Kudos, Facebook

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It hit the news today that Facebook now lets you share your organ donor status with your friends. This grew out of the use of Facebook in various natural disasters, as well as his friendship with Steve Jobs and others:

Zuckerberg also cites his girlfriend, Priscilla Chan, who is studying to become a pediatrician. “Our dinner conversations are often about Facebook and kids, and the kids that’s she’s meeting,” he says. “She’ll see them getting sicker, then, all of a sudden, an organ becomes available, and she comes home and her face is all lit up because someone’s life is going to be better because of this.”

Quote from USA Today

If you want to note your status as an organ donor, first go to your page. In the update box, click “Life Event” on the far right, then hit “Health & Wellness.” A sub-menu with organ donor status will be at the top of the next menu (see screenshot below). Click and fill it out; the information goes into your timeline.

If you have not yet signed up to be a donor, the dialog box gives you a link so you can do it right now from Facebook.

In some ways, my patients are lucky. They can go on dialysis to stay alive while they await a precious kidney. Others die waiting for an organ every day. I hope Facebook can get more donors to sign up. You may save a life, or your life may be saved.