If you're one of the 5,000 New Jersey residents whose life is on hold while you wait for an organ donation, an iPhone app set to debut this fall could be a lifesaver.
We mean that in the true sense of the word "lifesaver."
Apple has teamed up with the nonprofit Donate Life America to equip its new phone with the technology to register as organ donors online, with just a few clicks, NJSpotlight reported earlier this month.
The Garden State can feel proud of its record in providing hearts, lungs and other vital organs used in transplant surgery.
About 40 percent of the state's 6.5 million driver's license holders have registered to be donors through the Motor Vehicle Commission, and the number of surgeries involving transplants increased by more than one-third in 2015.
But the sad reality is that demand far outpaces supply. One person in the state dies every day while waiting for the news that an organ has become available.
That's why the app is such a welcome development. Not only will it simplify the registration process, but it will also bring it fully into the digital world, while making more people aware of the terrible need out there for more organs.
"That could be a real game changer," Joe Roth, president and CEO of New Providence-based NJ Sharing Network, told NJSpotlight. "With 100 million iPhones in the U.S., we think the potential in enormous."
Created in 1987 with the merger of three New Jersey organ-procurement organizations, the network identifies, recovers and places organs, operating around the clock, every day of the year.
Roth encourages families to have honest conversations about organ donations long before the medical necessity arises. Talking about giving away a heart or kidney is stressful enough without adding the emotional strain of a lethal accident or a looming death.
The network also offers several reassuring pointers for those about to open that dialogue:
- There is no charge to the family or estate of the donor. The network picks up all associated recovery costs.
- The decision to be an organ donor will not compromise your medical care when you're sick or injured.
- Most religions fully support the act of organ donation, calling it the greatest gift you can give another human being.
Anyone can sign up to be an organ donor, no matter how old you are or what medical condition you're in. And one donor - just one! - can save up to eight lives.
In our book, that's the real definition of a hero.
NJ Sharing Network representative are available to speak at schools, organizations or community events. Contact them at info@njsharingnetwork.org.
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