DONATE LIFE, NOT YOUR LICENSE

By Toni Walker, Editor of The Bee

 

Take a minute and look at your driver’s license. If it was issued in the state of Texas, you may have a heart on the bottom corner that states “donor”. If you do have that designation on your license, it means that, at some point, you have expressed a desire to be an organ donor. If you are like me, you probably believed that this indicator was enough and that your wishes would be carried out thanks to that little heart. I believed that, since my license said so, my organs would be donated when the time came. That is not necessarily true. Family can still step in after you are gone and stop your organs from being donated. Also, I have learned that, in the event of a car accident, the drivers licenses usually go with the trooper working the scene, meaning the hospital would never see that little “donor” heart.

I found this all last summer, when my fatherin- law received a liver transplant. Upon learning he was on the transplant list, I did what any good daughter-in-law would, I added the “donor” designation to my driver’s license. Intalking with his transplant team, my in-laws found out that simply putting it on your license is not enough. That indicator is not a legally binding document. The key, the doctors said, was to be placed on a donor registry.

 

To continue reading this article purchase the February 26^th edition of The Steel Country Bee or go to our online e-edition at: http://www.etypeservices.com/Daingerfield%20BeeID312/default.aspx