Florida makes it easy for people to become organ and tissue donors. You can register several ways online, or you can go through the Division of Motor Vehicles when you get or renew your driver’s license.
6 Months Ago
3 Months Ago
5 Months Ago
More than 9.2 million Floridians have signed up. My sainted mother was one of them.
It is one of the state’s great success stories.
Pat Frank was a major force behind that push. That means thousands of Floridians owe her thanks for the second chance she helped provide. Frank served in the state Senate until 1988, and one of her signature accomplishments was sponsoring the bill to establish the link between the DMV and organ donation.
For that, she received the state’s first driver’s license designating her as a donor.
"Then my husband and I went on vacation in Italy and someone stole it," Frank said with a chuckle.
Here is something no one can steal. She recently was honored for her efforts in this cause by the non-profit LifeLink Foundation in Brandon when she became only the fifth person placed on its Wall of Inspiration — and the first woman.
"To me, signing up (to be a donor) when you got your driver’s license was a no-brainer," said Frank, 87, now in her fourth term as Hillsborough County Clerk of the Circuit Court. "It was the easiest way we could think of to more people involved in the program."
This would be a neat story if it ended there, but it doesn’t.
Trine Engebretsen-Labbe was 2 years old when doctors in South Florida discovered a genetic disorder was destroying her liver. She had to have a transplant. The bill Frank had helped shepherd through the Legislature hadn’t been in place for long by that point. They found a donor.
That was 33 years ago.
Today, that young girl is a married mother of two young boys and is working through the process to become a transplant surgeon. Her husband, Ryan Labee, also is a transplant recipient. She also is a board member of the United Network for Organ Sharing.
Not long after Trine had her surgery, she was pictured with then-Sen. Frank to promote awareness. She doesn’t remember that meeting, but that’s kind of the point about transplants. It’s about turning tragedy and sorrow into a chance for life for someone the donor never met.
"One of the greatest things about organ transplants is joy," she said. "Without the transplant, my husband and I wouldn’t be here. My two sons would not be here.
"I always had an interest in becoming a transplant surgeon, probably through all the exposure I had to it. I just felt like I had to."
It’s not the most lucrative surgical field, nor the easiest. Every case is life or death, sometimes with only minutes to spare. Doctors are always on call — nights, weekends, birthdays, holidays. But Engebretsen-Labbe never forgets the gifts of life she and her husband have received. The career choice is her way of paying it forward.
There is another benefit no paycheck can match. That’s when she comes out of the operating room to tell family members that their loved one is going to live.
Now multiply that by thousands to get the impact of these gifts. Last year at LifeLink alone, 230 organ donors helped save 630 lives.
"One person could potentially save the lives of eight people, and through tissue donation could impact the lives of 75," LifeLink director of public affairs Jennifer Krouse said.
That brings us back to Pat Frank and that bill she worked to pass all those years ago. We send representatives to Tallahassee to make a difference. Sometimes they do.
"Giving life to another individual is the only way of knowing your relative lives on," Frank said. "Besides, what are you going to do with all those parts after you’re gone?"
It is not complicated. Anyone can do this.
Just say yes.
Contact Joe Henderson at joehtampa@tampabay.com
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