Clive Grawe, a kidney transplant recipient, received a proclamation from Culver City Mayor Christopher Armenta and the other members of the city council, who on Monday named April DMV/Donate Life Month in Culver City, where Grawe’s wife Virginia lived and taught school for 35 years at Linwood E. Howe Elementary School.
“I hope this proclamation will prompt all residents of Culver City to make the commitment to donate life and to sign up on the registry,” Grawe said. “Every community has people waiting desperately for someone to say ‘yes’ to donation.”
Grawe refers to himself as one of the “lucky ones.” He received a kidney transplant in time – one out of three people die waiting. “My day of new life was July 24, 2009, and I’ll never forget that day and the person who died that day to give me new life,” he said.
At Monday’s city council meeting, Grawe introduced Marguerita Herrera, whose brother David died in a vehicle crash on March 6. David was considered the favorite uncle to his 28 nieces and nephews, and served as their surrogate father.
“David was as generous in death as he was in life,” according to Herrera.
Hours after David’s death and in the midst of the family’s grief, Herrera called a family friend who was “not doing too well on dialysis,” and asked if she would like to have her brother’s kidney. He had expressed to his family that he wanted to be an organ donor. She proceeded to get her friend reinstated on the kidney transplant list, from which she had been dropped.
David’s other kidney went to someone the family had just met in the hospital. His heart and liver went to a local hospital and saved two more lives. In all, David’s organ donations saved at least eight lives and his tissue donations enhanced the lives of another 50 people.
“Not only will David be remembered for the life he lived,” Grawe said, “but also for the life he and his family selflessly gave to others.”
During the month of April state donor registries across the United States celebrate National Donate Life Month, a celebration set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This year, Donate Life California Organ and Tissue Donor Registry is participating in the national celebration by challenging communities to sign up residents on the state donor registry and give hope to neighbors waiting for a life saving transplant.
There are more than 110,000 people on the National Organ Transplant Waiting List. More than 20,000, or 20%, of them live in California, a state that shares a disproportionate need for organ donation. A third of patients on the waiting list will die before they receive a transplant.
One organ donor can save up to eight lives. One tissue donor can improve the lives of up to 50 others. Anyone can sign up to give life regardless of age or medical history.
Since 2006, registry signups have being processed at every local Department of Motor Vehicle office across the state and can be taken care of when Californians renew their drivers’ licenses or I.D. cards. Signing up on the registry and obtaining the pre-printed pink donor dot is a simple way for communities to support life-giving donation.
For more information about the registry, the process and how donation saves and improves lives, visit donatelifecalifornia.org or donevidacalifornia.org.
Donate Life California is a nonprofit, state-authorized organ and tissue donor registry. As a state-authorized public service, the registry assures that all personal information is kept confidential and stored in a secure database.