Improving the Odds for Organ Donors

By Angela Williams First Coast News

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services there are 92,000 people in the United States in need of organ transplants and only 40 percent of Americans are signed up as donors.

Elle Ringham says she will never forget what it felt like, waiting for her sister Valerie to wake up from a coma.

?She was in an auto accident and she was in a coma for several days and they didn?t know if her liver would stop functioning,? said Ringham.

Doctors said there was a chance Valerie may need a liver transplant, something that wouldn't happen over night.

?We were on an hour by hour wait to see if she was going to be put on a list and then they prioritize you for the list,? said Ringham.

Fortunately her sister survived without the transplant, and now Elle is part of an organization that she says helps to end the waiting games for organs. It?s called Lifesharers, a non-profit voluntary network of organ donors. Members make a promise to donate their organs and give fellow members first access.

Steve Cline is also a member here on the First Coast.

?I?m not going to be able to use them when I?m gone, somebody else maybe able to. It?s just the gift of life going on down the street,? said Cline.

The group has sparked controversy; some saying there should be no preference to people in a particular group. But with already five thousand members across the country and over 700 in Florida, the group is growing.

?It?s just scary to think you could have had a family member die because there aren?t enough organs out there,? said Ringham.

For more information on Lifesharers click here. The organization is free to join.

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