Organ donors reach milestone, recipients need more

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY)– Organ donors and recipients are speaking out about awareness after the US reached half a million life saving transplants.

Officials say North Carolina ranks number six for its donor participation.

“I got a call at 5:45 in the morning,”organ recipient Dennis Meyers said.  “The lady said, ‘Good morning Mr. Meyers. We have a liver for you,'” organ recipient Dennis Meyers said.

Dennis Meyers waited for that phone call for two and a half years after a doctor told him his liver was failing.

“The answer was either, ‘You need a liver transplant or you’re going to die,'” Meyers said.

He says that was easier said than done.

“It took me a year to get on the waiting list and then another 18 months before I got the transplant,” Meyers said.

That was on November 3, 2005.

“Which just was some irony,” Meyers said. “It happened to be my 66 birthday.”

Meyers says not a day or a birthday goes by that he doesn’t think about that day or the family that saved his life.

“I can’t begin to imagine how they must feel,” Meyers said. “You don’t want to be a reminder of something that tragically happened for them, but at the same time you so badly want to hug them and say thank you.”

Carolyn Brown is on the other end of that spectrum, because when her best friend needed a kidney, she says without a question she donated one of hers.

“The coolest thing to me was that she didn’t have to have dialysis and she feels better than she has in 10 years and so her children get to see a healthy mom,” Brown said.

Meyers says it’s because of people like Brown that half a million lives across the US got a second chance.

“The American people are the most giving people in the world,” Meyers said.

Meyers says most people don’t know how badly the country needs more donors to help the thousands of recipients still waiting.

“To me that heart on the license plate basically says if something happens to me, I can still be there for you. If people think of it in that context, I think everyone would sign up tomorrow,” Meyers said.

Statistics show 90% of Americans support donation, but less than 50% have actually registered this decision to be a donor.

Click here to learn how you can become a donor.