Fact # 15:
The National Kidney Foundation of Wisconsin is headquartered in Brookfield and serves the entire state of Wisconsin.
When it's time to renew your registration, consider getting a new Donate Life license plate. $25 from each plate sold will be donated to help Donate Life Wisconsin promote donation awareness throughout our state.
To order your new plate, visit the Wisconsin DOT webpage.
ORGAN and TISSUE DONATION
The National Kidney Foundation of Wisconsin is one of the founding members of the Donate Life Coalition.
Believing in the importance of donation, the NKFW works closely with the 13 other member organizations of the Coalition.
Visit www.donatelifewisconsin.org for complete information on how you can support the ORGAN and TISSUE DONATION effort.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR! July 30 - August 4, 2010
The 2010 National Kidney Foundation U.S. Transplant Games™ will be held in Madison, Wisconsin.
The Games is the largest gathering of transplant recipients and donor families in the world.
Held every other year, children and adults of all ages who have received a life-saving organ transplant, participate in one or more events offered in 12 sports.
Living donors and donor family members participate in recognition ceremonies and other special events.
Join us next summer in Madison to help showcase the success of transplantation and honor the generosity of donors and donor families.
The National Kidney Foundation (NKF) recently unveiled a bold new initiative called “End the Wait!” Currently, more than 78,000 people are on the waiting list for a kidney transplant in the United States. In the past decade, the nationwide organ shortage has become so severe that approximately every two hours someone dies while waiting for a kidney.
In response to this ongoing crisis, the NKF developed a “roadmap” of action steps that address current financial, medical practice, educational and legislative issues that have been identified as barriers to obtaining a kidney transplant. “Most of the people on the current waiting list for a kidney will wait too long, and many will die while waiting,” said John Davis, NKF’s Chief Executive Officer. “NKF wants to be the catalyst to meeting this challenge head-on and lead a broad-based initiative that will eliminate barriers to donation, institute best practices across the country, cover the cost of donation and increase the pool of living and deceased donors.”
Some of the proposed actions include:
Extending Medicare coverage of immunosuppressant medication
Coverage of all costs related to organ donation
Provision of state-of-the-art medical care to ensure the fastest recovery possible for living organ donors
Elimination of racial and regional inequalities in the quality of transplant treatment and care
This plan is meant to be a collaborative effort on the part of many organizations. It is a call to action for transplant programs, organ procurement organizations, professional societies, government agencies, patient organizations and the government.
Implementation of the effort has already begun with the introduction of related legislation in Washington, D.C. The ultimate goal is to end the wait for kidney transplants in 10 years. Read more about how you can get involved with End the Wait! at www.kidney.org/endthewait
