Madeline Overman, a critical care nurse and organ donor coordinator, said there may be some people who don’t think of organ donation as something positive when their loved one has died or is dying, but the people who make that “selfless gift” find hope in helping others live on.
Organ donation saves hundreds of lives every year across the United States, and the Iowa Donor Network — the nonprofit that organizes organ donation in Iowa — is working to increase that number. .
Organ and tissue donations have been increasing across Iowa and nationwide. In 2023, 123 people in Iowa donated 350 organs, and 1,027 people donated tissue, according to a news release from the Iowa Donor Network. Each tissue donation benefits between 50 and 300 people.
Marion native Joel Crawford saved hundreds of lives through organ donation after he died in an ATV accident in 2015, when he was 26. On Wednesday, a plaque honoring his sacrifice was unveiled in the Cedar Rapids Driver’s License Service Center — one of many similar plaques being placed across the state.
The number of Americans who need an organ transplant continues to grow, but the number of organs available to transplant is failing to keep up. To avoid the yearslong wait on the national transplant list, doctors are more often recommending patients seek out a match with a living donor within their family or their social circles.
More than the ability to survive, Cheryl Moore gave a Utah man the ability to live — a satisfaction that made a few weeks of recovery after surgery a pittance to pay.
The expected drop in transplants following the policy change – along with increased costs – could “threaten the long-term viability of plaintiffs’ transplant programs, as well as make it difficult to retain qualified medical specialists.”
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