Area residents in national organ donor network

Your Houston | Stephen Thomas
A year ago, as of June 21, Nick Carter underwent kidney transplant surgery at Methodist Hospital in Houston. The first 13 candidates to be a live donor did not meet the hospital’s stringent health criteria. The 14th turned out to be a longtime family friend, Dawn King of Houston, whose husband, Bob, was very supportive.

Carter, whose kidney function had reached the stage “renal failure,” was fortunate, one might even say blessed. The full story about the San Jacinto County resident was posted June 29 on www.yourclevelandnews.com [“Kidney recipient fine a year after transplant”].

Thousands apparently do not believe that they would be as fortunate as Carter, so they chose a different path than he did.

More than 15,000 men and women decided that they want to try to improve their chances of finding an organ should their health deteriorate. They have joined a nonprofit network of organ donors known as LifeSharers. More than 1,200 LifeSharers are from Texas; five are from Cleveland, seven from Baytown and seven from Livingston.

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{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}