Title
To declare April 2012 to be Donate Life Month in Columbus, and to encourage all residents to consider sharing the gift of life through organ, eye, and tissue donation.
Body
WHEREAS, More than 113,000 men, women, and children are currently awaiting a life-saving organ transplant in the United States, including the approximately 3,400 Ohioans awaiting an organ transplant at any one time; and
WHEREAS, Central Ohio has more than 800 patients currently listed for an organ transplant at either the Wexner Medical Center at The Ohio State University or Nationwide Children's Hospital; and
WHEREAS, a single donor can potentially save the lives of eight people through organ donation by donating their heart, lungs, liver, pancreas, kidneys and small intestine, and enhance the lives of more than fifty others through tissue donation by donating corneas, veins, heart valves, bone, skins, tendons, ligaments and nerves; and
WHEREAS, more than five million Ohioans have made the selfless decision to register as organ, eye, and tissue donors in the Ohio Donor Registry; and
WHEREAS, Lifeline of Ohio is the designated organ procurement organization dedicated to promoting and coordinating the donation of organs and tissue for transplantation in our community; and
WHEREAS, April has been proclaimed Donate Life Month both nationally and locally; now, therefore
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS:
That we hereby declare April 2012 to be Donate Life Month in Columbus, and encourage all residents to consider sharing the gift of life through organ, eye, and tissue donation.