Rosemary Treloar knows where her kidney is at all times.

Treloar, professor of elementary education at Edinboro University, says her left kidney is in her husband.

At the age of five, her husband injured one of his kidneys while playing ball in the backyard. After having exploratory surgery, doctors had to remove it.

After years of having high blood pressure, his remaining kidney became weak and began to deteriorate. "It got to the point where he had to have a transplant," said Treloar.

He was one of 80,000 Americans who would have had to wait for a donor. This initial decision ended up saving her husband's life.

As a registered donor, Treloar gives permission to have her organs removed after death. When doctors at the Cleveland Clinic told her that her husband needed a transplant, her immediate response was, "Can I be tested?"

She has always been an organ donor, but "this really hit home," she said. She wanted to do something to help.

"Knowing that I have the chance to know where my organ is, and to know that it saved my husband's life is a great thing," she said. Treloar went for an evaluation soon afterward. "They had to see if we were physically and mentally able to do this."

After one year of testing and numerous kidney scans, she was found to be a match. "They say that only about three percent of husbands and wives are matches," said Treloar, who is one in about 6,000 people each year who become a living organ donor.

According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, of the more than 77,000 people waiting for an organ transplant, nearly two-thirds are waiting for a kidney. And because there is a three-year waiting list for a transplant from a cadaver, only about 25 percent of them will die because they did not get the organ they needed in time.

You can register to be an organ donor when you have your photograph taken for your driver's license. You will have the opportunity to donate $1 to the Governor Robert P. Casey Memorial Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Trust Fund with each renewal, but registration is free.

People of all ages can register to be a potential organ donor and, if medically suitable, a single donor can save up to seven lives after they pass away.

As a living donor, Treloar has had no problems since she had the surgery, six years ago. "They say the first year is the hardest," she said.
Spending time on the transplant floor after the surgery was an eye-opening experience for Treloar. "[I saw] all these people who were waiting on hearts and lungs and livers," she said. "I never realized that there was such a demand for organs."

According to the Kidney Foundation, there are more than 19,000 organs transplanted each year in the United States, 6,500 in Pennsylvania alone.

Kidneys, livers, a lobe of a lung, and portions of the pancreas can be transplanted from living donor with kidneys being the most common.
"I think it's important for people to realize how many people are waiting for organs," Treloar said.

Pennsylvania residents are now able to register as an organ donor online. They will receive a confirmation card, which must be carried with them until renewal of their driver's license. You can be considered an organ donor at any age, but those under the age 18 must have parent or guardian consent.

For more information about becoming an organ donor, visit http://www.donatelife-pa.org.

Learn more about this author, Erin Thompson.
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