MEDIA RELEASES
CALIFORNIA MARKS FIRST YEAR OF DONATE LIFE CALIFORNIA ORGAN AND TISSUE DONORS REGISTRY
WITH RECORD LEVELS OF REGISTRATION, DONATION AND LIVES SAVED
April 5 Sacramento Press Conference to Commemorate Unprecedented Success and Honor Legislators, Donors, Recipients
Registry and DMV To Launch Partnership in July
Sacramento, Oakland, Los Angeles, and San Diego, Calif. – Mar. 30, 2006 – The Donate Life California Organ and Tissue Donor Registry signed up a quarter million Californians in its first year, which set a national record for state registries and exceeded projections by 70%. The Registry is the state’s first online service to record an individual’s commitment to donate life. Each person can save up to eight lives through organ donation and enhance another 50 lives through tissue donation.
During the past year, the four organ recovery agencies in the state achieved record levels of donation with 806 deceased donors giving 2,749 organs for transplantation, or 10% of all organs transplanted in the United States. These non-profit organizations – California Transplant Donor Network, Golden State Donor Services, Lifesharing, and OneLegacy – attributed the growth in donation and lives saved to effective public education, rising rates of consent by family members, and donor hospital programs implemented through the Organ Donation Breakthrough Collaborative, a national initiative of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“When we launched the registry last April, we believed we would attract 15,000 registrants for the year in keeping with the experience in other states. We had to amend that projection early on to 150,000," noted Tracy Bryan, president of Donate Life California, the non-profit organization that administers the registry. "Even then, the people of California exceeded our wildest expectations. It's clear that Californians were ready for this registry - a registry that allows everyone the ability to make a choice to donate life - and to have that choice honored."
To mark the first-year anniversary of the registry, Donate Life California will honor all those connected with the registry, including the legislators who worked tirelessly to support the registry and those whose loved ones helped others to live, at a press conference in Room 1190 at the State Capitol on Wed, April 5, at 10:00 a.m.
Participants include Sen. Jackie Speier (D-San Francisco/San Mateo), who spearheaded the registry legislation; Reg Green (La Canada), internationally known author and father of donor Nicholas Green, whose 1994 donation of organs in Italy inspired the world; Assemblyman John Benoit (R-Riverside) and sister-in-law Desiree Benoit, a waiting list candidate; donor family members; transplant recipients; and special guests.
Among the special guests speaking at the event will be George Valverde, the newly appointed director of the California Department of Motor Vehicles, and DMV Manager Brenda O’Donnell (Elk Grove), who is helping to lead the implementation team of the DMV/Donate Life California partnership that begins in July. The partnership, which was unanimously approved by the State Legislature and signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger last October, will dramatically increase signups by allowing Californians to consent to become organ and tissue donors when their drivers licenses/I.D. cards are renewed. These donation decisions will be sent electronically to the Donate Life California Registry.
O’Donnell knows firsthand about the life-saving opportunity created by organ and tissue donation. In April 2002, her 68-year-old father, Lonnie Ray Johnson, Sr., suffered a brain aneurysm. O’Donnell had carried the legendary “pink dot” on her license since the age of 16 and knew that allowing her father to donate his organs was the right thing to do.
“We told the donation team they could take anything that could help someone else,” said O’Donnell. “It’s a wonderful feeling knowing that a part of my father lives on in 22 other people. It’s an equally wonderful feeling to know that, come July, my 9,500 colleagues at the California DMV will play a role in this life-saving program by serving as the bridge for 24 million California drivers to sign up on the Donate Life California Registry. In so doing, the potential for donation will skyrocket from thousands to millions.”
With the Donate Life California Registry, each registrant’s personal donation decision is stored in a secure database free of charge, and the information is accessible only to authorized organ and tissue recovery personnel. Signing up on the registry acts as an advanced directive for organ and tissue donation and does not require the consent of any other person.
Part of the registry’s success can be attributed to municipal, university, and other local challenges that staged programs to raise awareness of the registry and its potential to save lives. Among those participating were more than 1,500 employees of Sav-on Drugs and Albertson’s who raised money and signed up on the registry to honor a colleague who had died while waiting for an organ transplant. Their support will continue in 331 stores from San Diego to Santa Barbara during National Donate Life Month in April.
Currently, more than 19,000 people in California wait for a life-saving transplant, or 21% of the more than 91,000 transplant candidates now listed in the U.S. Tragically, one-third of those waiting will die waiting due to a shortage of donors. Because California is home to a disproportionately large share of people waiting for transplants, partnering with the DMV is crucial to saving their lives.
The Donate Life California Registry, which can be found online at www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org or in Spanish at www.doneVIDAcalifornia.org, offers visitors the opportunity to sign up to give life, as well as current data and information about donation, personal stories that reinforce the life-enhancing result of organ and tissue gifts, and links to local resources.
# # #
A statewide registry was first authorized in California in 2001 through SB 108 (Speier). Two years later, SB 112 (Speier) amended the law by transferring responsibility for a registry to the state’s four federally-designated organ recovery agencies that compose Donate Life California: California Transplant Donor Network, serving Northern and Central California; Golden State Donor Services, serving the Sacramento metro area; Lifesharing, serving San Diego and Imperial counties; and OneLegacy, serving the seven counties around Los Angeles. California joins 40 other states in offering this service.
Print
this page