PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — For the 14th year in a row, Philadelphia-based Gift of Life led the country in 2021 in the number of organ transplants coordinated.
Every region of the country has an organ procurement organization that helps to coordinate and facilitate organ transplants. Gift of Life, which covers parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, coordinated a one-year record 705 organ donors, leading to 1,732 transplants.
President and CEO Rick Hasz says a record such as that is not set without a lot of teamwork among Gift of Life staff and health care workers at partner hospitals. And he says year-round education efforts are essential to make sure everyone knows the value of organ donation.
“Really, our hats are off to the dedicated health care heroes who are working on behalf of unknown patients, patients that they will never see and never meet, and making sure that we're able to offer families that opportunity to donate in a caring and sensitive manner,” Hasz said.
The willingness to donate means the world to Tomas Carroll, whose 3-year-old son Rory (pictured above) got a liver transplant last month. Someone’s family was willing to give the greatest gift he could imagine.
“You're excited and at the same time, you have mixed feelings because, you know, somebody else gave up their life to give our kid life, so it's a weird emotion to feel,” Carroll said.
“When you go to the DMV, and you get your license, and you just check that box, and you don't really think about what that actually means for somebody else – I think people should really take a good look at what that actually means. Because that, you know, that's our son's life, that's his future.”
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Carroll says, in addition to the donor family, they’re also grateful to the Gift of Life staff and the hospital staff helping them deal with the added stress of the recent spike in COVID-19 cases.
Hasz says they work year-round to educate people about organ donation, so families aren’t hearing about it for the first time when they’re in the hospital dealing with the loss of a loved one.
“Making sure that families aren't hearing about organ donation at their worst possible time,” he said.
But he says, even though they set a record last year, there are still more than 5,000 people in Greater Philadelphia waiting for an organ, and more than 100,000 across the country, and 20 people die each day while waiting for a transplant.