Raising awareness is an important part of ongoing efforts to increase organ donation rates, and that’s what Lower Saucon Township resident Doug Woosnam did by sharing his family’s story with members of the Saucon Rotary club at DeSales University Tuesday.
Lower Saucon Township resident Doug Woosnam explains how his life has been touched by Gift of Life’s organ donation program.
Woosnam’s voice cracked as he explained how his daughter, Robin, became an organ donor after she was severely injured in a March 16, 2013 car accident.
A mother of two as well as a nurse, Woosnam said she was less than a quarter of a mile from her home when the accident happened. Tragically, her 15-year-old daughter heard the crash, and was one of the first people on the scene in the chaotic moments that followed.
Yet out of that tragedy, something positive happened.
Robin had made clear her desire to be an organ donor, and thus her death was a catalyst for changing other people’s lives for the better.
“What’s really important is the good this did for us as a family,” said Woosnam, who is part of the Gift of Life Donor Program‘s coalition, and regularly speaks about the importance of organ donation and becoming an organ donor.
Susan Koomar, Regional Community Relations Coordinator for the Gift of Life Donor Program, discusses becoming an organ donor with members of the Saucon Rotary March 17.
“If you’re not an organ donor, I encourage you to take that step,” he said. “It truly is–it’s something very special.”
Gift of Life Regional Community Relations Coordinator Susan Koomar echoed that sentiment in her presentation, which touched on some of the common myths about organ donation, such as that one’s religion forbids it.
“All major religions in the U.S. support organ donation,” Koomar said.
Another myth is the belief that hospital staff “won’t try to save me because they want my organs,” Woosnam said. “It’s a perception that a significant number of people have.”
Other myths include:
- Being “too old.” The average age of an organ donor is 50-plus, and people in their 70s and 80s can become organ donors, Koomar said. There are no set age limits for organ donation.
- “It’s too expensive.” The cost to transplant an organ is borne by the recipient’s health insurance.
- “It will cause disfigurement.” Organs are removed surgically in a hospital operating room where the dignity of the donor is upheld. Organ donation does not interfere with open-casket funeral arrangements.
Gift of Life coordinates organ transplantation procedures in eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware, and is one of the highest success rates of organizations of its kind in the country, Koomar said.
However, many people in the region continue to die while waiting for a transplant, and nationally 21 people on waiting lists die each day.
Driver’s license registries are the main means of registry, but less than half of registered drivers in Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley have agreed to be organ donors, Koomar noted.
She stressed that you don’t need to wait until it’s time to renew your driver’s license to register to be a donor. Registration can be completed online at any time at www.donors1.org, the website for the Gift of Life Donor Program.
No matter what you decide, “please tell your family about your decision,” Koomar said. “That’s really important.”
Keeping things in perspective is also important, as Woosnam attested to.
“There’s nothing that can change the pain of (losing a loved one),” he said. “You can’t change your loss–but you can change other people’s lives.”
Lower Saucon Township resident Doug Woosnam and Gift of Life Donor Program Regional Community Relations Coordinator Susan Koomar helped raise awareness about organ donation during a presentation before the Saucon Rotary March 17.