Did you know that anyone 18 and older can be considered for living liver or kidney donation at Yale New Haven’s Center for Living Organ Donors? Or that a donor does not need to be related to a transplant recipient?
April is Donate Life Month, which recognizes the importance of and need for organ donation. Nearly 104,000 people nationwide are on the transplant waiting list for organs, including kidneys, livers, lungs and hearts, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network. In Connecticut as of early March, nearly 900 people were waiting for a kidney transplant and more than 150 for a liver transplant. Heart transplants are performed through the Yale New Haven Hospital Heart and Vascular Center; the Connecticut heart candidate wait list is at nearly 50.
Yale New Haven Transplantation Center at Yale New Haven Hospital performs liver and kidney transplants with organs from living or deceased donors, although people who receive organs from living donors have better outcomes. There is a much greater need for kidney donors.
Liver donors donate a portion of their liver. The remaining lobe of the donor’s liver regenerates fully.
“The liver is the only organ in the human body that can regrow. But it has a lot of complex functions so it’s not just regeneration of the architecture, but regeneration at the cellular and molecular level allowing it to function like normal,” said Ramesh K. Batra, MD, associate professor of Surgery, Transplant, Yale School of Medicine.
Learn more about organ donation and register to become an organ donor
Donate Life month activities
April 1: Donate Life flag-raising ceremony at Bridgeport Hospital’s Bridgeport and Milford campuses
April 2: Donate Life Living Donor Day. Flag-raising at L+M Hospital
April 5-12: Blue & Green Spirit Week
April 7 - 9: Transplant information tables, YNHH York Street Campus Atrium
April 2, 16: Information table, Bridgeport Hospital Bridgeport Campus, 11 am - 2 pm
April 9, 23: Information table, Bridgeport Hospital Milford Campus, 11 am - 2 pm
April 11: National Donate Life Blue & Green Day. Flag-raising, YNHH main entrance, 10 am
April 17: Transplant information table, L+M Hospital cafeteria
April 20-26: National Pediatric Transplant Week
April 27: New England Donor Services Blue & Green Walk, 5K, Bloomfield, CT
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