Donor Network West

Programs: More than 11,000 people wait for a lifesaving organ transplant and thousands more for tissue transplants in the ctdn service area. The recovery and placement of organs and tissues is vital to the organization's mission of saving and improving lives. Our clinical operations staff provided care for more than a thousand families last year during a very emotional time in their lives as they suffered the loss of their loved ones. Families were either informed of their loved ones wish to be a donor through their registration on the state donor registry or were given the information needed in order to make the decision to donate for their loved one. Through their generosity, thousands of others were saved or healed because of these gifts of life. In 2013, we recovered 920 organs for transplantation from 281 organ donors and provided tissues for transplantation from 2,007 tissue donors; an estimated 66,500 lives were improved as a result.

our donor families are cared for throughout the whole donation process as well as after the donation occurs. Our professional staff follows up with the families for a year post-donation and offers resources and support. We hosted three donor family gatherings to honor and celebrate the donor families and their loved ones who gave the gift of life through organ and tissue donation in 2013. Donor family gatherings were held in pleasanton, reno and fresno on three separate days to accommodate the 2,288 families whose loved ones became donors in 2013.

the shortage of available organs and tissues is a serious issue -- each day in our country 18 people die while waiting for an organ transplant. Public education efforts are focused on increasing registrations on the california and nevada state donor registries known as the donate life california registry and donate life nevada registry. In 2013, added 369,289 new names to the registries in our service area through a variety of efforts. In 2013, the community education department focused on several key campaigns to increase donor registrations. These campaigns included working with our 75 department of motor vehicle offices, community health clinics, high schools, faith organizations and focusing on multicultural media. We regularly work with our department of motor vehicle offices to provide information, appreciation and develop relationships with each office to ensure the recording of the donation decisions of millions of californians and nevadans. We successfully reached many multicultural community clinics with information and in-services, worked with high school teachers to integrate organ and tissue donation information in health/science curriculums and engaged faith leaders in growing support for donation in their congregations. We documented 81 proactive free media stories that were seen across the country. The results - 38% of our organ donors were on the state registries. These individuals had officially documented their decision to be a donor and we were able to follow through on their wishes.