Donate Life
Texas Time
The need for donated organs and tissue continues to grow. Over 95,000 men, women and children currently await life saving organ transplants. Sadly, an average of 18 people die each day due to a lack of an available organ. Every organ and tissue donor can save and enhance the lives of up to 50 people. I was given the gift of life through a liver transplant and I feel God has placed me in a position to bring this issue to your attention. Waiting list: candidates 104,750 as of 11/03/2009 Transplants January – July 2009 16,680 as of 10/30/2009 Donors January – July 2009 8,542 as of 10/30/2009 My friends, do the math. There are 104,750 needing some sort of transplant, liver, kidney, lung, heart, eyes, skin, pancreas and intestine. Of the 104 plus thousand waiting only 16,680 received a life saving gift. Those left live each day wondering if it will be their last. I have been there my friends, I was one of those stats, July 25, 2009 I received my liver. Doctors said I would have expired by the second week of August. 18 people died today waiting for their turn. Be a donor ladies and gentlemen, you have everything to gain. Based on Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) Data July 25, 2009 is my second birthday. I thank the family that blessed me with the gift of life. You have the power to donate life. Be an Organ and Tissue Donor! www.donatelife.net 
TO REMEMBER ME by Robert N. Test Give my sight to the man who has never seen a sunrise, a baby’s face or love in the eyes of a woman. Give my heart to a person whose own heart has caused nothing but endless days of pain. Give my blood to the teenager who was pulled from the wreckage of his car, so that he might live to see his grandchild play. Give my kidneys to the one who depends on a machine to exist from week to week. Take my bones, every muscle, every fiber and nerve in my body and find a way to make a crippled child walk. If you must bury something, let it be my faults, my weakness and all prejudice against my fellow man. Give my sins to the devil. Give my soul to God. If, by chance, you wish to remember me, do it with a kind deed or word to someone who needs you. If you do all I have asked, I will live forever…….
TRIBUTE TO THE GIFTED HANDS AND KNOWLEDGE THAT SAVED MY LIFE!
I have to stop now for a second and not only give thanks to my God, AND the doctors and staff at the Dallas Methodist Hospital Liver Institute, Dr. Jeffrey Weinstein my Hepatologist, and Transplant Surgeons Dr. Tiffany Anthony who did the organ procurement (you will always have a special place in my heart) and the great Dr. Alejandro Mejia, your gifted hands saved my life.
To all the Doctors staff, nurses and technicians at the Institute, ER, ICU, and the Fourth Floor Staff whose professional expertise are responsible for me being here, I you all and from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU!! www.donatelife.net
Jeffrey Weinstein, MD
Medical Director of Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Services
• Medical degree – University of Texas Southwestern Medical School
• Residency – University of Texas Southwestern Medical School,1988–1991
• Fellowship – Mayo Clinic, Rochester Minnesota, 1991–1994
Tiffany L. Anthony, MD
Transplant, Hepatobilary, and Pancreas Surgery
• Medical degree – The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
• Residency – The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, 2000–2006
• Fellowships – Research: Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, 2003–2004
Transplant: University of Chicago, Illinois, 2006-08
• Board certified by the American Board of Surgery
Alejandro Mejia, MD
Transplant Surgery
• Medical degree – Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Columbia
• Internship – University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
• Residency – University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
• Fellowship – University of Nebraska Medical Center
• Board certified by the American Board of Surgery
