
4:09 any day is the right day to sign up as a donor
4:12 on you can register through your drivers license office
4:17  or you can sign up right now online
4:21 remember to tell your family so they can support your wishes
4:24 more than 100 million people have already signed up
4:28 but we are all needed to save more lives
4:31 go to organ donor dot GOV  and sign up in your state donor registry for organ 
4:36 and eye tissue donor 
4:38 go to organ donor dot GOV and share the gift of life
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