Pocahontas Memorial Hospital held a Flag Ceremony April 20 to recognize National Donate Life Month. Across the country, 115,000 people are waiting for an organ transplant, including 2,500 in western Pennsylvania and West Virginia. At least 20 people will die each day without receiving the transplant they desperately need. Someone is added to the transplant waiting list every 10 minutes.
For several years, Pocahontas Memorial Hospital has partnered with Donate Life West Virginia to help save lives by educating our community about the importance of organ, eye and tissue donation and increasing the number of registered donors.
Jeremy Zieders, a representative from the Center for Organ Recovery and Education, 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 also displayed a beautiful donor quilt, made up of quilt squares of deceased individuals from across the state whose organs went on to save lives. A PMH employee personally knew one of the men featured on the quilt, saying he made the best biscuits she had ever eaten in her life.
Traditionally, a Donate Life flag is raised on the flag pole; but due to PMH’s current construction project, the flag pole was removed. The flag is now displayed on the construction barrier fence surrounding part of the front of the hospital.
Visit www.donatelifewv.org to learn more about donation and to register online.