A Gift of Life Honored by Donor Walk
Foothill Regional Medical Center staff honored the family of an organ donor on the weekend of Nov. 20. During the Donor Walk, the caregivers quietly lined the hallways to remember the young organ donor. The ICU staff, including nurses Melinda and Dillon, worked closely with the organ-donor’s family during this devastating time. This gift of life went to five recipients.
The organ donation was coordinated by OneLegacy, a non-profit organization dedicated to saving lives through organ, eye and tissue donation in the seven-county greater Los Angeles area, including Orange County.
The deceased 40-year-old man also was able to give five recipients a new lease on life, including a donation to a person who had been on the kidney wait list 147 days, as well as his other kidney, liver and lungs to additional grateful recipients.
“Donor families are able to turn tremendous loss into hope for another person,” said the hospital CEO Araceli Lonergan. “Thanks to the families and our employees, which include respiratory, lab and imaging staff members, five individuals’ lives have been transformed.”
OneLegacy is the non-profit organization dedicated to saving lives through organ, eye and tissue donation in the seven-county greater Los Angeles area. With more than 215 hospitals, 11 transplant centers and a diverse population of nearly 20 million, OneLegacy is the largest organ, eye and tissue recovery organization in the world.
According to OneLegacy, last year, the organization was enabled to coordinate the transplant of a record-setting 1,661 organs from 548 donors, marking the sixth consecutive year of record-breaking increases in lifesaving and healing organ donation and transplantation due to the generosity of donors and their loved ones.
In addition, more than 190,000 lives were healed, and their vision was restored through tissue and cornea donation in 2020; a number especially impressive given the COVID-caused ban on elective procedures.
To be an organ donor, register here.