This month, National Donate Life Month, staff with the Yale New Haven Transplantation Center officially honor the living and deceased organ, eye and tissue donors who help save lives.

National Donate Life Month spotlights need for organs, donors who save lives 

National Donate Life Month in April provides an opportunity to remind people about the tremendous need for organs from living and deceased donors. It’s also the perfect time to honor those who have given the gift of life. 

Nationwide, 107,938 people are on the waiting list for organs, including kidneys, livers, lungs, hearts and others, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. In Connecticut, 1,188 candidates, including 778 Yale New Haven Health patients, are waiting.

There is good news. In 2020, 39,035 organs were transplanted nationally. Yale New Haven Transplantation Center (YNHTC) surgeons transplanted 83 organs from 31 donors in 2020 (one deceased organ donor can save up to eight lives). The YNHTC has increased the number of transplants it performs every year for the past 10 years.

Living donors are also helping to save lives, by giving a kidney or part of a liver. Yale New Haven Hospital’s Center for Living Organ Donors helps connect living donors with patients needing liver and kidney transplants. The program provides a wide spectrum of care throughout the donation process and afterward, with lifetime medical and social monitoring related to donation. 

To learn more about becoming an organ donor, visit www.ynhh.org/organdonation.