HAVE A HEART?: If you or a loved one has ever had any heart
problems, you might want to tune in to the new series on public
television.

So far, the episodes have shown some amazing footage of the
heart itself and surgical intervention taken to correct some
serious and life-threatening problems.

Included were footage of people waiting for a heart transplant
and it brought to mind, once again, the urgency of organ
donation.

How sad would it be to watch your mother die while she’s on the
list for a heart?

OK, we don’t like to be preachy in RTS. And, truth to tell, we
went many years without being signed up as an organ donor. Maybe
that’s why we feel an obligation to write about this subject. Maybe
you, too, are one of those people who don’t want to turn loose of
your organs – even after you’re dead and obviously won’t be needing
them again.

You need to think that decision through.

In any case, this seemed like a really good segue to information
we received about a new web portal in Pennsylvania that will allows
you to sign up to be an organ donor any time of the day or
night.

The portal is www.donatelif-pa.org and it links visitors to the
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s site, where you can
easily add the organ donor designation to your driver’s
license.

The entire process takes on average less than 90 seconds, and
has the potential to save and enhance more than 50 lives.

The Web portal was developed as part of the “Ordinary People,
Extraordinary Power” campaign, a collaborative educational and
outreach effort to encourage individuals to say “yes” to organ and
tissue donation.

The campaign is sponsored by the departments of Health and
Transportation, the Center for Organ Recovery & Education in
western Pennsylvania, and Gift of Life Donor Program in eastern
Pennsylvania.

“We believe it is time to make the process of signing up to be a
designated organ donor easier, so that the potential of more lives
being saved is increased,” said Pennsylvania Secretary of Health
Dr. Calvin B. Johnson.

Currently, 43 percent of licensed drivers and photo ID card
holders in Pennsylvania are registered organ donors. On the other
side of the coin, some 6,730 Pennsylvanians are awaiting a
life-saving organ transplant, of the total 95,323 waiting
nationwide.