Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency at Memorial Hospital on Wednesday to register organ donors
LAKE CHARLES, LA (KPLC) - There are more than 2,000 people waiting for an organ donation right now in Louisiana.
On Wednesday, Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency, or LOPA, held an organ donor drive at Memorial Hospital in Lake Charles.
Every day, 22 people die in Louisiana waiting for an organ donation. That’s a statistic that Belinda Campbell with LOPA says can and should be lower.
“There are people in the community that are waiting for an organ, here in Lake Charles,” Campbell said. They need everything from lungs, to heats, to kidneys, and even corneas.
Joy Fragola with the Southern Eye Bank works with Campbell, going around the region encouraging people to donate, “People get to see their children, they get to see their grand kids, they get to see things they haven’t seen," said Fragola.
For both women, it’s more than a job, it’s personal. Campbell’s mom was a tissue and cornea donor, and Fragola’s brother donated his corneas, helping two people see again.
While Campbell says only about 3% of people actually die in a way that allows them to be a donor, anyone can register to be one online or when they get a driver’s license.
For cornea donation, that number jumps exponentially because eyes are much easier to harvest. There are a lot of rumors about donation that can scare people away, for example, that if you’re a viable donor, doctor’s won’t work as hard to save your life. But many of those myths have been debunked.
Jon Moore is the Coordinator of the Surgical ICU at Memorial Hospital, and the liaison for LOPA. He said he’s seen the impact of a donation first hand.
“One person can donate so many different organs, tissue, corneas, that it can effect so many lives,” Moore said. He said donations are not just a gift to the one getting an organ, but also the one giving it.
“It really gives a lot of closure to them and lets them know that they’ve done something great, and that their legacy will live on," Moore said.
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