Letter: Louisianians tops in organ donation

So often we find ourselves on or near the bottom of health rankings, but today we celebrate being at the top of a very important list that affects many people in our state and nation — organ donation.

Donate Life Louisiana’s state team recently received a silver medal from Donate Life America in recognition of our achievements in increasing the number of registered organ, eye and tissue donors who save and heal lives. Several years ago, the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency and Legacy Donor Foundation partnered with the Department of Motor Vehicles, the Louisiana Hospital Association, the National Kidney Foundation and several eye banks and transplant hospitals to increase the donor registry.

This team was recognized this year for having 58 percent of all state residents age 18 and older registered as donors; 52 percent of organ and tissue donors were registered at their time of death; and a 56 percent Donor Designation rate was achieved at the Office of Motor Vehicles.

All members of the team have been using their reach and resources to make a difference. The LHA and hospitals throughout the state launched the Donate Life Louisiana Hospital Campaign in 2008 to help educate and register hospital employees and people in the community. The campaign was so successful that it is now the national model for hospital donor registry drives.

Since our state team formed in 2006, we have worked tirelessly to add over 650,000 new individuals to the registry. We should be proud of our state’s team for this accomplishment, since one organ donor can save up to nine lives and enhance the lives of 50 more through tissue donation. If you are not already a donor, I encourage you to visit http://www.donatelifela.org and sign up.

John Matessino, president and CEO

Louisiana Hospital Association

Baton Rouge

Comments

1) Comment by InPVille - 29/11/2012

@Whatchange: What bourbon-soda said. To elaborate, the point I was trying to make is that it is incorrect to say that motorcycle accidents are caused by unsafe or inattentive driving on the part of the cyclist. Sometimes they are caused by unsafe or inattentive driving on the part of other motorists. The blame in different accident cases can have different causes. Sometimes weather plays a part. If there is something in the road which causes a driver to lose control of the vehicle, there are less protections for the cyclist than for the person in an auto. Depending on where control is loss it may not matter, a steep hill with a severe drop off for example.

2) Comment by bourbon-soda - 29/11/2012

Both. The lower visual profile due to size, of the donorcycle, and lack of physical protection, are not going to change. The attentiveness and mental, visual and aural ability, and reaction time, of the population of drivers of the larger vehicle, like other demographic characteristics of large populations, is very difficult to change, and may be deteriorating. Ditto the risk-taking of motorcyclists who ride in the first place. It is a human tendency not to worry too much about low-probability high consequence events, especially if the consequence primarily affects someone else.

3) Comment by Whatchange - 28/11/2012

Is it the motorcycle that is not safe or the person driving the car/truck and not paying attention that is not safe same as is it the gun that kills or the person pulling the trigger.

4) Comment by InPVille - 28/11/2012

There have been a couple of fatal motorcycle accidents locally in the past few weeks that I am aware of. People pulled out in front of the motorcycles with their cars having not first seen the two cyclists. The machines are inherently less safe.

5) Comment by bourbon-soda - 28/11/2012

Actually, a couple of little problems: In the same vein, so to speak, as the letter, I never hear of anyone really rich or famous dying on a wait list for transplant, and, though I understand why payment for organs is repugnant to many people it is ironic to me that the donor and family seem to be the only people in the biz who do not make out.

6) Comment by bourbon-soda - 28/11/2012

No problem with any of that. The anecdotal 3 single vehicle car/truck accidents needs a denominator to have significance. A lot of the disproportion of motorcycle fatalities inheres in the nature of the machine and in the statistical aggregate of people who choose to ride them. One of my personal goads to traffic safety is, could there be a motorcycle there? More people should ask themselves the same question more often, reciprocated by, does that car driver see me? I am still bemused by the episodic "watch out for motorcycles" campaigns, but I am entitled to that because I already do. I have no problem with the transplant biz either, even given the paradox of, in effect, using death to save lives.

7) Comment by Whatchange - 28/11/2012

bourbon-soda, we could go on for days on the topic of motorcycle safety, I ride because I enjoy it, I always wear a helmet because its the smart thing to do, just like a seat belt, I always watch out for cages, because they are not watching out for me. On another note, since Monday I have read of three single vehicle accidents involving cars/trucks. What gets me is, you don't have to produce a drivers licence to get a motorcycle, you can get one without any type of drivers education, and the only requirement is you be over the age of 18. No one under the age of 30 should be able to own a motorcycle that goes over 200 mph and gets there in like 6 seconds. Bottom line, all the same requirements so be in place to get a motorcycle endorsement and to purchase a motorcycle as a vehicle.

8) Comment by bourbon-soda - 28/11/2012

@ Whatchange - I should have known (about the sarcasm). Thanks. I appreciate the problems with 4-and-more-wheelers, but aren't most or a lot of motorcycle fatalities single-vehicle, and in at least some of the others there may be some fault by the rider? I've had close calls with motorcyclists in the sun and I'm not sure how much more attention I could have been paying. I know this is off topic. http://www.webbikeworld.com/Motorcycle-Safety/crash.htm found by googling [what percent of motorcycle fatalities are single-vehicle]

9) Comment by Whatchange - 28/11/2012

I was being sarcastic people, get over it. By the way Bighug, I'll match you gun for gun and raise you quite a bit. bourbon-soda I have owned/ridden motorcycles since I was a teenager, in my younger years I didn't wear a helmet, now that I am older I do, the reason I do is because people in cars don't know how to pay attention when driving.

10) Comment by bourbon-soda - 28/11/2012

Here's an article on how to increase organ donations, http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/motorcycle-helmets- and-donor-organs/ or google [motorcycle organ donations new york times ]. That the production of donor corpses is considered a positive for "health rankings," is bizarre IMO.

11) Comment by Bighug - 27/11/2012

Right, Whatchange. I have a few guns in the room with me, and who knows when one of them is going to turn on me and kill me? Fact is, legal possession of guns prevents more crimes and murders than are committed by those owners.

12) Comment by bourbon-soda - 27/11/2012

For high-quality donations, I don't anything beats the bang-for- the-buck of motorcycles. Forbidding helmets might also help.

13) Comment by Whatchange - 27/11/2012

Yea and we can do the same thing with sports cars, alcohol, gun owners, smokers.

14) Comment by bourbon-soda - 27/11/2012

Government should start a program to subsidize motorcycle purchased by registered organ donors.