Workin' some numbers

The numbers I should be working tonight are calculations of RONA and EVA and target costing for my managerial accounting final tomorrow night, but I'm feeling lonely and sad and introspective, so instead I've crunched these: There are more than 17,000 men, women, children and infants on the national liver donation list in the U.S. right now. Only about 4,500 cadaver organs will become available this year. And according to the transplant team at NMH, only 5% of the nation's adult liver transplants come from live donors.

So let's be generous and assume there are 5,000 liver transplants done this year. Five percent of those are from live donors -- that's 250. Just 250 people, out of a U.S. population of more than 297 million. Geez, no wonder I feel lonely in this situation!