Category Archives: News

21 Jun

June marks the celebration of Pride Month, where we honor LGBTQ history and commemorate this year’s 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.

The Stonewall Riots took place at the end of June 1969 when the NYPD raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar and tavern. Patrons and supporters of the inn resisted and started an uprising, which would serve as a turning point for the expansion of LGBTQ rights across the US.

While the fight still continues to this day, major strides have been made for LGBTQ rights. We are happy to say that advancements have been made in the world of organ and tissue donation as well, particularly with the passage of the HIV Organ Policy Equity (HOPE) Act in 2013.

What is the HOPE Act?

The HOPE Act was introduced by California Senator Barbara Boxer in 2013. It was passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by former President Barack Obama on November 21, 2013. The California State Legislature followed up with similar legislation in 2016 to bring state law in line with the HOPE Act.

The law began implementation in November 2015 to research transplantation of organs from HIV+ donors into HIV+ candidates for a transplant. The HOPE Act eventually enabled HIV+ persons to both receive and donate organs beginning in 2015.

Prior to the passage of the legislation, anyone who was HIV+ was unable to register themselves as an organ donor. This provides immense hope to those in need of a transplant and widens our potential donor pool so that more lives can be saved.

With the development of the HOPE Act, there is now officially no disqualifying conditions when signing up to be an organ donor. Age, illness, and disease do not prevent you from registering as an organ donor. For more information on donation, click here.

How the HOPE Act Has Saved Lives

The HOPE Act enables potential HIV+ donors to match with other HIV+ persons in need of a transplant. Because of the HOPE Act, 100 organs have been transplanted since 2015 and through 2018.

There are over thirty transplant hospital nationwide participating in the HIV+ transplant program. In California alone, we have two hospitals eligible to perform HIV+ transplants. Thanks to the HOPE Act and these transplant hospitals, we will continue to save lives in perpetuity.

For more information on the HOPE Act, visit the United Network for Organ Sharing’s (UNOS) website.

09 Nov

By
Administrator

in
Events News

November 9th Marks the Beginning of National Donor Sabbath

Beginning today November 9^th and thru November 11^th, Donate Life California invites you to join us in celebrating National Donor Sabbath! Every year, we celebrate National Donor Sabbath for persons of all faiths to honor donors who have saved lives through organ, eye and tissue donation.

Along with taking a moment to pause and honor all the donors who have saved lives, National Donor Sabbath also looks to spread the word about the importance and need of organ, eye and tissue donation across all faiths and congregations. With over 114,000 people waiting for a life-saving organ transplant, the need for new organ donors remains critically important.

National Donor Sabbath Encourages Education on Organ Donation

When it comes to registering as an organ and tissue donor, many mistakenly believe that their religion prevents them from being an organ and tissue donor. In fact, most religions support and even encourage organ donation.

Over the past five years, key religious figures such as Pope Francis and the Dalai Lama have vocally expressed how organ donation is one of “the greatest service(s) to mankind.” Many religions believe organ donation to be a final act of kindness and generosity. If you are interested in checking out the views of various religions on organ donation, please click here.

National Donor Sabbath encourages all faith leaders and followers to research his or her religious group’s tradition and position on organ and tissue donation and transplantation, as well any other ethical issues that may be of concern. In addition, each faith leader should be mindful of any new resolutions or positions adopted at his or her religious group’s national assembly. The group’s position is also subject to change at any moment.

How You Can Help This National Donor Sabbath

For all those attending religious congregations on this National Donor Sabbath weekend, we encourage you to strike up conversations about organ and tissue donation with your fellow parishioners. Additionally, discussing the matter with your leaders of faith may encourage them to bring up the topic of organ, eye and tissue donation during your service. And as always, we encourage you to share our message of saving lives through your own social media outlets. For additional information on National Sabbath, please click here.

Before we let you go, here are some quick facts on organ donation that you can share with members of your congregation:

Almost 35,000 patients began new lives in 2017 thanks to organ transplants (about 92 every day).
Nearly 22,000 people in California – over 114,000 people nationally – are currently waiting for an organ transplant.
Sadly, over of 20 people die every day while waiting, because the organ they needed is not donated in time.
A living donor can save a life by donating a kidney or a portion of their liver, lung, pancreas or intestine. For more information on living kidney donation, go to Living Donation California.
On average, there are more than 30,000 tissue donors and more than 1 million tissue transplants are performed each year; the surgical need for tissue has been steadily rising.
Approximately 40,000 patients have their sight restored through corneal transplants each year.

26 Sep

By
Administrator

in
News

Celebrating DMV Appreciation Week in California

While all of us at Donate Life California are thankful for the work the California Department of Motor Vehicles does each and every day, this week the Donate Life community is celebrating DMV Appreciation Week across the nation.

Each year, the California DMV is registering hundreds of thousands of new organ and tissue donors, making up over 95% of the donors in our registry. Without our decades-long partnership with the DMV, we’d have been unable to grow the largest registry in the country.

Saving Thousands of Lives Each Year

While a pink dot might not seem like it changes lives, the numbers are clear. Since the creation of the registry in 2006, over 43,938 individuals have received lifesaving transplants in California. There is no question that all of our recipients are sharing their DMV appreciation around the state this week.

This year over 2,700 individuals have already had their lives changed by receiving transplants. This work wouldn’t be possible without the efforts that staff around the state at our DMV put in each day.

Supporting Donate Life All Year Long

Our DMV partners are supporting organ, eye and tissue donation all year long. Their passion to share the impact of donation doesn’t go unnoticed by all of us at Donate Life California.

Whether they are supporting Donate Life on Blue & Green Day, helping to decorate the Donate Life Rose Parade Float, or signing up donors each day their passion makes all the difference. So during DMV Appreciation Week, we want to say a huge THANK YOU!

Over 40 Years of Partnership

The California DMV’s passion for supporting organ, eye and tissue donation isn’t anything new. They’ve been helping to increase donation for over four decades. It all started with the pink dot and continues today through the largest registry of organ, eye and tissue donors in the country.

With all the hard work of our DMV partners, the California Organ and Tissue Registry will reach more than 15 million registered donors before the end of 2018. This is an outstanding milestone and we can’t say thank you enough to show our DMV appreciation.

Saying Thank You During DMV Appreciation Week

This week ambassadors and staff around the state from our local OPOs sent thank you notes to their local DMV offices and you can check out a handful of them in the video below.

Check out more videos by Lifesharing here.

We hope you will join us during DMV Appreciation Week to say thank you for the work that all the staff at the California DMV do each day. Their work is saving lives around the state and country.