Organ, Tissue, and Eye Donation

There is a critical shortage of organs, tissues and eyes available for donation. There are more than 96,000 patients in the United States awaiting transplantation and more than 7,000 are Texans. Every 13 minutes, a new name is added to the national transplant waiting list. Every day, 17 people die waiting for a life-saving organ transplant.

In 2005, Texas joined 40 other states in the country by creating its own state donor registry. The Texas Department of State Health Services named The Glenda Dawson Donate Life Texas Registry the official state organ, tissue and eye donor registry.

Before the Texas registry, there was no official, centralized list of people who wanted to give consent to being donors. Historically, while signing a donor card and placing the "donor" sticker on your driver license served as an important symbol of your intent, it did not place you on any official list or registry.

For those who register, the list can help ensure peoples wishes are carried out after they die. The Web-based registry helps streamline the donation process at a time when medical decisions and procedures must happen quickly. The registry helps make it faster to find out if a person who dies had wanted to donate organs, tissues and eyes. Online registration takes less than five minutes. Donor information is protected and only authorized organ procurement organizations and tissue and eye banks can access registrant information.

For more information on organ and tissue donation or to register to become a donor, click on the links provided. The registry is at http://www.DonateLifeTexas.org. Information may also be obtained from the Texas Department of State health Services.