For immediate release: February 13, 2008
Contact: Emily Wofford Cobb, Communications Manager
Office 775-784-6006
Mobile 775-338-5119
ecobb@medicine.nevada.edu

Nevada Organ and Tissue Donor Program celebrates
National Organ Donor Awareness Day

Give the “gift of life” this Valentine’s Day

RENO, Nev.—Not sure what to get your sweetheart this Valentine’s Day? Why not give the most precious gift you have to offer, the gift of life. The Nevada Organ and Tissue Donor Program is celebrating National Organ Donor Awareness Day by encouraging everyone to place the red heart, a traditional symbol of Valentine’s Day, on their driver’s license. The red heart signifies the license holder is an organ donor.

          National Organ Donor Awareness Day, celebrated each year on February 14, focuses on five points of life: organs, tissues, marrow, platelets and blood. By becoming an organ donor an individual has the ability to make a difference and help save dozens of lives.

         The Nevada Organ and Tissue Donor Program, a special program of the University of Nevada School of Medicine, has significantly increased the number of donor volunteers in Nevada by encouraging everyone to add the red heart to their license when they receive or renew their driver’s license.

          “There are more than 97,000 people on the national donor waiting list,” says Trudy Larson, M.D., director of the Nevada Organ and Tissue Donor Program and a medical school professor. “National Organ Donor Awareness Day is a way for us to spotlight this important issue and educate everyone about the importance of donation and encourage them to become donors as well as remind them to give blood.”

          Organs that are used to save lives include the heart, kidneys and liver. Tissues include the eyes, skin and bones. There is no cost to the individual to become a donor and it will not impact the quality of the possibly life-saving medical care he or she may receive. Organ and tissue recovery only occurs after every effort has been made to save the donor’s life. A national organ and tissue donation system makes certain that all patients receive donations fairly—race, gender, age, income and other factors are not considered when determining who receives transplants.

          Celebrating National Organ Donor Awareness Day is just one of the initiatives Nevada’s Organ and Tissue Donor Program has employed to promote organ donation. In addition to annual statewide awareness campaigns, the program recently partnered with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) by posting signs encouraging organ and tissue donation in DMV offices throughout the state.

          For more information about the Nevada Organ and Tissue Donation Program please visit www.giftoflife.nv.gov.

As the state’s only public medical school, the University of Nevada School of Medicine has been a leader in healthcare, medical education and research in Nevada since 1969. The School of Medicine includes 16 clinical departments including family medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, internal medicine, surgery, and psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and five nationally recognized departments in basic science including microbiology and biomedical engineering. The more than 185 doctors of University Health System, the school’s clinical practice, offer care in more than 40 medical specialties and subspecialties with eight physician offices in the Reno/Sparks area and seven in Las Vegas. The school is committed to a best practices approach to medicine and is dedicated to exceptional healthcare for Nevada now and in the future. For more information visit www.medicine.nevada.edu.