Give the Gift of Sight Through Organ Donation

By deciding to be an organ and tissue donor, you can help save or enhance the life of one or more of thousands of individuals awaiting an organ or tissue transplant. Nationwide, Ophthalmologists perform about 50,000 corneal transplant procedures each year. These operations replace the recipient’s damaged cornea with one from an organ donor to restore vision lost to eye injury or disease. More than 95 percent of all corneal transplant operations will restore vision in the recipient, making the procedure one of the most successful types of transplantation in medicine.

There is no cost to donors or their families for organ or tissue donation and most major religions in the United States support organ donation and consider donation as the final act of love and generosity toward others.

You can quickly and easily register to be a hero through organ and tissue donation at https://www.donatelifesc.org/register/ or at the Department of Motor Vehicles when you obtain, renew or change your driver’s license or state issued ID.

Lorie Gordon needed a new cornea because of keratoconus, a condition in which the cornea bulges, causing distorted vision. Her sight deteriorated so rapidly in her left eye that she needed a prescription for her glasses every six to eight months, and worried that failing eyesight would prohibit her from driving and working. After consulting her ophthalmologist, a medical doctor who specializes in the diagnosis, medical and surgical treatment of eye diseases and conditions, she underwent a corneal transplant to get a healthy cornea. Now, Gordon still needs glasses, but she can see well enough to read books and magazines, and keep her job as a teacher’s assistant.

“I think it’s a miracle,” said Gordon, now age 49. “I’m able to see again and there’s no price you can put on that.”

For more information about donating the gift of life, visit www.organdonor.gov.