There is a little red heart on my driver’s license. It’s been there for years, yet I often forget about it unless I’m asked.
It’s next to the word “donor,” meaning I’m a registered organ donor after my death. Are you, too? If not, why not?
That’s what Linda Ramos, among others, wants to know. The Schererville woman also wants to convince you to register, ideally today or this month, National Donate Life Month. Why?
“I am an organ recipient,” she told me. “I received the gift that saved my life and resurrected my family on March 22, 2003.”
Ramos was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 16, but the chronic disease escalated to a life-threatening illness after her pregnancy. She developed a form of toxemia called HELP syndrome, an acronym for a group of dangerous symptoms.
“I went into congestive heart failure and renal failure literally overnight,” she recalled.
She nearly died. Her baby daughter, too, who was born 13 weeks premature. Shortly after returning home with baby in tow, the retinas on both of Ramos’s eyes began to detach. This was when she received her first “gift” from a tissue donor.
“That enabled my doctor to save not only some of my vision, but the eye itself,” she said.
Read more: http://posttrib.suntimes.com/11968218-537/jerry-davich-are-you-a-registered-organ-donor-if-not-why-not.html
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