The Gift of Life Challenge, an initiative of the Donate Life Kentucky Coalition, began in 2000 to build awareness about organ donation and has since added thousands of names to the Kentucky Organ Donor Registry. Every name added to the Kentucky Donor Registry gives hope to more than 116,000 Americans and over 1,000 Kentuckians in need on the transplant waiting list.

Louisville has the highest concentration of donor families and organ transplant recipients.

“We’re so pleased that the state’s biggest universities understand the importance of organ donation and getting their students involved in something bigger than themselves,” said Crysta McGee, community educator of KODA, and UofL alumna. “This challenge underscores their commitment to giving hope to those waiting.”

University of Louisville supporters can sign up during activities on campus and when joining the Kentucky Organ Donor Registry online.�� Those registering can choose “UofL Gift of Life” under the tab titled “the following influenced my decision to be an organ donor.”

UofL will have several activities and in-person opportunities to register including a blood drive, hosted by UofL’s Trew Friends chapter, on Nov. 16 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Red Barn. The Heather Trew Foundation for Organ, Eye and Tissue Donation is dedicated to raising awareness of the importance of donation among individuals of all ages. Appointments for the blood drive can be scheduled online with the sponsor code “uoflcards.”

“You have the power to help save someone’s life,” said Tonia Thomas, advisor of the Trew Friends chapter at UofL. “The Gift of Life Challenge and Red Cross Blood Drive is offering you two ways that you can help save lives; by donating blood and by registering to be an organ donor when you pass away. Your contribution can truly make a difference in someone else’s life.“

The challenge runs through Dec. 1. The winning school will receive a trophy at halftime of the UofL vs. UK men’s basketball game on Dec. 29 at Rupp Arena in Lexington.

To join the challenge, .��

“The availability of suitable donor lungs for transplantation continues to be a major obstacle to increasing the number of lung transplants performed annually, and this study demonstrated that reasonable outcomes are possible with the use of advanced age donors,” said William Micah Whited, MD, University of Louisville Department of Surgery. “Research such as this that explores the means of expanding the donor pool is of critical importance.”

Whited, along with senior author Matthew Fox, MD, of the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery and other colleagues from UofL, queried the United Network of Organ Sharing thoracic transplant database to identify lung transplant recipients age 18 years or older.

Between January 2005 and June 2014, 14,222 lung transplants were performed. Of these lung transplant recipients, 26 percent were age 50 years or younger, with 2 percent receiving lungs from donors older than age 60. Among this group of younger patients who received older donor lungs, there was no significant difference in five-year survival when compared to patients who received lungs from younger donors.

The researchers also examined the impact of double versus single lung transplant on long-term survival, finding that younger patients who received older donor lungs experienced much better outcomes when a double versus a single transplantation was performed.

The study showed that in younger patients who received a single lung transplant using organs from older versus younger donors, there was a lower five-year survival: 15 percent versus 50 percent. However, with a double lung transplant, there was no significant difference in five-year survival: 53 percent versus 59 percent.

“Ideal donor” criteria vary by hospital, but the researchers said that the criteria generally consist of brain death, age less than 45 to 50 years, minimal smoking history, and no evidence of pneumonia or trauma. Donor organs that do not meet all of the ideal donor criteria are sometimes accepted, but not always.

Whited said that while the use of extended criteria donor lungs varies from program to program, most surgeons should be willing to accept non-ideal donors, especially those who are older but otherwise good candidates.

“The vast majority of potential donors do not meet the relatively strict donor criteria,” he said. “As a result, we need to continue exploring options that would expand the donor pool and more aggressively utilize extended criteria donors. Much like the general population, the donor pool has continued to grow older. Now more than ever, we have to rely on older donors.”

The U.S. Organ Procurement & Transplant Network reports that 1,399 people currently are waiting for a lung transplant in the United States. The overall median waiting time for candidates on the wait list is four months, while more than 200 people die annually waiting for a lung transplant, according to an OPTN report.

“This merger is the culmination of 25 years of negotiation and work behind the scenes to better serve the people of Kentucky,” said Tom Van Etten, of Louisville, past Lions Eye Foundation chair.

Previously, the Louisville Lions Eye Bank, affiliated with the UofL, served the western part of the state; the Eye Bank of Lexington, affiliated with the University of Kentucky, served the eastern part of Kentucky and parts of West Virginia. The new Kentucky Lions Eye Bank serves the same geographical area as Kentucky Organ Donor Affiliates to effectively coordinate corneal donation with organ and tissue donation statewide.��

Corneal transplantation is a separate procedure that replaces all or part of a diseased cornea, improving sight, stabilizing diseased eyes and improving comfort in patients with severe corneal pathology. In 2015, there were 79,000 corneal transplants performed in the United States, and there were 470 donors of ocular tissue from Kentucky. Cornea transplants have a 95 percent success rate, and the lifetime economic benefit of corneal transplants performed in 2013 in the United States was $5.5 billion. The leading indication for corneal transplantation in 2016 was keratoconus, followed by corneal edema, Fuchs dystrophy and corneal scars.

The newly merged Kentucky Lions Eye Bank positions the state of Kentucky to efficiently coordinate with other eye banks in the U.S.��to provide corneas for transplant in the state of Kentucky and assist with medical needs elsewhere when possible.

For the immediate future, the laboratories at UofL and UK will remain functional as operations will continue in both cities. They gradually will be centralized in Louisville throughout the next five years.

“The merged Eye Bank will be an asset to the state of Kentucky and should provide the resources for the state to be a national provider of donor ocular tissue to restore sight and to assist in research of blinding diseases,” said Henry J. Kaplan, MD, chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Louisville.

More information is available on the organization’s .