Avera Encourages Everyone To Consider Donation During National Donate Life Month

April is National Donate Life Month and Avera encourages every person to consider the opportunities that can come in the life-giving process of donation.

Avera partners with Donate Life America, an organization that established April as National Donate Life Month. The events of April help raise awareness about donation, encourage Americans to register as donors and to honor those that have saved lives with their gifts of donation.

The Avera Transplant Institute has completed over 1,000 organ transplants since 1993, which are only possible through the lifesaving gift of organ donation.

“Organ donation is more than checking the box on a form,” said Jeffery Steers, MD, Transplant Surgeon and Director of Transplant Services at Avera. 

On April 3, National Living Donor Day, Avera will join organizations worldwide to lift up people who provided the gift of life through living donation.

With living kidney donation, a living person donates one of their kidneys to the patient in need of transplant as it’s possible to live a healthy life with one kidney. Living organ donors make thousands of transplants possible every year. Relatives, loved ones, friends and even individuals who wish to remain anonymous often serve as living donors.

The National Kidney Registry (NKR) has partnered with Avera for more than six years. “This partnership has made possible many more living donor transplants by allowing previously incompatible donors to proceed with living donation and allow their intended recipient to receive a living donor transplant through the NKR,” Steers said.

Patients waiting for deceased donor organs may face five to 10 years of dialysis before receiving a transplant.  Another benefit for living donor recipients is better immediate and long term organ function.

Anyone interested in living kidney donation undergoes a step-wise evaluation to ensure that it is safe for them to undergo the procedure.

“When we combine compassionate motivation with leading-edge technology and expertise, we can achieve excellent outcomes for both living donors and transplant recipients,” Steers said. “These collaborations require contributions from us all. We hope more people will join our efforts.”

Avera is home to the region's first kidney transplant program, and the only pancreas transplant program in the Dakotas and the surrounding region.

Learn more at Avera.org/Transplant