Political Quotes

“It is my privilege to acknowledge November as Eye Donation Month, dedicated to increasing awareness of the need to register as an eye, organ, and tissue donor. Since 1983, the Eye Bank Association of America, EBAA, and each of its 75-member eye banks across the U.S. have dedicated this month to honoring the Nation's eye donors and their families, and to celebrate the transformative impact of corneal transplants on the lives of their recipients. With a 97 percent success rate, corneal transplants are the Nation's most successful organ transplant procedures. Since the Association's founding in 1961, nearly 2 million corneal tissue recipients have regained their sight. In 2017, EBAA member eye banks recovered 135,203 corneas from 68,565 donors across the United States. This made it possible to provide the gift of sight to approximately 51,000 men, women, and children in the U.S., and over 26,000 recipients internationally. These eye banks also provided more than 24,000 corneas for research and educational purposes. My home State of California is served by eight eye banks that recovered nearly 8,000 corneas last year, making it the largest source of corneal tissue for transplant and research in the country. These donations allowed thousands of Californians to regain their vision and resume the lives they had planned on living before disease or injury deprived them of their sight.…”