AIR DATE JULY 28, 2022
Title: The Gift of Life
Discover how donating blood and other organs saves lives in the central Florida area.
Guests and Locations
OurLegacy Florida, Executive Director and Mother of Organ Donor – Ginny McBride and Diana Couch
OneBlood, Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications and Public Relations – Susan Forbes
Blood and Organ Donations Save Lives in Central Florida
Over 100,000 people are currently on the National Transplant Waiting List in the United States. That figure includes our friends and neighbors in Central Florida.
I recently had the opportunity to speak with Ginny McBride. She has been a nurse for “more years than [she] care[s] to talk about,” and her specialty has been with organ donation.
McBride told me that the process involves more than finding viable organs to match with recipients. “What’s more important to us… is supporting the family through the process, the donor family. They are the ones we feel most responsible for.”
Diana Couch was part of that experience 23 years ago when her daughter, Linda, was killed in a traffic accident in Kissimmee. “She was able to donate everything but her lungs, and it saved the lives of four individuals,” she told me, “and it returned the sight, with the donation of her corneas, to another person.”
Both women volunteer with OurLegacy to provide this assistance.
Blood Donations Are Critical Today
I also spoke with Susan Forbes, the Senior VP of Corporate Communications and PR for OneBlood. It is one of the largest blood centers in the United States, distributing over one million products to over 250 hospitals in the southeast.
“Every day, blood donations are playing a role in hospitals,” Forbes told me. “Every two seconds, somebody in this country is receiving a blood transfusion.”
Forbes says donations are critical because only about 10% of the population makes a regular donation when up to 40% qualify, but don’t. “All blood types are needed every day to help a variety of patients,” she said.
Type O blood is in the highest demand at hospitals right now. Forbes says that 60% of people of Hispanic descent have this blood type.
“It’s important that the patient population match the blood donor population and vice-versa,” Forbes said, “so that the right unit of blood is available for patients precisely when it is needed.”
How to Become an Organ or a Blood Donor
The easiest way to become an organ donor in Central Florida is to join the online registry at DonateLifeFlorida.org/Register. This site allows anyone, including people who don’t live in the state, to designate themselves as eye, tissue, or organ donors.
This collected data makes it much easier for organizations like OurLegacy and OneBlood to provide life-enhancing or lifesaving support.
Donating a pint of blood takes between eight to ten minutes. If it is your first time, you’ll answer some questions about your health history and be given a mini-physical. After the donation, you get a snack and a drink for about 15 minutes before resuming the day.
Blood donations can include platelets, plasma, and other components.
Couch says that if you cannot donate, get involved. “I like to say that volunteering with OurLegacy gives me an opportunity to still be Linda’s mom,” she said.
More information about OurLegacy is available at their website OurLegacyFL.org. You can also connect with OneBlood by visiting OneBlood.org.
