Pocahontas Memorial Hospital held a Flag Ceremony April 5 to recognize National Donate Life Month. According to data from the Center for Organ Recovery and Education, more than 100,000 people are on the waiting list for an organ transplant and every eight minutes another person is added to the waiting list.
In 2023, more than 46,000 organ transplants and over 2.5 million tissue transplants were performed, offering patients a new chance at healthy, productive and normal lives. Just one organ donor can potentially save eight lives and touch many more with additional tissue donation.
For several years, PMH has partnered with CORE and Donate Life West Virginia to help save lives by educating the community about the importance of organ, eye and tissue donation and increasing the number of registered donors.
Jeremy Zieders, a professional services liaison from CORE, was on hand to speak about the importance of organ and tissue donation with specific statistics about PMH. In 2022, PMH had two tissue donors. Just these two had the potential to enhance 150 lives by tissue transplant. In addition, four people received the gift of sight from two cornea donors.
Zieders displayed a beautiful donor quilt, made up of quilt squares showing deceased individuals from across the state whose organs went on to save lives.
After a brief ceremony indoors due to the snowy weather, the group moved outside for the traditional raising of the Donate Life flag on PMH’s new flag pole.
Visit www.donatelifewv.org to learn more about donation and to register online.
