SAN ANTONIO, Jan. 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In the second year
of the COVID-19 pandemic where medical professionals worked
intensely to help their community, a record-breaking 260
individuals saved lives via organ donation as their final act of
service, announced Texas Organ Sharing Alliance (TOSA).
"Every year we are so moved by the grace of donor families and
their willingness to save lives," said TOSA CEO Joseph.
As a result of these gifts, TOSA, the organ procurement
organization that provides organ donation and recovery services for
Central and South Texans, helped provide 806 transplants for
patients in need, a 36 percent increase from 2020.
"Every year we are so moved by the grace of donor families and
their willingness to save lives," said TOSA President & CEO
Joseph Nespral. "Through their
generosity, more people than ever have received a second chance at
life. These gifts inspire the work we do and motivate us to ensure
we remain good stewards of gifts given through the power of organ
donation."
TOSA's donor service area, which extends from Waco to Brownsville, had a record 59 percent of donors
make the decision to save lives by being registered donors with
Donate Life Texas (DLT), the state's official registry. This is the
fifth consecutive year the percentage of registered donors has
increased. DLT also reported adding more than 770,000 people to the
registry in 2021.
"The growth of the Donate Life Texas registry proves that Texans
want to save lives," Nespral said. "Our organization is looking
forward to having more of these important conversations and helping
people sign up to save lives because the critical need for donors
is still there. Today more than 100,000 children and adults in this
country are waiting for a life-changing transplant."
These record-breaking results are part of a national trend. For
the first time ever, the United
States surpassed 40,000 transplants in a single year,
according to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the
agency that oversees the national waiting list.
In 2021, TOSA also unveiled its vision statement of "An organ
for every person on the waiting list." The statement was the
guiding principle that led TOSA to implement major improvements to
help community members participate in organ donation. Those
improvements included:
- Increasing outreach to the Hispanic community, which led to a
record-breaking year in the Rio Grande Valley with 35 donors; in
total, 52 percent of TOSA's donors this year were Hispanic
- Applying new technologies in the Center for Life facility to
help transplant centers; in 2021 the CFL cared for 96 donors, a 25
percent increase from 2020
- Adopting new clinical practices to increase the number of lives
each donor could save
The family of David Skarda of
San Antonio is proud of his legacy
as a donor that continues in the lives he saved.
"It was very difficult to lose my brother but knowing that he is
living on through his organ and tissue donation makes me happy,"
said his sister Melissa "Lisa" Jimenez. "Those people can now
laugh, smile and spend time with their families because my brother
gave them that opportunity. I am so proud of him."
To learn more about organ donation or to register as a
life-saving organ donor, visit TOSA1.org.
Texas Organ Sharing Alliance (TOSA), founded in 1975, is one of
57 federally-designated Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs) in
the United States. TOSA is
committed to a mission of saving lives through the power of organ
donation by providing organ donation and recovery services to
Central and South Texans wishing to donate, and to those waiting
for a life-saving organ transplant.
Clarissa Thompson
210.614.7030 | CThompson@TOSA1.org
@TxOrganSharing • Facebook.com/TxOrganSharing
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SOURCE Texas Organ Sharing Alliance