By Ivey D.
**This post was supposed to be released on February 14th, National Donor Day. Due to technical difficulties, we are just now posting.**
I bet you didn’t know that Fresh Green Light has employed 2 people who had organ transplants. We also had students go through our program who had transplants or were waiting for one. There may even be people in your life that had a transplant and you are not aware!
My name is Ivey, and I may have worked with you. I am one of the transplanted employees at Fresh Green Light. FGL was with me before, during, and after my transplant.
Do you know the statistics of transplantation?
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46,000 people had organ transplants in 2023
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Over 90,000 people need an organ transplant now
Transplantation is not an easy subject to talk about and every person can help! There are NO Restrictions to registering to donate – No Health Restrictions and No Age limits. Even people in their 90’s have donated organs! Connecticut and Illinois allow teens 16 and over to register as an organ donor. If this is your desire, be sure to let your family know. For teens under 18 years old, the final donation decision is the responsibility of parents or legal guardians. If they do not know that you want to donate, it may not happen. Even after receiving a transplant, I am registered to be an organ donor.
As of 2022 Connecticut has 1.8 million people registered to be an organ donor out of 3.8 million residents. Illinois has 7.5 million registered donors out of a population of 12.5 million registrants.
These are the organs that can be donated:
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On this National Donor Day, please join FGL in celebrating and honoring those caring individuals who selflessly donated their organs to help others.
If you have not done so already, please register to be an organ donor: https://portal.ct.gov/dmv/licenses-permits-ids/become-organ-donor-ct. This is the first step to being eligible to save lives.
I am Ivey, a double-organ transplant recipient and I work at Fresh Green Light Driving School.
