Latest news with #organ donor
New York Times
23-07-2025
- Health
- New York Times
Corrections: July 23, 2025
An article on Sunday about the legal implications of being an organ donor misstated the number of Americans who are in the national donor registry. There are more than 173 million Americans in both state registries and the national registry, not the national registry alone. An article on Monday about the biotech company Sarepta Therapeutics and its distribution of a treatment for a deadly muscle-wasting disease misstated the date that Sarepta halted shipments of Elevidys for non-ambulatory Duchenne patients. Shipments were halted on June 15, not July 15. An article on Tuesday about President Trump urging two professional sports teams to change their names misstated the number of carved figures, known as the Guardians of Traffic, on the Hope Memorial Bridge in Cleveland. There are eight, not two. An obituary on Tuesday about the actor Kenneth Colley misstated the cause of the character Admiral Piett's death in the movie 'Return of the Jedi.' His ship crashes into the Death Star; he is not shot down by a Rebel fighter. Errors are corrected during the press run whenever possible, so some errors noted here may not have appeared in all editions. To contact the newsroom regarding correction requests, please email nytnews@ To share feedback, please visit Comments on opinion articles may be emailed to letters@ For newspaper delivery questions: 1-800-NYTIMES (1-800-698-4637) or email customercare@
New York Times
20-07-2025
- Health
- New York Times
You Said ‘Yes' to Being an Organ Donor. What Exactly Does That Mean?
If there is a small red heart with the words 'organ donor' at the bottom of your driver's license, that puts you in a group of over 173 million Americans who are in the national organ donor registry. Organ donation has wide public support, but medical ethicists say there is still confusion about what it looks like and how it affects patients and families. How do you become an organ donor? Any adult can register. In most states, teenagers as young as 15 may also express their intent to donate, though parents can revoke that decision. Today, around 90 percent of donors join their state registry at their local D.M.V. Others sign up while registering to vote, or through an online form linked to their local organ procurement organizations, known as O.P.O.s, which are nonprofit federal contractors in each state that coordinate transplants. Donate Life America, an advocacy organization, maintains a nationwide list of online registries. Donors can sign up or change their status at the D.M.V. or online, though residents of some states have had trouble removing themselves from the registry. Is the decision legally binding? It depends on how you die. If you are declared legally dead after testing shows no signs of neurological activity — known colloquially as being 'brain-dead' — then the organ donor status on your license is legally binding, even if your family disagrees. In these cases, patients are kept on a ventilator until their organs are retrieved. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
BBC News
10-07-2025
- Health
- BBC News
'Both my daughters needed new hearts from organ donors'
A mum from Surrey who was not on the organ donor register until her two young daughters needed heart transplants has said she realised "how important it is" after her children spent time on the waiting to new figures by NHS Blood and Transplant, 8,096 patients were on the transplant waiting list as of 31 March - the highest number on record. This record number includes 95 people in Surrey and does not include the 3,883 patients suspended due to being unfit for transplant or temporarily Perry, from Leatherhead, said she owed both her daughters' lives to organ donors and called for more people to be on the register. Her daughters Lucie and Isobel, now 16 and 10 respectively, have each had a heart transplant after being diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition where the left ventricle becomes enlarged and Perry told Radio Surrey that Lucie was diagnosed "out of the blue" at the age of two, before Isobel was confirmed to have the same condition during a check up seven years Lucie's diagnosis, she said: "I went from being with the GP in the morning to that in the evening... it's a lot to get your head around."Going through the process again with Isobel was "horrific", Mrs Perry got a new heart within eight days of being listed, while Isobel - who had complications prior to joining the list - waited just 10 days. Mrs Perry said the disease meant both children had enlarged hearts."It meant that there was more space for a larger heart... so they could have an older child's heart," she in hospital with Isobel, she said the stark reality became apparent."There were four children waiting for hearts, and two of them didn't make it," she that she wasn't previously on the donor register, Mrs Perry said that these experiences shifted her perspective."I believe you can't be willing to take something without being willing to give back," she said. "My daughters would have both died if they hadn't got that heart... we got very lucky, twice." Opt-in system Dave Webb from Walton-on-Thames now lives a full life, but it was an entirely different story just six years ago as the 52-year-old awaited a new Webb was born with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a condition in which muscle tissues of the heart become thickened without an obvious cause."In my adult years - in my 20s onwards - I begun to realise that I did have some symptoms and I couldn't function as well as, say, other people," he told BBC Radio 52-year-old's deteriorating condition meant that he reached a crossroad by his mid-40s."If I didn't receive a transplant, I wouldn't last for many more years," he Webb was "very, very fortunate" to only be on the waiting list for four weeks, and after receiving a new heart at the age of 46, said he felt completely getting back into sport, he spends time meeting other transplant patients and has really relished "celebrating the gift of life that we've been given".Referencing the opt-in system that has been in place since 2020, Mr Webb says the most important thing is that people "make their wishes known" to family."They hold the ultimate key, because when something does happen, they have to be referenced and they have to agree," he added.
