Become an organ donor—give hope.

The Arkansas Regional Organ Recovery Agency (ARORA) was established in 1987 as a non-profit, independent organ procurement agency. ARORA is headquartered in Little Rock , and serves 64 counties in the state. ARORA is managed by an executive director who reports to a board of directors, consisting of transplant surgeons, related physicians, donor family members, transplant recipients, hospital administrators and public representatives.

The ARORA mission statement is that the staff of ARORA will make every effort to provide organs and tissues for life saving and life enhancing transplantation. This goal will be accomplished through continuous hospital involvement, which includes hospital training, and through community involvement by providing public education. The staff will strive to be ethical and professional while coordinating donor recovery, thus providing dignity, honor and respect to both donor families and recipients.

As part of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), ARORA is certified by the Health Care Finance Administration (HCFA) and receives fees for medical services provided through Medicare.

There are three organ transplant centers in Arkansas : Arkansas Children's Hospital, Baptist Medical Center and the University Hospital , all located in Little Rock . All three centers perform heart and kidney transplants, while University also performs pancreas and liver procedures. Medical centers throughout the state perform tissue transplants, including bone and cornea.

Despite widespread support for organ donation, a severe shortage in the number of organs donated exists. Around 100,000 Americans are on a waiting list for a kidney, heart, liver or other vital organ, and another person is added to that list every 16 minutes. Statistics reveal that 12-15 of those individuals will die each day while waiting for an available organ.

Estimates indicate that more than 25,000 Americans die each year under circumstances that would allow them to become organ donors, but an average of only about 5,000 a year actually donate. The biggest reason for not donating is lack of education about the subject. A single, multi-organ donor can provide as many as seven organs—heart, liver, two kidneys, two lungs, and pancreas, for transplantation—as well as tissue, including corneas, heart valves, skin and bone.

No form of therapy has had as dramatic an effect on the course of terminal illness as has organ and tissue transplantation. Since 1990, more than 15,000 kidney transplants have been performed annually across the United States with a success rate of 95 percent. In 2003 there were more than 21,000 organ transplants and more than 450,000 tissue transplants. Each transplant procedure, over the past several years, has shown an increase in not only the number of cases performed each year, but in the success rate as well.

Because the number of people waiting for a transplant far exceeds the number of procedures performed each year, the federal government passed the "Required Request Act" in 1987. This act mandates that hospitals discuss the concepts of organ and tissue donation with the family of any patient that is considered a potential donor.

Any person may actually be considered for organ and tissue donation. Age limits exist for some organs, but differ from one case to the next. And even when organs are not viable, tissue can still be recovered for transplant.

There are many concerns and questions the public has about organ donation. For this reason, ARORA provides free educational materials and also conducts informative presentations at no cost to any size business or civic group. Church and school presentations can also be arranged.

For more information about ARORA, please contact the Public Education Department at 1-501-907-9150, or 1-866-660-5433.