Tuesday, April 7, 2009

5 Simple Ways To Be A Hero Today!

The news pipelines are filled with stories of unsung heroes that beat the odds to triumph over tragedy. It's not unusual to hear of superhuman strength in the middle of an auto accident. We are not surprised with the details of the individual who risked life and limb to enter an inferno only to return cradling a small baby. We may even experience a little envy when we learn of the airline pilot that wrestles a tumbling aircraft from the skies. As we digest the details of heroes in action we also calculate the odds of similar scenarios playing themselves out in our everyday world. If it happened to all of us on a frequent basis, well then it just wouldn't be news.
And yet on a regular basis we are faced with the opportunity to be real heroes to real people but we may not recognize the hero value. Below I have listed 5 opportunities to have a hero impact today:

1. The human body is a blood factory with a limitless supply of product. According to the Hoxworth Blood Center of Cincinnati http://tiny.cc/OBTIQ one unit of blood can be divided into as many as 5 different blood products. Every time you donate a unit of blood, your body immediately begins to replace that blood and you can donate as often as every 8 weeks. If you are donating just the platelet portion of the blood you can donate every 2 weeks to a maximum of 24 times per year. No matter what you donate your body will automatically replace the donation and allow you to donate again. As many as 3 lives can be saved with just one unit of blood http://tiny.cc/wlcoO.

2. Most of us have an extra kidney http://tiny.cc/SsMLN. That's right, we could live a normal life with only one kidney. Perhaps we are carrying around that extra kidney until someone else is in need. While not everyone is an ideal candidate to donate their kidney, thousands of people have successfully gifted a kidney to the save the life of another. You don't have to run into a burning building in order to be a hero. You don't have to land a jumbo jet on a postage stamp to be a hero. You don't even have to step between the president and an assasin to be a hero. You need only donate an organ that you could live without, to a recipient who may not live otherwise.

3. Skin, it's the largest organ of the body. Who needs skin grafts http://tiny.cc/YUOzX? Cancer patients, burn victims, babies born with deformities, the list goes on for those individuals who could benefit from the donation of skin. Skin grafts may be the easiest of organ donations because no drugs are needed to prevent rejection. Type matching is not necessary with skin grafts. With the increase in weight reduction surgery, excess skin has never been more abundant. Many people have a chance to be heros just by directing where that extra skin should go.

4. Did you know that the liver is an organ that regenerates? That's right, a small portion of your liver will grow to normal size in a matter of months from the time that a recipient has successfully completed a surgery http://tiny.cc/6irBl. Not only will the recipient's liver grow to normal size, your liver  will repair itself as if the donation had not occured. Hepatitis, alcohol disease, cirrhosis, and a hundred other conditions will cause a liver to fail. 1 decision on your part can eliminate any of the more than 100 causes. Be a hero, let your liver grow a little.

5. Leukaemia and other bone marrow related diseases have been impacted through the donation of bone marrow http://www.marrow.org/. Recent developments in medical procedures has made the harvesting of bone marrow products very easy. Look into the eyes of a young leukaemia patient that yearns for the assistance of a bone marrow donor and you can understand the impact of a hero.


The 5 opportunities mentioned above are just that, opportunities to be a hero. While many heroic acts are sudden and without preparation, you have the opportunity to be a hero in your own time under your own conditions. You have been equipped to save lives, improve the quality of life but maybe most importantly you have the opportunity to set the example that empowers so many more people to choose to be a hero.