HOW TO BECOME AN ORGAN DONOR

(Manitowoc Herald Times - June 11, 2004) - Putting an organ donor sticker on your driver's license isn't enough to make sure your wishes are carried out.

That was just part of the message John and Diane Brockington delivered Thursday at a golf outing in Valders to raise awareness of organ donation in the United States of America.

"The dot on your driver's license is intent; your living will is consent," Diane Brockington said. "The law recognizes consent."

There are a few other options to help secure consent for organ donation in the event of your death.

First and foremost, the Brockingtons say, make sure your family and/or close friends know about your decision.

You also can go to www.johnbrockingtonfoundation.org to download a donor card, which needs to be signed in front of two witnesses.

"You have the capacity to help somebody else go forward," said John Brockington, a former Green Bay Packers' running back who received a kidney transplant from Diane on Nov. 28, 2001.

"Everybody has the capacity in us. ... Don't let good organs go to the grave. Have that conversation with your mothers, your fathers, your brothers, your sisters, your husbands and your wives about what you want to do when that day comes."

In fact, about 50 percent of people who intend to donate organs aren't able to do so after their family says no – as the relatives are in too much grief to grant permission.

"The decision has to be already talked about at the dining room table before it's talked about in the (operating room, in the emergency room, in the intensive care unit)," Diane Brockington said. "You have to sit down and look at all the people you love and say, 'Are we going to do this?' "

The Brockingtons are troubled by the organ transplant statistics, which show 85,351 patients waiting for a transplant and about 17 patients dying each day because of a lack of donors.

"Understand that in Europe, unless you carry something that says, 'Do not take my organs,' they do, and that's how it should be," Diane Brockington said.

"What greater response to the Creator than to re-give His creation."

Paul Keup can be reached at pkeup@htrnews.com or (920) 686-2134.

[Return to Newsroom]