Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – If you never thought you could be an organ donor, maybe you still can.
That’s the word from Springfield Memorial Hospital. Officials there urge you to register to be an organ donor, even if you think some of your organs may not be in good shape.
There are even people who donate organs just because.
“About once a year, we have someone come forward that just really wants to do something for their community, for someone else out there,” said Valerie Krohe, Nurse Manager, Acute Dialysis, Apheresis & Transplant Care, Springfield Memorial Hospital, on the WTAX Morning Newswatch. “They don’t know anyone, but they still give a kidney.”
Krohe says nevertheless, it’s important to sign the back of your driver’s license if you want to become an organ donor. She says even if you may have a bad heart or have had liver problems, for example, there is so much that can be done and be given once you pass away, unless you want to give an organ while you’re still alive.
But, there can be a process to go through nonetheless.
“We work the donors up to make sure that not only are they in great physical health — because we never would want to take an organ from them, like take one of their kidneys if there is ever a chance they would need both. If you have a family history of diabetes, things like that, you wouldn’t be eligible to donate,” said Krohe. “We also do a very thorough psycho-social evaluation, because sometimes donors just really worry, ‘What if my kidney doesn’t work in that person?'”
Krohe says a social worker is available to them, and to transplant recipients, in order to help work through any feelings of anxiety or doubt.
But the risk can be worth the reward. Krohe says while donors and recipients can become anxious and stay that way for awhile, for many who receive them, and it’s been determined the transplant is successful, they become filled with gratitude and fortune that they are still alive.
Someone is added to the organ transplant list in the country every eight minutes, said Krohe.
