10 months after her transplant, we met Alejandra’s donor Jason. Courtesy photo

BY JAMES WERNICKE
Grateful Husband

April is National Donate Life Month. For my family, it’s more than an awareness campaign. Organ donation gave my family a future. In 2017, my wife Alejandra’s kidneys were failing. Dialysis was keeping her alive, but just barely—every week was a cycle of exhaustion, nausea, and the creeping fear that time was running out. In 2019, we got the call that she had a living donor match.

Her donor was a former drug addict who had not only turned his own life around—now sober for 13 years—but he also saved a complete stranger. A year later, he donated part of his liver to someone else. There have been fewer double organ donors than U.S. presidents. Let that sink in.

He wasn’t the only hero in this story. One of our neighbors donated his kidney so that Alejandra could receive a kidney through chain donation—a process that allows donors who are a more compatible match for someone else to donate on behalf of their intended recipient, exponentially increasing the number of possible matches. His kidney helped a stranger, which in turn unlocked a kidney for another. Alejandra’s altruistic donor kicked off a chain that resulted in dozens of transplants that otherwise wouldn’t have happened, saving lives and giving people a second chance with their families.

Thanks to these donors, my wife is thriving. She hikes with our family, dances with her friends, and travels again. Our family has a new chapter filled with possibilities instead of dialysis.

That’s not the only donation in my family. When my mother-in-law passed, her organs helped several people. My cousin—a newlywed veteran who served in Afghanistan—is a leukemia survivor thanks to bone marrow donation. Now he has a second chance to build a future with his wife.

It’s easy to be a donor. You can register online in less than five minutes at RegisterMe.org or simply check the box next time you renew your driver’s license. You can save up to 8 people through major organ donation and enhance the lives of 75 more through tissue donation. You can also join the national bone marrow registry at NMDP.org to help someone like my cousin.

Living donation is not only a gift for someone else. Living donors undergo a thorough screening and are typically less likely to experience organ disease even after donation, with more mindfulness of their health and fulfillment in life.

If you can’t be an organ donor, consider being a financial donor. While a recipient’s insurance typically covers their donor’s surgery, living donors are often left to manage unpaid time off work, travel costs, and lodging—especially when surgeries are performed out of state. Organizations like the American Transplant Foundation, National Marrow Donor Program, and the National Kidney Foundation not only help recipients, but offer donor assistance so these burdens don’t fall on the shoulders of those already giving so much.

You can also help with your voice and vote. Before legislation expanded Medicaid to cover dialysis, few people survived kidney failure. Public investment into organ disease and transplant research has improved millions of lives. 250,000 Americans are currently living better lives with a kidney transplant, 500,000 are on dialysis, and more than 100,000 are waiting for a transplant. It is vital that we continue to invest in medical aid and research, expanding access to care, developing better treatments, and supporting donors. The Honoring Our Living Donors (HOLD) Act—which would help donors access financial assistance—is currently awaiting Senate committee review. Reaching out to the HELP committee members—especially the Chair and Ranking Member—can underscore the bill’s importance. You can also reach out to your local senators.

This April, consider doing something that could mean the world to another family. Donate life.