Every day, 19 people die while waiting for an organ transplant and another 138 people are added to the national waiting list — but U-M is trying to change those statistics.

The U-M Health System is sponsoring a new effort, dubbed Wolverines for Life, to encourage organ, tissue, eye, blood and bone marrow donation by U-M employees, patients, students, alumni, fans and everyone in the state of Michigan.

To kick off this effort, Football Coach Rich Rodriguez, along with Health System leaders, is encouraging people to join in an annual challenge between U-M and The Ohio State University. The annual Wolverine-Buckeye challenge allows people to become organ donors upon their death by signing the Michigan Donor Registry and have their pledge tallied for their favorite school.

“Just imagine the impact that you can have. You can save a life. Or the life somebody saves may be someone close to you,” says Rodriguez, who while coaching at West Virginia learned the importance of organ donation when a member of his staff was saved by an organ transplant. “There’s over 108,000 people waiting for a transplant. That would fill the entire Big House.”

A single organ and tissue donor can save eight lives and help up to 50 people, says Dr. Darrell “Skip” Campbell Jr., a transplant surgeon and chief medical officer for the U-M Hospitals and Health Centers (UMHHC).

“Organ donation saves lives. Anybody can sign up to be an organ donor. There are a variety of tissues and organs that can be used to help someone suffering with disease or organ failure,” says Campbell, adding that at U-M, physicians perform transplants of hearts, lungs, pancreas, livers, kidneys and corneas, and can even use the skin donated.

Many people support organ donation, adds Dr. Jeffrey Punch, chief of the U-M Division of Transplantation and professor of surgery.

 “Signing up on the registry ensures that the desire to donate is respected,” Punch says. “We have a very busy program, but we are always in need of more organs to meet the demand.”

The Wolverine-Buckeye challenge puts the spotlight on a very worthy cause and allows us to show our school spirit, says Tony Denton, executive director of University Hospital and chief operating officer, UMHHC.

“No matter who wins the challenge, however, the real winners will be the people who rely on these life-saving gifts,” Denton says.

“I would not be alive today if it weren’t for the generosity of a stranger,” says Terry Gould, a Plymouth resident who received a heart transplant at U-M in 2003.  “Thanks to my donor and his family, I have been able to walk my daughters down the aisle at their weddings, and welcome three grandchildren into the world.” 

Since its inception in 2006, the Wolverine-Buckeye challenge has inspired more than 126,000 donors to register.

To sign up and credit U-M, go to  www.wolverines4life.org, and click on the button to become a donor. It takes only a few minutes online, and you will receive in the mail a red heart to affix to the front of your driver’s license signifying you as an organ donor. The challenge ends at 11:59 p.m. Nov. 25, in advance of the Nov. 27 football game between Ohio State and U-M.

 The U-M leaders emphasize that after signing up, every U-M fan should tell family members or other loved ones they have done so — to make sure that those wishes are carried out in the event of their death.

U-M co-sponsors the Wolverine-Buckeye Challenge with Gift of Life Michigan, which is the state’s federally designated organ and tissue recovery organization. It acts as intermediary between donors, their families and hospital staff. Gift of Life Michigan, in collaboration with the Michigan Eye-Bank, provides all services necessary for organ, tissue and eye donation.

Donations of blood and bone marrow also are encouraged by the Wolverines for Life effort. Go to www.redcrossblood.org to register. U-M will be sponsoring an annual blood battle contest against Ohio State again in November.

Bone marrow donors can register at the Be The Match Registry www.BeTheMatch.org.

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