Celebrating organ donation, one heartbeat at a time

• Prepare: Ask loved ones if they want to be an organ donor if they die unexpectedly
• Decide: Ask yourself if you want to be a registered organ donor
• If yes, you can register at donatelifecalifornia.org
• If no, remember it is your decision and you can change your mind at anytime

April is National Donate Life Month, a time to celebrate organ donors and consider becoming one. When my father died unexpectedly of heart disease at 57, the coroner told me he was not a registered organ donor, but because he was so young I should consider donating his organs. I said no initially, because I was already having the hardest day of my life.

The next day, they called to ask if I would consider donating just his corneas to someone who was blind. I couldn’t bear the thought of his beautiful gray eyes being cremated when they could help someone see again. Not only that, he would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. The more I thought about it, the more I realized it was something he would want.

Theresita Gonzalez, the supervisor of community engagement at Donor Network West, the organization that manages organ donations for Humboldt county, shares local statistics. 

“One donor can save up to eight lives with organ donation,” Gonzalez said. “Humboldt county has 87,655 people registered, which amounts to about 65%. There are currently 36 people waiting for a transplant.”

Carmen Martinez of Santa Clara only waited two days for her new heart. Martinez is a former manager of the UCSF Liver Transplant department. When she first started working there she was not a registered donor and had no idea she would need a heart transplant 20 years later. Like many,  she was still scared to register.

“I was like, no, they’re going to kill me if I go to the hospital and I’m sick, they’re not even going to try save me,” Martinez said. 

But Gonzalez encourages us to ask more questions. 

“Ask an EMT or doctor if they ever check if someone is a registered donor before performing life-saving measures,” Gonzalez said.

Martinez’s fear is common in communities of color due to health disparities like racial gaps, the differences in how different populations of people are treated in our healthcare system. Some of it stems from culture or religious beliefs. 

“Majority of major religions do believe in organ transplant as a charitable gift. Sometimes it’s just a misconception when people say, ‘My religion doesn’t believe in it.’ If you really go and ask, you’ll be surprised,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez notes that people of color are often the ones waiting for a life-saving transplant.

“Unfortunately, people of color are high on that waiting list, kidneys are the most in-demand organ,” Gonzalez said.

For Martinez, she didn’t become a registered organ donor until she met a 26-year-old college student at the liver transplant clinic.

“He was so full of life,” Martinez said. “He was going to graduate from college and planning to get married.” 

Martinez described the devastation the entire clinic felt when they found out his brother could no longer be a transplant candidate. When the student passed away six months later, everyone in the clinic cried. 

“It took me 10 years to see what donation did for the patients. It gave them a second life, a second opportunity to be with their families,” Martinez said.

Martinez faced her own health crisis. What she had been told was vertigo in her 20s turned out to be hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a serious heart condition. After two surgeries, her heart function dropped to just 10% and her organs started failing. She was hospitalized until a heart became available.

One man, or his family, chose to donate his heart, gifting Martinez the chance to walk down the aisle with her son at his wedding and later meet her grandchildren. Martinez reminds people to take the time now to decide for yourself what is right for you. 

“Don’t stress about the little things,” Martinez said. “Take time to breathe and enjoy life.”