Mississippians Encouraged to Donate Organs

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TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI) — April is National Donate Life month. And Saturday the Tupelo Office of the Mississippi Organ Recovery Agency held a program to help bring awareness of the need to volunteer to donate vital organs.

MORA spokeswoman Nina Strother says there are 122-thousand people across the country who need organ transplants, including 15-hundred in Mississippi. And she says unfortunately 22 people die every day awaiting organ transplants they never get. She says one person can do so much.
“One organ donor can save eight lives,” she points out. “And that’s heart both lungs, kidneys, liver and large intestines. So there are eight lives that can be saved through one organ donor. And then tissue donation can save up to fifty lives,.”

And Strother says that can be accomplished by donating things like the lenses of your eyes, the cornea to help restore sight to the blind or heart valves, or tissue for burn victims.

She says it is an extremely wonderful gift and it is important to decide now, rather than make it the responsibility of your loved ones.