Her life saved by a donated heart, Roxanne Watson now crusades to get others to donate life-saving organs

NY Daily News | Clem Richardson

Since receiving her transplanted heart in July, 2010, the Spring Valley resident has dedicated her life to boosting organ donor numbers

It was not so much the heart transplant that got Roxanne Watson a guest spot on Oprah Winfrey’s new network, but what happened afterward.

Which, when you think of it, was pretty self explanatory, except it wasn’t.

Since her July 16, 2010 transplant at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, Watson, 57, of Nanuet, in Westchester County, has worked to increase awareness of the need for organ donors, particularly among minorities.

Only about 10 to 15 percent of organ donors are African American, while some 35 percent of people awaiting organ transplants - heart, liver, kidney, corneas, lungs, pancreas, etc. - are black, according to experts.

Nationally, some 112,000 people are awaiting organ transplants. On average, 18 of them will die each day awaiting organs.

The numbers in New York State are particularly grim. Only 18% of adults 18 or older have signed up to donate their organs, compared to a national average of 42%, according to the New York Organ Donor Network.

Of 379 organ donors in 2010, 224 were white, and only 72 black, according to the Network’s statistics.

Yet some 138 people are added to national organ transplant waiting lists every day. Some 8,000 people are awaiting transplants across the New York Organ Donor Network’s service area; more than 6,000 for kidneys, more than 1,500 for livers; and more than 220 for hearts.
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