The gift of life comes in a variety of fashions, all of which are deserving of accolades and all of which can benefit from awareness.

 

April is National Donate Life Month and United Hospital Center was the host for a flag raising ceremony on Thursday to create awareness and register more organ, tissue and cornea donors.

 

The ceremony took place by the flagpoles near the Healing Garden on the UHC campus. Critical Care nurses carried a National Donate Life Month flag and lended a helping hand in raising the flag once the procession was over. The flag will fly throughout the entire month of April.

 

“Currently there are 110,000 people that are awaiting a life-saving organ transplant,” said Christie Ryan, director of Professional Services and Regulatory Affairs at CORE (Center for Organ Recovery & Education). “The awareness is that we need for people to register themselves to be organ donors so we can reduce that number and save lives.

 

“Approximately 20 people die each day waiting for an organ transplant and somebody new is added to the list every 10 minutes.”

 

UHC has certainly done its part when it comes to organs, tissues and corneas both in terms of recovery and donation.

 

“National Donate Life Month marks the perfect time to reflect on the difference UHS makes,” said Kara Elko, RN, clinical director of Critical Care at UHC. “Here at UHC we’ve made an impact for organ, tissue and cornea donation transplantation. We’ve been able to transform close to 300 lives saved, included in that in the last four months UHC has been instrumental in saving eight lives through organ transplantation.

 

“Our work offers hope for a second change at life for others who are waiting for a life-saving or life-restoring transplant. We help give comfort amidst tragedy to grieving donor families who’s loved ones will live on through the gift of donation.”

 

CORE is one of 57 federally designated not-for-profit organ procurement organizations (OPOs) in the United States. CORE partners with more than 150 hospitals and health care facilities in New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia to deliver the gift of life by coordinating the surgical recovery of organs, tissues and corneas as well as facilitating the computerized matching of donations.

 

According to CORE data, 2020 was a record-breaking year for the three states CORE serves. Organ donors (324) were up 28 percent. Tissue donors (1,224) were up 9 percent. A total of 792 lives were saved which was a 20 percent increase from 2019.

In West Virginia alone, there were 25,000 new registered donors.

 

“We really use April as our platform to get our message out,” Ryan said. “What they have done here in West Virginia is when people go get their hunting and fishing licenses, they can register to be an organ donor. It’s really been instrumental.”

 

Elko said one positive that has come from the COVID-19 pandemic has been an overall increase in concern for health care matters.

 

“We have seen a lot of support for causes like this,” Elko said. “We want to make sure we are providing the right resources. People are asking questions about they can help whether that be with something like a blood transfusion or signing up to be an organ donor.”

 

More information about being and/or becoming an organ donor can be found at CORE's website HERE

 

To register as an organ, tissue and cornea donor click HERE

 

More information about United Hospital Center can be found HERE

 

A brief video clip of the Donate Life Month flag being raised can be seen below.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows UHC Criticial Care nurses preparing the Donate Life Month flag to be raised. Bottom photo shows Ryan (left) and Elko.